Herrmann – Suite from Vertigo

Born in New York City, Bernard Herrmann undertook formal musical training at Juilliard, focusing on composition. He gained some exposure as a conductor shortly after graduation, leading the New Chamber Orchestra in music by a variety of composers, including himself and Charles Ives. Later hired by CBS Radio, he was asked to write music for Orson Welles’s “Mercury Theater on the Air.” Impressed, Welles asked Herrmann to write the score for Citizen Kane, which proved to be the composer’s big break.

Although he wrote for many kinds of films, as well as for the concert hall, Herrmann is best known for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. In addition to Vertigo, Herrmann wrote the music for The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Psycho, and the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He remained an important figure until the end of his life: the scores for Taxi Driver and Obsession, which he wrote during his final year, both earned Academy Award nominations. The score for Vertigo is often hailed as some of the most evocative film music ever written, capturing the lead character’s nauseating fear of heights, inner torment, and romantic obsession for a woman he believes to be dead.

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2003-04 PCO repertoire