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EDITOR’s CHOICE Classical Score July
2000
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Collection: Alfred Hitchcock
Dimitri Tiomkin Strangers on a
Train
Franz Waxman Suspicion
Roy Webb Notorious
John Williams Family Plot
The Utah Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Charles Ketchum
VARÈSE SARABANDE
VCD 47225 [37:50]
[Note: This album might be difficult to find in some territories.
Varèse Sarabande's California office assures me that it is still in
their catalogue. If in difficulty visit their web site:
www.varesesarabande.com]
Amazon
USA
For the second month in succession I find that I prefer a recording that
might be difficult to obtain. This marvellous album was first released in
1985 and I snapped it up in its LP format. Readers might remember that I
mentioned it in our Alfred Hitchcock centenary feature on this site last
year and I was keen, then, to review the CD version that I knew existed but
I was led to believe that it was no longer available. Then I found a copy
in a Vancouver record store. Needless to say I purchased it without a moment's
hesitation.
The larger type in the heading is there for a purpose. Tiomkin's score for
Strangers on a Train is simply magnificent. It
towers over all the other music on this album. And that is some statement
for all the other works have stature. The 16+minute Strangers... suite
opens with one of Tiomkin's most powerful and memorable Main Titles. Here
is Tiomkin's pronouncedly individual style, with its great rhythmic energy,
magnificent tunes, and opaque rough-edged sonorities. In this Hitchcock thriller
Farley Granger is Guy, a champion tennis player who is approached on a train
by Bruno (Robert Walker) who proposes they swap murders. He will kill Guy's
unsympathetic and unwanted wife while Guy kills Bruno's over-dominant father.
The music for Guy reflects his somewhat passive character, while Bruno's
music denotes his mania in the demonstrably glassy, ghostly tones of high
violin harmonics. These two themes (both heard in the main title) are heard
to spectacular effect in the tennis match scene, in which Guy has to race
against time to finish his game and prevent Bruno planting incriminating
evidence in the form of a cigarette lighter. Ketchum and the Utah players
succeed magnificently in screwing up the tension implicit in this wonderfully
thrilling music.
For Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot, John Williams provided
a sparkling score that helped to lift this disappointingly tensionless black
comedy of errors. The album includes the polished and elegant End Titles
that summarise all the main themes including the wordless female voices
representing the "mystical" aura - complete with phoney crystal ball - which
surrounds Blanche; and the glittering, elegant harpsichord theme. Who knows
what might have developed from a partnership of Williams and Hitchcock?
Franz Waxman's music for Suspicion is full of atmosphere and
suspense; it is also thoroughly English-sounding appropriate to its setting.
(this was the second Hitchcock 'English' story filmed in Hollywood that Waxman
had scored, the first being Rebecca-see also my remarks about Suspicion
in the Hitchcock video review also on this site this month). The opening
Main Titles music has a glitter and glamour that is infectious although there
are shadows lurking. For 'Sunday Morning', as Cary Grant courts Joan Fontaine,
the material is mainly sunny, optimistic and upbeat as Fontaine is elatedly
swept off her feet. Yet again there are passing clouds, particularly in that
brief, enigmatic, cold long shot where the sky darkens and it appears that
Grant's embrace has something sinister and threatening about it. The mood
darkens as Fontaine discovers that her husband is an irresponsible playboy
fond of gambling and a spendthrift and a liar. She suspects that he has killed
his best friend and that he maybe intending to kill her next. The music swirls
menacingly and for the famous scene where Grant races along the cliff road
with Fontaine thinking he is about to push her out of the car, Waxman provides
a thrilling, pounding accompaniment ('Too Fast') that screws the tension
up to fever pitch.
The least well-known composer represented in this collection is Roy Webb
who did such sterling work at RKO Radio. Hitchcock's
Notorious inspired Webb to write one of his best scores. The
Main Title impresses with an urgent note of danger and intrigue contrasted
with a memorable sweeping romantic theme for Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.
This short suite includes Webb's tense, strongly characterful and evocative
music for Sebastian (Claude Rains) as he detects Grant's intrusion and discovery
of the uranium hidden in his wine cellar; and the equally suspenseful music
for the scenes where Bergman lies poisoned by Sebastian and his mother, before
she is rescued by Grant; and finally to underscore Sebastian's doom as he
faces the wrath of his fellow Nazi conspirators.
For those who have the LP version of this recording I suggest they keep
treasuring it because it sounds richer and fuller than this CD incarnation
- yet, notwithstanding this setback, the album is strongly recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
