Sunday 22 May: Korngold's violin concerto

[Nick Armstrong]

Nice programme, and by chance two interesting questions from the public as well.

Enjoyed it. Perhaps it would have been nice to play some other fragments from the film scores. Especially those which were now mentioned only, though providing material for the Violin concerto. But Robin Hood was nice too :)

Well I thought opportunities were missed in this programme, although I enjoyed it and learned things about the concerto. But only after they started talking about the piece, 40 or so minutes in...

Why pick a film score to play for the first part of the programme which has nothing directly to do with the concerto? OK to illustrate a bit of 'Robin Hood' as the score which was involved in EWK's timely departure from Austria. But why go on and on about it, when the concerto is born of themes from other scores?

Why not illustrate those themes, from "Prince and the Pauper" etc, play them in their original context, then show how he reworked the material in the concerto...

I suspect expense is maybe the reason. It would presumably cost more to have full orchestral parts available for the scores of the various films from which the concerto was drawn. Maybe they had the 'Robin Hood' parts available, and so played that even though it's not directly relevant

Also, Stephen Johnson seemed keen to play down the fact that the concerto was derived from previous scores (he referred to them in the context of critical frowning at the piece early on). He was understandably concerned to show its internal organic structure, rather than highlighting any 'patchwork' aspect.

However, I also found there were too many generalised comments about 'chutzpah', 'kitsch', 'creamy melodies with plenty of sugar'...

But good to hear the piece anyway. I love it!

[Serial_Apologist]

Completely agree, Caliban! In fact I almost switched off halfway through the talk, thinking 90 minutes rather long for a 25-minute concerto, having intaken more musical sherry trifle topped with whipped cream than I felt I could handle, wrongly anticipating same in the concerto.

S-A

[Estelle]

Having just enjoyed this program on iPlayer, I can only add that, although expediency may have been the reason behind the exclusive performance of Robin Hood prior to the violin concerto, it was interesting to hear lengthy excerpts that lush and illustrative film score--and without the distracting film. Perhaps if Stephen Johnson had titled the program Korngold's Robin Hood Music and Violin Concerto, listeners would not have felt misled. It certainly was a missed opportunity not to create a thematic web between later film scores and the violin concerto.

[Dave2002]

Lydian mode

Is that sharpening specifically marked in the score, or do horn players just do it naturally? I wasn't totally convinced by that. I can't check this quickly - the IMSLP score is blocked for EU users. Maybe there are lots of notes which players of instruments without fixed pitching will adjust naturally, perhaps without being told to - that would apply to most string players, wind players etc. The only pieces which I know of in which the tuning is definitely "odd" are Britten's Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings, where Britten asks for the effect, and VW's Pastoral symphony, in which a natural trumpet is specified, with the intention that it produces pitched notes which are slightly "off" compared with standard instruments. Apparently it failed when once an orchestra employed a trumpet player who was able to play the natural instrument "perfectly" with exactly the same pitch for the notes as any regular player using a standard instrument.