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Erich Wolfgang Korngold is
most often associated with the creation of the modern film score. Indeed, many of today’s admirers of his music came to know of
him through the scores of his many films from the 30s and 40s. But before arriving in Hollywood he was a well-known composer
of concert and chamber works, operas and stage works, and an arranger
and conductor, among many other musical enterprises. Though most often compared to Mozart himself, Korngold was, in
his own right, one of the most gifted composing child-prodigies in the
history of music.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was
born in Brünn, Moravia (today, Brno, The Czech Republic) on 29 May
1897 as the second son of Dr. Julius Korngold and his wife Josefine,
but grew up in Vienna from the age of four, when his father became the
successor to the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick at the Neuen
Freien Presse (New Free Press) newspaper. Already playing the piano from a very early age, Erich composed
his first original works around 1905. Later in 1906, after his son had demonstrated a phenomenal
precocity towards music, the elder Korngold – at the suggestion of
no less than Gustav Mahler – engaged the renowned Alexander von
Zemlinsky as a musical mentor for Erich. For all intents and purposes, Zemlinsky would be his only
teacher, and for only a short time at that.
The young “wunderkind”
(child prodigy) became known to the public in 1910 with the
world-premiere production of his two-act ballet/pantomime “Der
Schneemann” (The Snowman) at the Vienna Hofoper, in an orchestral
arrangement of his score for piano four-hands by Zemlinsky. The sensation was followed a few months later by the Munich
premiere of his Piano Trio, Op. 1. Astounded by the abilities of this “miracle child”, the
musical cognoscenti of the time were quick to take up and promote the
creations of this musical marvel.
In 1911, Artur Schnabel
premiered (and afterward championed) Erich’s Piano Sonata #2 in
E-major, Op. 2. The same
year also saw Artur Nikisch give the world-premiere of Erich’s first
orchestral work, the Schauspiel Ouvertüre, Op. 4 at the Leipzig
Gewandhaus, displaying for all Erich’s gift for orchestration. In 1913, Erich’s “Sinfonietta” in B-major, Op. 5 – a
symphony in all but in name – was premiered in Vienna under the
baton of Felix von Weingartner, and later the Violin Sonata in
G-major, Op. 6 was premiered by Karl Flesch and Artur Schnabel in
Berlin, fully demonstrating the composer’s range of mastery from the
large late-Romantic orchestra to the virtuosic intimacy of
smaller-scored chamber works.
In 1916 Erich became a
respected opera composer with the instant success of his two one-act
operas, “Der Ring des Polykrates” and “Violanta” under Bruno
Walter in Munich. The
Vienna premiere shortly after presented the singer Maria Jeritza as
Violanta, who would take the lead role in the premiere of Korngold’s
third opera “Die tote Stadt” at the Met in New York in 1921. The following year in 1917 the Rose Quartet premiered the
Sextet for Strings in D-major, Op. 10 in Vienna. 1920 saw the incidental music to a production of
Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, and also the double
world-premiere of Korngold’s operatic triumph, “Die tote Stadt”
(The Dead City), in Hamburg and Cologne, based on Georges
Rodenbach’s novel “Bruges-la-morte”.
After already gaining
experience as music director/conductor at the Stadttheater Hamburg,
Korngold added arranging and adaptation to his impressive resume with
an arrangement of Johann Strauss’s “Eine Nacht in Venedig” for
the Theater an der Wien in 1923. During the next several years he would continue to arrange
operetta, as well as compose original works (the first String Quartet,
Op. 16, the one-movement piano concerto for Paul Wittgenstein, and the
Three Songs, Op. 18 all date from this period), while still
maintaining his position as a conductor.
The premiere in 1927 of
Korngold’s fourth opera, “Das Wunder der Heliane” – which
Korngold considered to be his most important work – in opposition to
Krenek’s “Jonny spielt auf” was not as successful as his
previous operas, giving Korngold a taste of disappointment as
“Jonny” became opera of the year. Despite a stellar production that included Lotte Lehmann and
Jan Kiepura in the leading roles, the interest of the Viennese public
in Korngold’s once “progressive” music, began to wane in favor
of other styles considered more “modern”.
Continuing undaunted in his
various endeavors, however – now with the additional title of
Professor at the Vienna Academy of Music – Korngold collaborated
with Max Reinhardt in 1929 on a new production in Berlin of “Die
Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss. This same period saw the premiere of his Suite for 2 violins,
cello and piano (left hand), Op. 23, and his third Piano Sonata, Op.
25. In 1932 the world
received the premiere of the “Baby-Serenade”, Op. 24 in which
Korngold, for the first time, incorporated jazz elements in his style. That same year he started work on his fifth opera “Die
Kathrin”.
In 1934 at the request of Max
Reinhardt, who was already working in the United States, Korngold
arrived in Hollywood to arrange Mendelssohn’s incidental music for
Max Reinhardt’s famous film version of “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.” One year later
on his second stay in America, Korngold composed film scores for both
the Paramount and Warner Bros. studios. Shortly after, he signed an exclusive contract with Warner
Bros., making him one of the first world-renowned composers to work
for the Hollywood film factory. His
first original score for “Captain Blood” helped launch Errol
Flynn’s film career in 1935, and Korngold’s score for the movie
“Anthony Adverse” received an Oscar for the best film music of the
year 1936.
Though under contract with
Warner Bros., Korngold was living between two worlds, composing film
scores in Hollywood, but trying to maintain his concert and opera
presence in Europe. In
1938, the “Anschluss” of Austria by the National Socialists took
the Korngolds by surprise. To save his family Korngold moved them to the US and chose to
write film scores regularly, and essentially vowing not to compose
concert works again until Hitler was removed from power. His first movie score as an exiled resident in the New World
– “The Adventures of Robin Hood” – won him his second Oscar. Until 1946 Korngold composed mainly film music, using his
income to support many friends and refugees fleeing the tyranny in
Europe. Together with Max
Steiner, he stood for a new music style in Hollywood, in which the
highly illustrative but independent music partly intervened in the
story of the film by expressing atmosphere, and simultaneously
introducing the Wagnerian concept of leitmotifs. Some of the movies he scored include “The Prince and the
Pauper” (1937), “Juarez” (1939), “The Sea Hawk” (1940),
“The Sea Wolf” (1941), “King’s Row” (1941), and
“Deception” (1946).
Beginning essentially in 1946
with the premiere of the String Quartet #3, Op. 34, Korngold said
goodbye to the Hollywood film industry and attempted to return to the
concert stage and the creation of absolute music. Deftly borrowing themes and motifs from his many movie scores
– a key provision in his contract with Warner Bros. – Korngold
produced the Cello Concerto, Op. 37, the Violin Concerto (premiered by
Jascha Heifetz in 1947), and the Symphonic Serenade, Op. 39.
The Korngolds decided to
return to Europe in the fall of 1947, but plans were indefinitely
delayed when Erich suffered a heart attack on 9 September 1947. Erich Korngold finally set foot in Austria in 1949 for the
first time since before the war. In 1950, under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwaengler,
Korngold’s Symphonic Serenade in B major Op. 39 was successfully
premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic. Other performances of his works, however, were poorly
attended, and the critic’s reviews were not favorable – the
Viennese public’s musical tastes had moved on in Korngold’s
absence. The following
year Radio Wien premiered his musical comedy “Die stumme
Serenade,” again with less than favorable results. Korngold found himself forgotten and essentially
unappreciated in his former homeland, and the world he once knew gone
forever. He returned to
America disappointed and dejected.
He made a second trip to
Europe in 1954, at which time his Symphony in F# op. 40 was premiered. Attributed to lack of preparation, the radio premiere was
less than successful. Following
a second disappointment with the failure of a production of “Die
stumme Serenade,” he traveled to Munich under agreement to work on
one last film, “Magic Fire,” a biography of Richard Wagner
produced by Republic Pictures. Fearing that in less devoted hands the music of Richard
Wagner would be ill-represented on the movie screen, Erich had agreed
to return from retirement and oversee the arrangements of Wagner’s
music for the film. It
would be his last motion picture score.
In 1955 Korngold suffered a
stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. Then in 1957, at the age of 60 with a second symphony and a
sixth opera planned, Korngold died on 29 November as a result of a
cerebral thrombosis. Austrian
by birth, a naturalized US citizen since 1943, child prodigy, renowned
opera composer, film composer, arranger, conductor, and more, Korngold
died in Hollywood believing himself virtually forgotten.
But beginning in the late 60s, one single LP of his movie music conducted by Lionel Newman was released. In the 70s, under the watchful guidance of his younger son George, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music was produced as part of a series of retrospectives LPs of the classic movie scores from the Golden Age of Hollywood, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Gerhardt. And ever since the recordings of his works, both concert stage and screen, continued to grow in quantity as his music was rediscovered and appreciated by a younger, newer generation. Since 1984, Korngold’s music has become more and more recognized, with dozens of releases, helping to spread the “Korngold sound” and ensure that his concert works and contributions to the establishment of the “Hollywood sound” will live on. Troy Dixon
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