Korngold: Violin Concerto & String Sextet

Approfondimenti

The conductor of this performance of Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto, Op. 35, is John Wilson, a specialist in historical film scores. This makes him ideal for the project since the Violin Concerto borrowed liberally from the mood and, in some cases, the melodies of Korngold's Hollywood film scores. The work, in fact, lies closer than any other to the midpoint between Korngold's abstract concert works and his film music. It had its beginnings in the mid-1930s, and Korngold continued to add to it as he settled and worked in Hollywood. It was not premiered until 1947, but it holds together as though written in a single burst of inspiration. The work's first player was Jascha Heifetz, and although plenty of recordings followed once arch-Romanticism was once again deemed permissible, violinist Andrew Haveron comes unusually close to the precise yet sentiment-filled Heifetz sound ideal. His sheer endurance at the top of the violin's range in the slow movement is especially notable. This performance was recorded in 2015 with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra; Wilson has since then formed his own Sinfonia of London to play music of this sort, but the Irish musicians respond well to his intentions. Players from the Sinfonia of London are heard in the companion work, the teenage Korngold's String Sextet, Op. 10, a terrifically lush slice of prewar Vienna. A very fine Korngold release that should find a place on the shelves and hard drives of lovers of Korngold, film music, and the last, or at least penultimate, bloom of late Romanticism.
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