A History of Hitchcock: Dial M For Murder:
(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.
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.
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. Opening with the
mandatory "March of the Marionette," the album launches into the
romantic scores of the director's Golden Age, with lush and enticing
performances of both Franz Waxman's
Rebecca and
Suspicion. The performances of the more horror oriented Herrmann
selections later in the score are typically crisp and resounding. For
listening purposes, the selection often stays closer to the more
romantic Herrmann themes, choosing, for instance, the "Scene D'Amour"
from
Vertigo over the prelude and nightmare sequence that would
be included instead on the second album. A slightly sluggish brass
rendering of the titles from
North by Northwest is the most
noticeable flaw. As Hitchcock's career became more bizarre in its final
decade, the music began varying significantly, and the obnoxious march
from Maurice Jarre's
Topaz is countered by Ron Goodwin's "London
Theme" from
Frenzy, a throwback to the kind of heroicism heard in
his soaring flying music. The obvious strike against this album at its
release was the fact that listeners had already heard the majority of
all these themes before, and the second album released a few years later
would better serve the enthusiasts of the more obscure themes from
Hitchcock's career. 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.
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The insert includes extensive information about the scores and films.
