Herrmann: Symphony No. 1; Suite: Devil & Daniel Webster; Concerto Macabre; For the Fallen - James Sedares, Phoenix Symphony, New Zealand S.O, Sara Davis Buechner

Alto Records returns to international availability – for download and streaming – acclaimed recordings of concert works by Bernard Herrmann, music that is simultaneously sophisticated in structure and immediately appealing. -Gramophone “Like Korngold, Herrmann was a consummate movie composer: his only Symphony -inventive, soundly constructed, always eventful and excitingly scored – successfully taps a harmonically tangy, neoromantic vein reminiscent of Barber at his best … The Devil & Daniel Webster (Suite) was assembled shortly after the film’s score won its Oscar … Herrmann treats several New England folk-tunes to his own special brand of orchestral wizardry. The score is both a gentle, sepia-tinted portrait of rustic Americana and a wickedly endearing account of Mr Scratch’s devilish interventions … the 1943 berceuse For the Fallen, is a brief, but poignant lament for the soldiers killed in action … James Sedares and the NZSO are on top form throughout this valuable addition to