Intrada Soundtrack Forum

$30 plus will get you tickets to see the San Francisco Symphony play the score to PSYCHO live, to picture.

This might be interesting except for

a) the price (who can afford live entertainment any more?)
b) I saw Delerue conduct something live to picture (at UCLA? What was it? or was it someone else conducting NAPOLEON? I can't remember.) and watching him wave his arm distracted me endlessly because it often looked like he was trying to hurry the orchestra and I panicked internally thinking things were going to go south. I'd probably do the same again.

http://www.sfsymphony.org/season/Event. ... ntid=41830


Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"

Treat yourself to a night at the movies-with a live symphony orchestra! Bernard Herrmann revolutionized the art of film music with his hair-raising soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. On July 17 the San Francisco Symphony performs the score live alongside Hitchcock’s iconic film that changed the silver screen and shocked audiences 50 years ago. Don't miss this opportunity to experience a cinematic classic as you've never seen (or heard) it before!

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

Sounds like more of a novelty than anything else. I wouldn't be interested in watching a live performance of the Psycho score while the film plays. Now if it were one of those street fair Amsterdam deals where the musicians are positioned on top of different buildings and on various street corners performing together from one block to the next while fair goers wander around with a half chewed weinerschitzel in hand and all glassy eyed in the land of hashish bars and free form music, that I might attend.

It does sound distracting and possibly manic inducing as David says. Psycho score on its own makes me feel anxious and jittery sometimes. I'd hate to deal with it in a crowd.

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"I used to worry about losing my mind. Now that I've lost it I don't worry about it anymore." -Wavy Gravy

I've been to a few events like this but never a whole movie. Most of the live-to-film performances I've seen were marred by a decision to light the orchestra (not just their little lights on the music stands, the whole stage area where they played) as opposed to darken the auditorium so that audience could see the projected film image properly. Rather a strain on the eyes.

By FAR the most rewarding experience of this kind that comes to mind was last year's Jerry Goldsmith symposium at Royce Hall where David Newman conducted a small group of players through Goldsmith's score for the Twilight Zone episode "The Invaders" while the episode played behind them. Fantastic experience, and a marvellous way to experience that particular score - live in that wonderful sounding venue. They did the same trick this year with unused bits of "Alien" and the audience seemed to really enjoy it.

I'm not sure about a whole movie, though. I'd probably give it a go if I lived in San Francisco, though.

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

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"I used to worry about losing my mind. Now that I've lost it I don't worry about it anymore." -Wavy Gravy

Actually, a big reason for this event (and similar ones elsewhere) is to attract new listeners to the dwindling numbers currently attending the concert halls around the nation... and how exciting it is that Bernard Herrmann (and his Hitchcock music) is the primary draw!!!

This week's Time magazine actually spotlights a feature on the Detroit Symphony and conductor Leonard Slatkin's revitalizing their own troubled concert season with a very similar concept... right down to performing Herrmann's music from PSYCHO.

Nice that those all those symphony "longhairs" are finally discovering what we soundtrack folks knew all along!!
--Doug

I had plans to see this in Detroit (which is close to me), but was under the weather that weekend. I'm hoping to catch it in Chicago!

P.S. The DSO did WIZARD OF OZ the next night!

John Williams did this to his own score for E.T 20th anniversary at the premiere in 2002 to, if I recall correctly...
I think it is more an event and experience and I wouldn´t want to experience it to a movie I never have seen, but Psycho, Jaws, E.T or other classics that I have seen many times would be cool to experience like that...
I read that they showed Jaws when people floated in the water to (was this were the movie was filmed at Marthas Vinyard???)

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I´VE COME HERE TO DRINK COCONUTS AND *censour*...AND I´M ALL OUT OF COCONUTS...

I´m a dirt merchant and a figure of your imagination

Certainly an interesting idea, I'd attend such a concert event to just for the novelty experience were I anywhere around the area. The only movie I have seen where the musical score was performed live was Koyaanisqatsi, with Philip Glass and ensemble performing the music live to the movie playing on a big screen in a philharmonic hall. Certainly the best way to see that movie. It was made for that and not for home video on home screen. But Koyaanisqatsi naturally lends itself to this kind of event, whereas PSYCHO is a straight forward horror thriller. Still, it's an interesting idea, I like it. A lot.