Vertigo: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1958 Film) [SOUNDTRACK]

Bernard Herrmann, Muir Mathieson

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 5, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1958
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0000014ZW
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,700 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Vertigo Prelude and Rooftop

2. Madeleine and Carlotta's Portrait

3. Beach

4. Farewell and the Tower

5. Nightmare and Dawn

6. Love Music

7. Necklace and the Return and Finale

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the finest film score ever written., July 4, 1999

By	James M. Shertzer (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first saw "Vertigo" in its original release, I was 14, too young to understand this masterful film's emotional complexities but sucked in by the powerful undetow of the Bernard Herrmann's brilliant score, the finest of all his work for Hitchcock. I pestered by mother until she gave me $3.98 to buy the Mercury soundtrack recording. Over the years it served me well (and skyrocketed in value as a sought-out collectible) and was played until the grooves wore thin. The Mercury CD reissue of 1990 was a fine stereo replica but the Mercury original, but this disc (produced to accompany the film's glorious 1996 restoration) surpasses it with better sound and additional tracks. There are some minor flaws: not all of the new tracks are in stereo and the recordings show their 40-plus-year age. Owing to a strike in Hollywood, the majority of the "Vertigo" score was recorded in London but some cues were done in Vienna, and only the London session were made in stereo. However, considering the age and lamentable deterioration of the master tapes, what's here sounds remarkably good. The recent digital re-recording of the score has flashier audio (and cue or two missing from this disc), but this is the REAL thing and, for my money, the better of the two discs. An absolute must in any film score collection ... or serious contemporary music collection, for that matter.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dizzyingly Good "Vertigo" Soundtrack, July 24, 2001

By	Sandy McLendon (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Of the "Vertigo" CD's available, I like this one best, even though I know there are some problems with it. Some tracks are mono, because they were originally recorded that way. There are some flaws in the playing, including more bowing from the strings than composer Bernard Herrmann might have liked. And the years have not been entirely kind to the recordings themselves. I say, "So What?" This is the version that has the one thing all others lack- the power to put you back into the strange world of "Vertigo".

It's a very complete version; the only thing I believe is missing is the little bit of stock music used when Scotty and Judy dance at the Fairmont.

But the wonderful thing about this soundtrack is that power to return you to San Francisco, circa 1958, when a decent detective got gulled into playing an unwitting witness to a scam, and lost his soul thereby.

I can testify to that power; I played the CD in the car one day, and found myself driving on one of Atlanta's hillier streets, just as the music for Scottie's following of Madeleine was played. For just a second, I was IN the movie, it seemed; I had to take a moment to bring myself back to here and now- reminding myself that I was on my way to a meeting, not tailing a green Jaguar. If I had been in San Francisco when this happened, I think I might have ended up in San Juan Bautista before the spell broke...

Again, I've heard the other versions, and they're fine. They're well-played and state-of-the-art technically; they try to correct every flaw in the actual soundtrack, and on that score they succeed. They just don't have the ability to evoke the movie the way this one does. Madeleine and Scottie are on this CD, and no other. Play the others, and hear beautiful music. Put this CD in, and be transported. I was.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CLASSIC, April 30, 2002

By	MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann worked together for nine extraordinary years beginning in 1954 with "The Trouble With Harry" and on through "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956),
"The Wrong Man" (1957), "North By Northwest" (1959), "Psycho" (1960), and "The Birds" (1963) along with their masterpiece, "Vertigo" in 1958. It was in 1966 that Hitchcock rejected Hermann's score for "Torn Curtain" and the two men not only never worked together again, they also never spoke to each other again.

"Vertigo" has one of the most lush and romantic scores ever written for a film, purely tonal most of the time and then something goes horribly wrong: the music seems to turn in on itself, spirals downward, becomes hypnotic, mesmerizing, almost minimalistic. Themes are repeated and variations of these themes become haunting and then nightmarish.

If you have ever seen "Vertigo" listen just to the "Prelude" on this CD and you will remember Saul Bass's brilliant main title sequence....one of the finest in all of cinema. Herrmann has written a great, great film score, postively married to this breathtaking movie. The score can be enjoyed while watching "Vertigo" or simply by listening to this remarkable CD. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.