Although film director Alfred Hitchcock was dubbed “The Master of Suspense”, the same could equally be said of his long time musical collaborator Bernard Herrmann. The composer of more than 50 film scores, from Orson Welles’ classic Citizen Kane in 1941 to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1975, Herrmann penned some of the most memorable soundtracks in Hollywood history and had an immeasurable influence on those who came after him. Part of the reason for this was that he would not compromise his music, and this afternoon concert in the Omega Ensemble’s Master Series showed why he was prepared to throw it all away and return to writing for the concert hall.

The two works of the first half, Echoes for String Quartet and Psycho Suite for Strings, showed Herrmann’s mastery of effects and tricks to build suspense. Echoes is a sad piece, almost with hints of Shostakovich at times, with the composer looking back at his Hollywood career at a time when his second marriage had fallen apart. From its muted opening in the lower strings of the fiddles, the work illustrates Herrmann’s cinematic approach. Even if you don’t know the films it references like Vertigo or The Snows of...