The story goes that Alfred Hitchcock was uncertain about the ‘small’ black-and-white film he had financed with his own pennies in 1956. He even thought of relegating Psycho to television immediately. To be on the safe side, he showed a rough edit to his regular composer anyway. Here, Bernard Herrmann had the stroke of genius to write a score consisting of only strings. The rest is film history.
The concert also amply features Franz Waxman. The German-born composer wrote scores for several of Hitchcock’s films, including Rebecca (1940). This Gothic mystery drama was right up Waxman's alley, as the expert at creating a macabre atmosphere. Although written in haste, Waxman called Rebecca his best score among the 188 film scores of his 32-year Hollywood career.