This year for Halloween it was all about doing something different but keeping it low key. When we heard that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra would be showcasing Alfred Hitchcock’s supreme suspense thriller ‘Psycho’ – we knew we needed to be a part of it!
Every spine-tingling scene is made more vivid, more bone-chilling by having Bernard Herrmann’s iconic string-orchestra score played live to the film by the superlative artists of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Trish Crawford from The Toronto Star stated in her article dated Sept 22, 2015 (http://www.thestar.com/authors.crawford_trish.html) Conductor, Constantine Kitsopoulos ‘has conducted many Psycho concerts in recent years as live orchestra with film “is a growing symphonic trend,” he says, and a way bring people into concert halls.
He also has conducted orchestras for An American in Paris, The Wizard of Oz, Singing in the Rain, Home Alone, Star Trek and a compendium of Hitchcock films, including Dial M for Murder, North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train.
Using two screens beside his podium, Kitsopoulos watches the movie on one side and a synchronized timing device on the other. This tells him when to pause and cues him 30 seconds before a new section of music.
Unlike today, when the composer is the last one brought into the project, Herrmann composed early and, in some cases, Hitchcock cut the film to match his score, says Kitsopoulos.’
There is nothing like watching ‘Psycho’ on a big screen in the gorgeous Roy Thomson Hall and having a pop up experience of the strings accenting the shower murder scene in real time. As we glanced around the audience to take in the audience reaction – there wasn’t a soul in the Hall that wasn’t horrified.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is onto something here. Next stop, hopefully ‘The Birds’, ‘North by Northwest’ and ‘Vertigo’. Pretty please.
Thirty Four Flavours 