In 1966, film composer Bernard Herrmann, still smarting from the abrupt end to his creative partnership with Alfred Hitchcock, received a request from François Truffaut to write the music for his sci-fi dystopia Fahrenheit 451. Herrmann was flattered, but wondered why the French director didn't go straight to avant-garders such as Boulez or Stockhausen. Truffaut replied that they would merely write 20th-century music; what he wanted from Herrmann was "music of the 21st century".
This retrospective at the Barbican was undeniably a 21st-century event, and it showed that Herrmann confidently straddled three centuries of music, underlining his credentials as a classical composer for hire. Incorporating the BBC Concert Orchestra, some A-list jazzers, a narrator (Kerry Shale) and back projections, it showcased extracts from 10 Herrmann movie scores like a series of mini-symphonies. Minimalist visuals - a single photograph, a sequence of sketched storyboards - allowed us to concentrate on the music and appreciate Herrmann's orchestration and knack for unusual textures, his dramatic and melodic imagination. The improvisers rewrote the script a little, adding surprises such as Bill Frisell's eruption of electronic sound at the end of The Trouble With Harry. Sometimes they interpreted an entire cue without orchestra: a sleazy jazz quintet for Citizen Kane, more abstract timbres for Psycho.
Each movie score was introduced by Shale, who supplied anecdotes, reportage and quotes from Herrmann, constructing a rich portrait of man and music. And it was a triumph; this "concert as documentary" created a context in which we could appreciate Herrmann's musical achievement while understanding its cultural and commercial context.
Yet there were times when you longed to hear more of Frisell, Marty Ehrlich and co, whose early contributions seemed perfunctory. The balance was redressed with the closing extracts from Taxi Driver, Herrmann's final score, which makes thrilling use of Ellingtonian jazz and full-blown orchestra to represent the turmoil of Travis Bickle.
