This collection groups together three previously issued film scores by three great composers of Hollywood’s “Golden Age”, all written for horror movies. When I was a kid watching Chiller Theater every Sunday morning, how could I ever have imagined that one day I would be singing the praises of those dimly heard, B-movie scores? Alfred Newman’s “The Beast with Five Fingers” is a panic: his inspired use of Busoni’s piano transcription of Bach’s famous D minor Chaconne for solo violin, mixed up with all sorts of modernistic, creepy sound effects, calls to mind a very different Alfred–Schnittke! Similarly, Hugo Friedhofer’s score to “The Lodger” is pure Hindemith, only it may have been Hindemith who was, in fact, pure Friedhofer. Victor Young’s “The Uninvited” is the most tuneful of the three scores represented here, but it’s also chock full of moody, sinister, and atmospheric material. What makes all of this so interesting is the fact that many listeners will love this disc unashamedly, but would run screaming from the concert hall when confronted with a work by Hindemith or Schnittke in the abstract. Clearly the advocates of contemporary classical music have some work to do in the PR department. They could start by celebrating the similarity between great film music and many modern orchestral scores, rather than copping an attitude about it. As this splendid CD proves, this similarity is very real, and very entertaining.
