Herrmann

The Night Digger - Original Soundtrack Tommy Reilly harm Rosemary Green va d'amore The Sessions of London Orchestra Bernard Herrmann Label X ® LXCD1 002 (44' • ADD) Here's a Herrmann worth hearing - right up there with Vertigo and Psycho

The Night Digger, shown in the UK under the title The Road Digger, was a British thriller that had only a limited release in 197 1, though it boasted a cast that included Jean

Anderson, Peter Sallis and Pamela Brown. Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay and his wife at the time, Patricia Neal, played the frustrated spinster who befriends a misfit, Nicholas Clay. Herrmann is on top form, clearly in sympathy with the misfit, Billy, whose theme on harmonica is heard as an independent track played by Tommy Reilly - the foremost exponent of that instrument - as well as emerging throughout the soundtrack as a benign as well as sinister presence.

Although the CD is given the label "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack", this "scenario macabre for orchestra" is more akin to a suite with seven sections ranging from four to eight minutes long. Herrmann's score grips and chills, sustaining a mood of menace often through quiet and sustained string-writing of extraordinary beauty. The lovely viola d'amore melody, exquisitely played by Rosemary Green, surely belongs to the Patricia Neal character.

The whole is superbly played and was recorded in "wide-screen" stereo at Barking Assembly Hall by Bob Auger. The selections featured here and authorised by the composer were passed on to John Lasher, the writer of the booklet-note. Our thanks go to him and all concerned for bringing to light an outstanding score, one that can be spoken of in the same breath as Herrmann's triptych of Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho.

Adrian Edwards