Customer Reviews

Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, for all of those who have whinned
about preferring an "original" soundtrack recording
-- forget about it! Was never made; never will be.

The 1975 Unicorn-Kanchana recording, conducted by
Bernard Herrmann, (the 1989 cd is a VERY difficult
import to acquire) has been the definitive version of
the entire soundtrack -- until this 1997 recording.

Much as I respect many of Danny Elfman's original scores -
particularly Dolores Claiborne, Black Beauty, Mars Attacks
and even the amusing MIB II prelude - his treatment of
Herrmann's masterpiece is only a nice try.

With all that out of the way, and after considerable time
spent comparing the recording Herrmann finally had the
opportunity to make shortly before he died, (which I have
been listening to regularly for over 25 years) with McNeely's
version which I have been avoiding for a few years, my advice:

This is now the definitive version and will likely remain
so for decades. Barring a much needed remastering of the
Naional Philharmonic-Herrmann cd, you will NEVER hear this
score, which is simply one of the finest musical compositions
of the 20th century, the way it must be heard.
Depth, clarity and separation between the various strings -
particularly the celli and basses - is exceptional. Like
listening to the music for the first time! The prelude has
most - though not quite enough - of its frenzy back. The
two missing cues are very interesting and most welcome.
There is a nice inversion at the start of The Window which
makes it more interesting. Every track is engineered impeccably,
with a nice sustain and ring-off to the strings just the way
it ought to be. Originally I found certain cues, like The City,
The Curtain, and even The Water uninspired, too measured and
lacking spirit. Likewise, I still find Herrmann's conducting
usually has more of the flow and flavor of the music's essence
which McNeely sometimes seems to lose track of. However, the

overall dedication to craft and total respect for the quality
of this score is perfectly obvious. I regret having waited so
long to purchase this recording.

Lastly: The liner notes, though decent, really deserved to be
more detailed and technical. You can hear maestro Herrmann
doing such simple yet sublimely subtle things with his score
now, and it would have been so helpful for us non-musicians
if there had come included a bit more explanation as to what
compositional elements they are.
And why not have a companion video recording of this
recording session?
Now THAT would finally free Herrmann's masterpiece even more
from its neglected past!

My favorite classic movie scores are Leonard Bernstein's for ON THE WATERFRONT (1954), Alfred Newman's for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1959) - and Bernard Herrmann's for PSYCHO (1960). Herrmann composed his all-strings, "black-and-white" score at around the same time he wrote the hauntingly beautiful music for such memorable episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE as "Walking Distance" and "The Lonely." The parts of the extensive PSYCHO score that stayed with me most after seeing the movie for the first time were the "flight" theme (when Marion Crane, after having embezzled money, is fleeing in her car from the police); the "temptation" theme (heard as the camera focuses on the stolen money lying on Marion's bed); and, of course, the squealing violins of the two famous murders: Marion's (in the shower) and Detective Arbogast's (on the stairs). All of that music - and in fact, the entire movie score - is captured vividly in this 1996 recording by Joel Mc Neeley and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The recorded sound is spacious, the strings lush in the almost-Romantic "Marion" and "Marion and Sam" themes. So great is the PSYCHO score that it fully deserved this complete, modern recording. Let's hope that Mc Neeley and his orchestra record Herrmann's TWILIGHT ZONE themes, too.

I have mixed feelings towards this umpteenth recording of Bernard Herrmann's chilling score for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". I congratulate Joel McNeely for use tempi closer to those of the original soundtrack, but I still feel that there is something lacking, particularly in the Prelude. It does sound muffled and a little "timid", lacking the jarring ferocity of the original soundtrack. That is probably my biggest "beef" about this recording. And I have yet to hear a re-recording of the notorious "murder" music that is as effective as it was in the film. Maybe it was the placement of the microphones, maybe it was in the post-recording, giving it that almost distorted sound, (which was innocently mistaken by late writer Ivan Butler as sounding like "distorted screaming bird-cries", which, actually, it does!), but in the several re-recordings of the score, do sound like very high-placed strokes on violins, and almost always played too slow. But enough kvetching. This is probably the best re-recording of the score I have heard so far, and for that I congratulate Joel McNeely and Varese Sarabande. Now, how about a digitally remastered recording of the ORIGINAL soundtrack?

Spectacular re-recording of what remains one of the most recognizable and imitated film scores of all time. As usual with McNeely and the RSNO, the performance is both electrifying and exact, and the recording is spot on. Herrmann felt that Hitchcock's black-and-white film needed an equally black-and-white score, so he removed the "color" from the orchestra by limiting his writing strictly to the string section. What he accomplished was amazing in its ability to manipulate one's primal emotions, with or without the film. From the panic-stricken opening titles, through the long passages of drawn-out suspense, to the famous murder "stings," few other scores have done so much to build and shape the overall mood and movement of a movie. This completed Herrmann's trilogy of masterpieces for Hitchcock films, the prior ones being 'Vertigo' and 'North by Northwest.' If the former was his most darkly romantic, and the latter his most light-hearted and adventurous, then this one is easily the bleakest and most relentlessly single-minded. Yet it holds up splendidly as a stand-alone piece of work, brought to life once again under McNeely's direction. I'm not usually a fan of re-recordings, but he and the RSNO seem to get Herrmann's work just right time and again. A must-own if you love film music.

Alfred Hithcock, a man not known for heaping praise on others, once said Bernard Herrmann's score for "Psycho" accounted for at least one third of the film's impact.

Herrmann, writing a score only for strings, and to compliment a film shot in black and white, created for "Psycho" the most chilling, evocative and imitated score in motion picture history.

Forty years later, the impact of his shrieking string stabs for the shower sequence (Hitchcock initially wanted no music for the

scene, until he heard the cue that Herrmann had composed for it), is a strong as ever.

The score, as recreated on this disc by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, is beautifully performed and produced. The liner notes by Kevin Mulhall are filled with much information never before published.

The score for "Psycho", like the film itself, remains a masterpeice.

The fact that Herrmann's work was ignored in 1960 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remains one of the great travesties in Oscar history.

Joel McNeely's re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's "PSYCHO" is actually quite good. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra's performance is superb (although I have head better!) and McNeely's conducting is surprisingly secure. The tempo's are well matced with that of the original.

Of course, this recording gains much of it's worth by the fact that "PSYCHO" is one of the best scores ever comosed, and that it is the complete score. But I cannot give it a five-star rating at all. The main complaint I have about McNeely's recording (and a BIG one that is) is, that it completely lacks the brutality and intensity of the original. This can be clearly heard in the "Prelude". While the original was SUDDEN and SURPRISING (thus putting the audience in discomfort) this version seems more "dramatic" (when it really should be "BRUTAL.") This, I think, comes from a general misunderstanding on McNeely's part - "PSYCHO" should not be played as a concert piece, but as a movie score for a horror-movie (!)

Never the less, I've never regretted getting this CD. Bottom line: It is an impressive re-recording (although I do rank Elfman's higher).

I had high hopes for this re-recording. Everything is sort of OK but it misses aggressiveness. And it supposed to be 'nervous'. This re-recording doesn't make me nervous whatsoever. And it sounds like you are sitting in the back of an empty church while the orchestra is playing in front of the altar, like one big reverb-pit. That's allright for boys choirs if you're into that but Psycho (I think) supposed to sound almost like you're in a dead room. And that's where Danny Elfman comes in. He did an excellent job on that lame Gus van Sant re-make so there's at least one thing that came out right from that movie. The problem with that one is that it's incomplete but it's way, way better then McNeely's version. Go for Elfman's version. Money well spend (and better art-work).

The shower music from "Psycho" is obviously the most recognizable theme in all of cinema history. Although this one is good, there are other themes. My favorite cue is the "Prelude" and it varies from the three copies that I own. I have McNeely's re-recording, the Danny Elfman/Steve Bartek adaptation from 1998, and I also own the original score, conducted by Herrmann himself, which is said to be out of print. Herrmann's conducting was top-notch, even if tempo is the most important thing on a score like this. His version of the "Prelude" was much slower than it should have been. Elfman's version was on the money, being more hyperactive and sounded like he put the score on speed. This version works nicely, capturing the tension, horror, shock, and overall ominous sense of evil. "Prelude" works as the main title cue. "The Rainstorm" is another favorite of mine and its only a variation on the "Prelude". At about an hour of music, this is best recording of the complete score. Herrmann's was too slow, Elfman's was very fast, but McNeely's was just right.

I usually don't care for recordings of movie scores that aren't directly off the film's soundtrack. They're often poorly played, or they are severely truncated, with many cues missing. This "Psycho" CD sidesteps these pitfalls entirely. All the music is here, and the playing expertly replicates what you hear in the movie itself.

The sonic quality is superb, fully state-of-the-art. It's so good, you hear- and FEEL- things you haven't since the last time you saw "Psycho" in a movie theatre. Hermann's shrieking strings truly shock in the shower sequence in a way that just doesn't happen when you hear them on TV speakers. His haunting, ominous bass notes tingle up through your toes; you don't just get the idea of dread, you feel it in your bones.

Any orchestra or recording company planning to re-create a classic movie's soundtrack would do well to give this CD a listen; this is how it is done when it's done RIGHT.

I recommend this one whole-heartedly! And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make a bank deposit for my boss...

The score for Hitchcock's Psycho is in my opinion on of the best ever written. Unfortunately, this performance is not at all close to the high standards of the original soundtrack recording of 1960 with Herrmann himself conducting. The conducting on this cd is insecure, and the sound is very muffled, though Mcneely picks tempi that correspond fairly well to the original ones. The original tracks aren't available commercially but I would also put Herrmann's own rerecording on the Unicorn label above this one. The Unicorn cd is slower throughout than both this cd and the OST, but the conducting is of much higher quality.