Strathmore reels to live 'Psycho' screams
By: Marie Gullard
Special to The Examiner
July 3, 2009
If you goBSO Summer Nights: Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"
Where: The Music Center at Strathmore
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Info: $35 to $55, 410-783-8000; bsomusic.org
Think of a favorite film. Chances are you can hum the theme or the music accompanying the opening credits. Now imagine witnessing a film's original soundtrack performed live to every projected frame of that film.
Next Thursday at the Music Center at Strathmore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will do exactly that. And the film presented is Alfred Hitchcock's iconic thriller, "Psycho."
Guest conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos will lead the BSO in the musical score while the full-length film is projected above the orchestra on a movie screen with the original voice track. Famous for its screeching, piercing violins, Bernard Herrmann's score is an integral part of this film noir classic.
Pulling off this ingenious presentation (one that is often referred to as a performance of a film) is not without its own particular challenges for the conductor. The synchronicity of the musical score to the film's action and dialogue is, obviously, his responsibility.
Kitsopoulos's background has prepared him for the challenge, however. This past season he served as conductor and musical director of the Tony- nominated musical "A Catered Affair." In 2007, he led the Tony-nominated musical "Coram Boy" and the American Conservatory Theatre's production of Kurt Weill's "Happy End", for which he recorded the cast album.
"He has to know the score and the film really well," said Paula Skolnick-Childress, BSO cellist. "For [the players] it's no different from any other piece of music -- we just follow him."
Skolnick-Childress admits that while her eyes are on Kitsopoulos, it can be a bit frustrating not being able to see the screen and she confesses to sneaking a peak when not playing. But hers is an essential ingredient in the mix.
"Music speaks it own language," she noted. "The score is an equal partner to the film and the dialogue."
Kendra Whitlock Ingram, BSO Vice President and General Manager, agrees, adding that Psycho's music, while not representing a lot of physical action is "Émore atmospheric, with a really involved score."
Skolnick-Childress, who has also been on the other side of the stage during a performance of the film "Phantom of the Opera", offers this advice to audiences about this genre and "Psycho" in particular.
"Anyone who loves film needs to see this," she said.
