BaL 5.5.12 - Korngold's Violin Concerto

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 5th May at 0930 Building a Library: Jessica Duchen with a personal recommendation from recordings of Korngold's Violin Concerto.

Available versions:

Renaud Capuçon (violin), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Miranda Cuckson (violin), Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Paul Freeman
James Ehnes (violin), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey
Alexander Gilman (violin), Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Perry So
Vadim Gluzman (violin), Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Neeme Järvi
Jascha Heifetz (violin), Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Alfred Wallenstein
Ulf Hoelscher (violin), Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Willy Mattes
Leonidas Kavakos, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hugh Wolff - DVD
Laurent Korcia (violin), Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean-Jacques Kantorow
Benjamin Schmid, Vienna Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa
Anne-Sophie Mutter, London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn
Hyeyoon Park (Violin), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Lawrence Renes
Itzhak Perlman (violin), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, André Previn
Philippe Quint (violin), Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria, Carlos Miguel Prieto
Benjamin Schmid, David Fruhwirth, Henri Sigfridson & Silke Avenhaus, Vienna Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa
Gil Shaham (violin), London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn
Pavel Šporcl (violin), Prague Symphony Orchestra, Jirí Kout
Matthew Trusler (violin), Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Yasuo Shinozaki
Vera Tsu (violin), Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra, Long Yu
Nikolaj Znaider (violin), Vienna Philharmonic, Valery Gergiev

[Roehre]

I see that two of the oldest (i.e. pre-mid1970s) recordings are (still) available: Heifetz and Hoelscher.
I still recall the comments on Hoelscher's recording (paraphrased): "why put so much effort in a film score in disguise? This is something EMI/HMV must have thought themselves as well, as they only recorded it with the Stuttgart RSO with operetta conductor Willy Mattes". Reason enough to buy that (full priced) LP

At that time it actually was the only music of Korngold's which was readily available (together with Die tote Stadt).
RCA released a couple of years later his Symphony in F-sharp op.40, which was received with dedain too .
How things have chaged....

[LeMartinPecheur]

I see that two of the oldest (i.e. pre-mid1970s) recordings are (still) available: Heifetz and Hoelscher.
I still recall the comments on Hoelscher's recording (paraphrased): "why put so much effort in a film score in disguise? This is something EMI/HMV must have thought themselves as well, as they only recorded it with the Stuttgart RSO with operetta conductor Willy Mattes". Reason enough to buy that (full priced) LP

At that time it actually was the only music of Korngold's which was readily available (together with Die tote Stadt).
RCA released a couple of years later his Symphony in F-sharp op.40, which was received with dedain too .
How things have chaged ....

My musical tastes were formed in the 70s and I certainly remember a good bit of critical sniping at any 'serious' work of Korngold's. Dunno how much this still prejudices me agin them. Though roehre, wasn't the RCA LP of the Symphony conducted by Rudolf Kempe? IIRC it was something of a leg-up for K that such a prominent German conductor endorsed a symphony by one who'd so clearly sold his soul to Hollywood

Since then I don't seem to have bought any Korngold and filed it under K (there could be odd works on discs files elsewhere but I don't yet have any computer reference system - the thought of some 4000(?) LPs and CDs makes this rather a daunting task to begin now).

I have however kept a BBC MM disc of his Violin Concerto (Andrew Haveron/ BBCSO/ Belohlavek) filed under K when the spine ought to take it to Mozart, because the K seemed quite impressive and more valuable than the M, the Vln Conc 4 with Hilary Hahn. I probably felt I've got enough versions of that filed neatly under M.

So if I'm not currently feeling I must have a commercial recording of the K Vln Conc I hope my ears aren't totally closed to his music....

[Roehre]

.... Though roehre, wasn't the RCA LP of the Symphony conducted by Rudolf Kempe? IIRC it was something of a leg-up for K that such a prominent German conductor endorsed a symphony by one who'd so clearly sold his soul to Hollywood.....

It was Kempe conducting the Munich Philharmonic on RCA ARL1-0443, proudly announcing "World Premiere Recording".
The front of the sleeve shows a sulpture of Korngold made by Anna Mahler. It was available as cassettetape too, btw. Recorded 1974, released 1975.
Hoelscher's rendition dates from 1974 as well.
Perlman/Previn dates from 1981, and is AFAIK the first digital recording of the Korngold concerto, one of the first EMI/HMV digitally recorded LPs.
It was coupled with another (then and now) hardly recorded concerto: Julius Conus' Violin concerto in e from 1897 (when will it appear on Hyperion?).

Remarkable coincidence(?): both these concertos were for the first time recorded by Heifetz.

[spasuit]

It was Kempe conducting the Munich Philharmonic on RCA ARL1-0443, proudly announcing "World Premiere Recording".
The front of the sleeve shows a sulpture of Korngold made by Anna Mahler. It was available as cassettetape too, btw. Recorded 1974, released 1975.
Hoelscher's rendition dates from 1974 as well.
Perlman/Previn dates from 1981, and is AFAIK the first digital recording of the Korngold concerto, one of the first EMI/HMV digitally recorded LPs.
It was coupled with another (then and now) hardly recorded concerto: Julius Conus' Violin concerto in e from 1897 (when will it appear on Hyperion?).



Remarkable coincidence(?): both these concertos were for the first time recorded by Heifetz.

It is now on Naxos with other Russian concertos..and very good disc it is too. Great bargain

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I can never go along with the idea that Korngold "sold his soul" to Hollywood. He needed to make a living, as did Walton, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennet et al.

[Roehre]

It is now on Naxos with other Russian concertos..and very good disc it is too. Great bargain

Thanks

[Roehre]

I can never go along with the idea that Korngold "sold his soul" to Hollywood. He needed to make a living, as did Walton, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennet et al.

I can't either.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I can never go along with the idea that Korngold "sold his soul" to Hollywood. He needed to make a living, as did Walton, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennet et al.

Perhaps I too should have put the phrase in quotes in my posting - I hoped the after it would convey that I don't accept this idea either. I guess I don't like film music enough (divorced from its function in the film itself) to be sure that K did just as well in realising his true gifts in Hollywood as he might have done in European high-art circles had it not been for the Nazis. Was he too much deflected from the big complicated pieces he might have written for the concert hall? Personally I'm not sure of the answer and would need to listen to a lot more of Korngold to form an opinion, though I am reasonably happy that Walton didn't "sell himself" in his film music.

But , are we sure that part of the critical opprobrium W earned in his latter years wasn't caused by his successes in lowly plains of film work when he "should have" been climbing high artistic mountains?? "Every Little Helps" in the critical mudslinging stakes!"

We are of course into high aesthetic and philosophical realms if we start debating what a composer's "true metier" is and whether he was in any sense at fault in following other goals like hard $$$$, whether a symphony is "really" a greater artistic form than a film score, whether K wins the argument if a thousand times as many people have heard, nay enjoyed, his film scores than his Symphony. And that's before we resort to hard facts like album sales or net estates...

There is of course no answer to these Qs, but that surely doesn't mean they're not worthy of consideration, and even some civilised argument...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps I too should have put the phrase in quotes in my posting - I hoped the after it would convey that I don't accept this idea either....

I understood that from your emoticon. But there are still many who are sniffy about composers doing anything that enables them to make ends meet.

[aeolium]

I can never go along with the idea that Korngold "sold his soul" to Hollywood.

Far from that, Korngold himself said that his film score for The Adventures of Robin Hood composed in America in the 1930s effectively saved his life, as he would otherwise have been back in Vienna and possibly prevented from leaving by the Nazis after the Anschluss (I happen to think it's very good music, too!)

[Barbirollians]

I have Heifetz, Perlman and Mutter - enough for me !

Perlman is now coupled with the lovely Goldmark concerto . I am surprised the latter is not on Classic FM all the time.

[BBMmk2]

I loveKorngold's 'serious' music he composed!

I do not care what people think of them. Every work I have heard from this composer I have liked so far. I think his Symphony in F# sharp minor is his masterpiece.

With his VC I have the Gil Saham/LSO/Previn recording. Very good good it is to. Hope it's in the fron runners category!

[verismissimo]

I loveKorngold's 'serious' music he composed!

With his VC I have the Gil Shaham/LSO/Previn recording. Very good good it is to. Hope it's in the front runners category!

Seconded, bbm.

[mikealdren]

A good review that reminded me just how good the Heifetz is, he sings it like no other.

Rather surprised to hear some annoyingly mannered playing and then be told that, on this occasion, AS-M's playing wasn't mannered!

Mike