Twilight) and Dämmerungengutter (Gutter Twilight). For reference, ‘GötzenDämmerung’ may be taken as the decline of symbolic idols (perhaps even the decline of Idylls). Moreover, Felder adds the term Secco (dry, harsh) as a style cue to the garish tonal symbolism. In turn follows Dämmerungengutter (decline to the gutters of reality). The composer applies the term Shrill as a style marker, as the graphic score proceeds to the flagrant final moment, marked Declamatory.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
American composer born: 29 May 1897, Brünn, Austria-Hungary died: 29 November 1957, Hollywood
Violin Concerto, Op.35 Moderato nobile Romance Finale: Allegro assai vivace First Classics performance: May 11, 1996. Conducted by Roberto Abbado, with violinist Gil Shaham; most recent performance: April 13, 2014, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, with violinist Michael Ludwig; duration 25 minutes Recognized as one of the greatest child prodigies of all time, Erich Wolfgang Korngold is best-known today for his film scores, the opera Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”) and his Violin Concerto, Op.35. The stories from his youth are astonishing. For example, at the age of eleven Korngold scored the ballet Der Schneermann (The Snowman) which caused a sensation when it was premiered at the Vienna Court Opera in 1910. His first orchestral works, the Schauspiel Ouvertüre (1911) and the Sinfonietta (1912), so impressed Richard Strauss that he noted: “One’s first reactions to the fact that these compositions are by an adolescent boy
are those of awe and fear. The firmness of style, the sovereignty of form, the individual expression, the harmonic structure - it is truly amazing.”
Die tote Stadt, which premiered in Hamburg in 1920, is among the most successful operas of the 20th century. The work cast its 22-year old composer into the international limelight. However, the emergence of Nazi politics eventually forced Korngold to immigrate to the United States in 1934, where he settled in Hollywood and began a second career as a film composer. He won two Academy Awards for best film scores for Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). In 1975, Die tote Stadt was successfully revived in New York City. Korngold’s Violin Concerto was scored in 1945 and dedicated to the eminent virtuoso Jascha Heifetz (whose brilliant recording of the work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic has been reissued on CD). Opus 35 is a modern example of a very old practice among composers - i.e. the art of borrowing from previous scores and adapting the music to a new purpose. In this case the lovely tune heard at the very opening is from Konrngold’s film score Another Dawn (1939). After a gentle development the music introduces a second theme, this time appropriated from the film Juárez (1939). One can only listen in admiration to the mastery of this mélange, crafted as well with a breathless cadenza to add excitement to the musical imagery. As a source for the second movement Romance, Korngold overlays one of the loveliest moments from his score for the film Anthony Adverse (1936). Here the music is a poignant reverie, with the lyrical line in the solo violin scored in a sunlit, high-wire tessitura. One wishes for
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