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.
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.
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The insert includes extensive information about the scores and films.
