Buy it... only if it's available for $0.99 and you don't own subsequent Silva compilations of music from Hitchcock films.

Avoid it... if you'd rather seek a superior 1999 compilation combining all of Silva's Hitchcock-related offerings into one set.

A History of Hitchcock II: To Catch a Thief: (Compilation) In the late 1990's there was a huge rush to release compilations of music from Alfred Hitchcock's films, some of which included original recordings while others were tied specifically to the director's famous collaboration with Bernard Herrmann. Silva Screen Records produced arguably the best entry in the series, called "Psycho: The Essential Alfred Hitchcock," and that 1999 album contained all of the same arrangements or direct performances that could previously be heard on two collections of Hitchcock-related film scores in the early 1990's that beat most of the other labels to the punch. Back in the very early years of Silva Screen Records, the performances by the City of Prague Philharmonic often featured outstanding individual renditions, but group also had the capability of belting out some stinkers now and then. Thus, early Silva compilations, like the Edel compilations before them, varied wildly in quality. Half of the performances would range from decent to very good, while others were simply unlistenable. Silva Screen would eventually become a leader in the production of compilation recordings in outstanding sound quality, whether in Dolby, HDCD, or other budding technologies. They did produce a handful of compilations in the few years following 1993 that did not feature this superior sound, however, and while the two early Hitchcock compilations did offer decent quality comparable to any new 1993-1995 release, they had not yet provided these pieces in the surround sound they would eventually advertise. The eventual release of the 1999 2-CD compilation of Hitchcock score themes from Silva rendered these original two CDs completely useless. That set would include everything on these two CDs and add a performance of Herrmann's rejected theme from Torn Curtain. While Silva has a tendency to recycle the exact same recordings on future albums, the 1999 set seems, upon casual comparison, to have different recordings of a few items. The truth behind that observation remains to be known, however.

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As for a comparison of the two original Hitchcock albums against each other, the first volume was a very early Silva compilation, recorded while the City of Prague Philharmonic was still getting its feet wet in its collaboration with Silva Screen. The second album followed by two years, but still qualified as an early Silva venture. Interestingly, however, while the ensemble often had trouble performing more modern film score collections at the outset, they usually nailed the Hitchcock performances right away. Conducted by Paul Bateman, the performances on the two albums contain very few outward mistakes, either in arrangement or physical performance. The first album contained the better known selections that we are all familiar with, while the second offered material that was far more interesting for collectors, ranging across many of the director's lesser-known projects. The progressions of the albums are similar in that the early tracks on both products feature the more romantic context of the Golden Age. On the second CD, the cue from Louis Levy and Charles Williams' The Lady Vanishes features extremely elegant piano performances well mixed with the ensemble. The anticipated tension arises upon the arrival of the more militaristic Lifeboat, though this album, like the first, tends to provide the more romantic thematic elements from each selection for the purposes of a listenable product. The melodic motions of the rolling piano are back in Leighton Lucas and Philip Lane's Stagefright and Franz Waxman's Rear Window. Dimitri Tiomkin's Strangers on a Train is a dynamic and symphonically robust piece. The three Bernard Herrmann cues are as expected, with the "Conversation Piece" from North By Northwest returning the album to its romantic beginnings. The carnivalesque titles from John Addison's Torn Curtain are a detraction, though the album finishes strong with John Williams' choir and harpsichord-dominated Family Plot, one of the first recordings for which Silva had utilized a choir (the "Silk Purse Chorale," in this case). It's not top-notch Williams music, but the performance is accurate and it should be intriguing for modern collectors. At the time of its release, the album was hailed because it provided recordings from several scores that had been unreleased on CD, including To Catch a Thief and Lifeboat. Overall, there exists no good reason whatsoever now to seek out this album, though there was nothing really wrong with it based on its own merits at the time. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download