" the sky on the upper half of the scene is much brighter than your foreground in the lower half of the scene"? It seems most magnificent sunrise/sunset pictures have used GND or the like.
If it is before or after sunrise/sunset, long exposure might work, I think (have never tried yet) : )
The picture I posted (or borrowed, more precisely) was an example without using GND, but a flash. : )
So far, I persoanlly have to LEARN to appreciate HDR yet. A few works are seamless, most are challenging on visual comprehension, I'd say.