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Will there be another "Vertigo" release soon? (1 Viewer)

Josh Steinberg

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If someone (for instance, me) was interested in buying only one recording of the score, which would you recommend and why? I've been wanting to pick it up for some time but with all the different versions out there, I wasn't quite sure which to get.
 

WilliamMcK

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I'd love to have the original mono track cleaned up as much as possible; but its current deficiencies are not nearly as distracting as the 1996 track. I don't have the most sophisticated sound equipment (just a low-end Bose two speaker set-up), but I was amazed at how much the pops and clicks on the mono track didn't bother me when I finally got the boxed set. I was expecting the worst (based on comments here and elsewhere) and was pleasantly surprised at just how "present" it sounded. Of course I DO think it was crappy of Universal to make NO effort at all to clean the track up: a little like Lucas finally releasing the original cut of Star Wars and not even bothering to make it anamorphic.
 

Mark B

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My recommendation would be the original tracks. When I listen to the others all I can hear is the differences of tempo and balance of the individual instruments.
 

Lord Dalek

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Joel Henderson
Well let me run them down for you...

Mathison's version - This is the one as heard in the film, conducted by Mathison after Bernard was blocked from doing so by the ASCAP strike. About half of it is in mono due to strike action and all releases are missing some tracks due to age related junking. If I had to choose I'd go with the Varese Sarabande release of this despite as despite some age related issues (the opening in particular sounds dreadful) its still the most complete version you're likely to find.

McNeely's version - It was the first relative complete recording of the score in 24bit digital stereo, includes at least one of the pieces Varese had to ommit from their release of the original Mathison version since the tape had fallen apart, and was for a while considered as close to Bernard Herrmann's original intent as possible. Regrettably, like most of McNeely's recordings of Herrmann material, it is also extremely slow.

Conlon's version - This is apparantly quite good from what I hear but it isn't available on its own (it came as part of a book set). Also there are no individual tracks, you have to sit through the whole thing like it was an album wrap file.

Due to Herrmann never bothering to do his own commercial recording of the full score (like he did with Psycho), we may never have a full "authoritative" version outside of a suite he recorded for Decca in the early 60's consisting of the title, nightmare, ad Scene d'amour sections.
 

Craig Beam

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Conlon's version is EXCELLENT. Closest thing to the original. However, it's hard to find... it's only available packed in with a book called Feature Film by Douglas Gordon. It's out of print and pretty spendy:

http://www.amazon.com/Feature-Film-B...554907&sr=8-13

And yes, as already mentioned, it's one LONG track. I used a bit o' audio magic and split it up into 42 individual cues.
 

Stephen PI

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I believe this was a strike by the Musicians Union not ASCAP. The strike had nothing to do with the fact that some of the music is in mono. Most of the dramatic underscore, conducted by MathiEson, was recorded in 3-track (stereo) on the Denham scoring stage in England. The mono material was recorded in Vienna. A close source to me told me that the Vienna recording venue was not equipped to record multi-track in 1958.
 

Lord Dalek

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Yes it does, London's union went on strike as a show of support of America while Mathison was still recording the score. This is why they shifted to Vienna. Says so in the liner notes.
 

Josh Simpson

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This always bothered me about McNeely's Psycho recording as well. Just too slow. Elfman's score had more of the tempos right, but it wasn't complete.

A shame really.

Back on topic, I have the original Vertigo recording and it's nice, even if a bit inconsistent in quality.
 

Lord Dalek

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That is interesting considering Psycho and Fahrenheit 451 are to date the only McNeely rerecordings that I find remotely close to Herrmann's original intent. If you want butally slow Psycho try Herrmann's 1970 LSO recording, it just drags...
 

Thane101

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You could always speed up McNeely's tracks on a pc (some programs will let you do it without changing the pitch).

On a future release of Vertigo, I think they should do a digital restoration. Don't gt me wrong though, I have seen the 70mm restoration done by Mr. Harris in 1996 (and it is stunning ), but when compared to NXNW (which was done digitally) I don't think it looks as good.
 

Drew Salzan

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This is quite timely. The other day I wanted to to revisit my Vertigo DVD from 1997 and found that it would not play. I panicked, thinking that my player was at fault. Luckily, all of my other discs are fine. What happened to this disc?
 

Lord Dalek

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Check the bottom of the disc, the original 1997 release of Vertigo (with the orange cover) IIRC was a title effected by DVD rot.
 

Matt Hough

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I had two discs affected by disc rot, both Universal: VERTIGO and SPARTACUS (both non-anamorphic versions). I replaced the VERTIGO and got the Criterion SPARTACUS (anamorphic and a much classier presentation).

I checked my other Universals issued around the same time, but so far none of them have evidenced any rot.
 

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