Alfred Hitchcock commissioned his film scores from composers who were Hollywoods master-craftsmen. The concert items prepared from those scores feature a dazzling variety of styles, from Baroque and jazz to dark Romanticism and angular angst, all using the orchestra with breathtaking virtuosity. The conductor John Mauceri, as at home with this repertoire as any other musician, has prepared a number of concert suites from the film scores and some of them receive their first recordings here. This recording was made live in concert in Danish Radios new concert hall in Copenhagen. The booklet contains an introductory text by Mr. Mauceri and an extensive, illustrated essay on Hitchcock and his use of film music and work with composers by British film-music historian John Riley
I admire Mauceri's performances of film music, but do we really need yet another recording of these already recorded, and re-recorded, and re-re-corded pieces yet again?
