Jenseits von Vertigo

When film composers turn to classical music, they are more likely to be shedding a straitjacket than losing a safety net. This release, titled "Beyond Vertigo," presents chamber music by film composers, offering a more personal glimpse into their work. In his piece "Metamorfosi di Violetta," Ennio Morricone analyzes the downfall of the heroine from "La Traviata" with cinematic acuity. Tigran Mansurian's "Agnus Dei" oscillates between song and dissonance to depict unresolved grief. John Corigliano's "Soliloquy" turns even further inward to process personal loss. Bernard Herrmann never aspired to classical abstraction, yet Alfred Hitchcock's musical alter ego—the composer of the scores for "Psycho" and "Vertigo"—provides the centerpiece of this program: "Souvenir du voyage," a nostalgic jewel with profound cinematic sensitivity. All of these pieces are performed by the Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble, which was founded in 2015. It focuses on the repertoire for clarinet, piano, and strings, but in its largest configuration, it features six musicians on stage, as is the case here: Nicolas Dupont, violin; Noémi Tiercet, violin; Sander Geerts, viola; Sébastien Walnier, cello; Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, piano; and Roeland Hendrikx, clarinet.