Anyone who has seen the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror movie Psycho will remember instantly the slashing string chords on the soundtrack as Janet Leigh is knifed to death in the shower of the Bates Motel.
Bernard Herrmann’s score for the moody black-and-white film added so much to its effect, and Hitchcock himself paid fulsome tribute to it, declaring “33 per cent of the success of Psycho was due to the music”, acknowledging his error when he originally intended the shower scene to be silent.
Herrmann in fact reflected the low-budget filming of Psycho by scoring his music purely for strings alone, but drew an amazing range of colour and articulation from them, from the pulsing on-the-road music as Janet Leigh drives out of town with a case-full of embezzled dollars right to the screeching sounds which accompany the terrifying ending.
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So many of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest suspense films are accompanied by Bernard Herrmann scores, and conductor Anthony Gabriele reveals his love of the genre.
“Psycho is one of my top three favourite Alfred Hitchcock films, alongside Vertigo and North By Northwest,” declares the Italo-Australian conductor. “However, I was in love with Bernard Herrmann’s wonderful score for Psycho long before I ever saw the film.
“I’ve always had a love of film music and an enormous respect for the important and highly-specialised craft of the film composer, so conducting film scores, in a concert setting, has been on my ‘to do list’ for quite some time. When the opportunity arose to conduct a live soundtrack project such as this, I jumped at it!”
This live soundtrack project is Psycho Live!, a screening of the film with a live performance of the score from the British Sinfonietta under Anthony’s baton. Symphony Hall will experience it on Wednesday, April 9.
Anthony talks me through the rehearsal process, explaining how there was an extra level of concentration demanded of all concerned.
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“The first rehearsal is with the orchestra alone and is no different to any other orchestral rehearsal. It’s all about making music and therefore requires the usual study and score preparation.
“The second rehearsal, however, is when the film and the orchestra are brought together for the first time.
“As you might imagine, timing is everything with this type of event. Studying the score alongside the film is the only way I can ‘rehearse’ (as it were) the numerous time code cues which allow me to keep the whole thing together,” he explains.
“The main difference with this type of performance is that I don’t have the freedom to interpret the score. I must commence each music cue at precisely the right moment, by referring to a clock on the podium which works alongside a small screen displaying the film. I must then adhere as closely as possible to the metronome markings in the score to ensure an accurate match between the sounds you hear and the images you see.
“The greater level of concentration required stems largely from the fact that whilst ordinarily a conductor relies entirely on his or her own ‘internal metronome’ and controls the ebb and flow of the music in collaboration with the orchestra, with a live soundtrack project there’s the added challenge of numerous, predetermined tempo markings and time codes governing the ebb and flow of the music relative to the film.”
Anthony Gabriele divides his home-life between Valencia in Spain and London, where he has already chalked up an impressive record as conductor of musicals, including the accolade of conducting the 10,000th performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.
“The bulk of my experience, thus far, has been in musicals,” he explains. “However, my passion has always been opera.
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“Both genres feed my love of theatre and the thrill that comes with combining music and drama. Whilst a live soundtrack project might seem far-removed, for me it is the parallels that stand out as once again music and drama come together to tell a story.”
* Psycho Live! is screened and performed at on Wednesday April 9 (7.30pm). Details on 0121 780 3333.