Although Hitchcock is mainly famous for working with Bernard Herrmann, he worked with other composers more often than not as this chronologically sequenced album demonstrates. In fact Herrmann doesn't appear until the second disc and when he does, he stays a while but then after the Torn Curtain fiasco disappears again. Whatever the merits of Hitchcock's films, the music for them is consistantly good even if Herrmann rather eclipsed the rest. The first disc opens with the popular Funeral March of a Marionette which is curiously nothing like any of the other tracks on the disc and yet few people will fail to link the theme with the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents... which made the tune famous. The few tracks afterward are taken from films when Hitch made films in the UK and as such the scores have a much more English feel with much less of the Hollywood bombast or melodrama of later items. Indeed as the liner notes mention, these films were scored much more sparsely than the Hollywood films and as such certain selections represent the scores very well. Perhaps my favourite of these is the extended piano and orchestra arrangement from The Lady Vanishes which forms an enjoyable mini piano concerto. Franz Waxman's dramatic music from Rebecca is a welcome inclusion although it perhaps goes a little over the top in the melodrama stakes towards the. Suspicion on the other hand starts off quite frivolously with twinkling strings which gives way to even more bouyant and lively music. Possibly the finest inclusion on the first disc comes from Rozsa's score to Spellbound which was perhaps one of Hitch's first really successful marraiges of image and music and it's rather a shame that Rozsa didn't contribute again. This suite will certainly get a brief acknowledgement from Williams fans as it prefaces one of his most famous romantic themes, I'll let you listen and work out which one. The remaining items on the disc are perhaps slightly less interesting although Tiomkin's music from Strangers on a Train & Dial M for Murder are both wonderful, the first being generally light hearted while the second being wonderfully dramatic; both were very pleasant surprises. I'm not, it has to be said, the world's greatest Dimitri Tiomkin fan.
After a brief suite of Lyn Murray's score to To Catch a Thief, the musical titan that is Bernard Herrmann gets his dues to fill up most of the remainder of the disc. All these have been released before and heard by me about a million times. Most are performed well, although the suite from Psycho is a bit limp and lacks the real dynamism and edginess that a really good recording needs. (I suggest the recording by Joel McNeely and the RSNO as my personal preference on re-recordings for this score). It has to be said that the City of Prague Philharmonic do struggle with some of Herrmann's more wild cues, most notably things such as North by Northwest and Torn Curtain. The latter being somewhat muddled sounding (and in this case the re-recording by McNeely is sadly muddied too). It really needs a very crisp sound quality and brass performance or it sounds very stodgy indeed. The murder sequence, however, comes out very well indeed with the thundering drum passage sounding good in booming bass digitial. Although there's probably some law which prevents me from saying this, I must admit that I quite enjoyed John Addison's take on Torn Curtain. It lacks the drama and menace of Herrmann's - I guess Herrmann gave Hitchcock a very memorable sound world and anyone else just doesn't sound the same in the context of a Hitchcock film. Addison's music isn't nearly as light weight as I'd imagined, but I can imagine that Herrmann woud have made the entire thing much more dramatic and provided a great deal more tension. Jarre's March from Topaz is extremely good indeed and sounds like no other Jarre that I've heard, but just a rather good Russian March that I can imagine working extremely well in context. Apart from the odd thing, I can't say I've ever been that inspired by Ron Goodwin's music it all sounds like it should accompany men wearing moustaches who say "Tally Ho" a lot. I am pleased to note that his London theme from Frenzy isn't really anything like that, in fact it reminds me of Bruce Broughton's theme to Miracle on 34th Street which is most odd indeed. However good though it is, I can't honestly see how it relates to a film about a savage murder, but never mind. The final cue is an obscure Williams favourite of mine from his end title to Family Plot which is a curious mix of ethereal choir and harpsichord. I wonder whether Hitch would have used William's not inconsiderable talent again had he made another film. As I always say when this score appears on a compilation, here's hoping for a re-recording or proper release of the entire score to this movie.
Hitchcock fans will like to have all this music on one compilation and all pretty well performed and generally faithful to the originals. Hermmann purists will probably rip all his music to shreds, but even though those performances aren't perfect, they are certainly technically proficient and the quieter sections come out superbly (such as the Conversation Piece from North by Northwest.) Apparently all these cues have been released previously, but I enjoyed hearing the earlier works as well as the Herrmann and the final few tracks made for a more diverse and interesting selection. Definitely worth picking up unless you already have recordings as the performances don't really add anything new.
Rating ~ 
Disc One - Total Time ~ 69:23
Disc Two - Total Time ~ 63:26