BERNARD HERRMANN
Bernard Herrmann: Screen, Stage, and Radio
A month-long celebration (April 1 to 26, 2016) presented and produced by
PostClassical Ensemble, National Gallery of Art, Georgetown University, and AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
PART ONE:
Friday, April 15, 2016 at 1:15 p.m.
McNeir Hall, New North Building | FREE
Interplay
This program includes a world-premiere reconstruction of the classic Norman Corwin/Bernard Herrmann radio play “Untitled,” with live actors and Georgetown University Orchestra conducted by Professor Angel Gil-Ordóñez. A towering figure in 20th century American music, Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) is best known as an outstanding film composer (Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, etc.), but he was also America’s foremost radio composer, and conductor of a radio orchestra – William Paley’s CBS Symphony – that boldly promoted new and unfamiliar music. Program includes the following:
–Dan Gediman on radio drama (with audio clips)
— Corwin/Herrmann: “Untitled” (1944) – radio play with live actors and GU Orchestra (world premiere of the reconstruction by Christopher Husted). Directed by Anna Celenza
–Dorothy Herrmann on her father’s magnum opus, the opera Wuthering Heights (with audio clips and a film clip from the film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir)
–Discussion: Dan Gediman, Dorothy Herrmann, Christopher Husted, Neil Lerner, Anna Celenza, Angel Gil-Ordonez; Joseph Horowitz, host
PART TWO:
Friday, April 15, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
McNeir Hall | FREE
–Dan Gediman on the legendary Norman Corwin/Bernard Herrmann collaboration, illustrating an organic interpenetration of script and music (with live excerpts from “Untitled” with the GU Orchestra)
-8:45: Christopher Husted on the CBS Symphony, created by William Paley and conducted by Herrmann as a showcase for new and unfamiliar music (the antithesis of David Sarnoff’s NBC Symphony, with Toscanini). (with audio clips)
–9:15: Neil Lerner on Herrmann the film composer – how his collaborations with Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock built on his radio work with Corwin (with film clips)
–9:45: Discussion: Dan Gediman, Dorothy Herrmann, Christopher Husted, Neil Lerner, Anna Celenza, David and Diane Corwin Okarski, Angel Gil-Ordonez; Joseph Horowitz, host
Read more about the full Bernard Herrmann festival on PostClassical Ensemble’s site.
Learn more about Bernard Herrmann’s D.C. Festival in this WAMU feature and this Wall Street Journal article.