North By Northwest: The Complete Score [Limited Collector's Edition, Soundtrack]

Joel McNeely (Author) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Collector's Edition, Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0011VUMSM
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,793 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

One of the all-time classic film scores - a Herrmann/Hitchcock masterpiece - gets a brand new and revelatory recording! It's amazing how many mysteries and secrets even some of the most famous film scores of all-time can still hold. Who would have thought that there could still be never-before-heard cues from North by Northwest? And we're not talking about a 30-second fragments. The Highway, a cue that turns out to be the second longest cue of the whole score, receives its world premiere recording here. On The Rocks is heard in its entirely for the very first time, restoring all the edited material from the film and subsequent soundtrack. We've also restored extra bars all over the place ... including Conversation Piece and Finale that have only been heard on the old Varèse Sarabande CD conducted by Laurie Johnson. Limited Edition of 3000 copies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My half-century-long wait is over . . ., July 1, 2009

By 

K. Russell (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: North By Northwest: The Complete Score (Audio CD)

Yes, since the 1959 release of the movie, I've awaited a perfect recording of the complete score to NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and my copy arrived today, just a few days after I ordered it. I've already played it through twice and may yet play it again today. The conductor Joel McNeely and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra clearly love this score. I wish I could have seen them play it--the recording is that exciting. The "fandango" theme is so vibrant, you may find yourself dancing to it!

If you love this score, or even if you don't know it, but you love big rhythmic symphonic music, THIS is the recording to get. Rhino Records' original soundtrack album of the complete score was released 36 years after the movie's release, and by that time some cues were damaged. Earlier, Laurie Johnson rerecorded the complete score, but much music was cut for the 1980 Varese Sarabande LP record album, and the recording suffered further in engineering.

Now, at last, the score is all there in big beautiful sound, played with gusto and warmth. Thank you, Joel McNeely, the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, album producer Robert Townson, Herrmann scholar Christopher Husted (who reconstructed lost parts of the score), and the recording engineers who made "Bernard Herrmann's Symphonic Dances" (my nickname for the score) sound so good!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Performance of an exciting Herrmann score!, December 15, 2010

By 

Robert Penn - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: North By Northwest: The Complete Score (Audio CD)

This accurate recording of the complete score is magnificent! Due to the editing of "North by Northwest", full versions of the cues were never recorded until now. Listening to the fully restored soundtrack allows us to more fully appreciate the genious of Bernard Herrmann. It is wonderfully performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Joel McNeely. I think Mr. Herrmann would approve!

Perhaps Mr. Herrmann's most beautiful composition is the Love Theme in this soundtrack. For those of you who have only seen the movie, you really are in for a treat. In the movie, it is almost completely overridden by dialogue. Also, this soundtrack contains perhaps Mr. Herrmann's best coda and best "Finale" piece of music. In all previous versions including the movie, "The Finale" was truncated. Here we hear it as he intended. The Love Theme is reprised within it, and then comes the COMPLETE coda-also never heard before. The coda is intense; thunderously and explosively played at a frenzied pace. The sound Mr McNeely gets out of his orchestra is fantastic! This recording is truly an important moment in classic cinema musical history.