Lost Issue: Korngold Concert Works CD Reviews

From July of 1999

Rendezvous with Korngold

Songs and Chamber Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg & Friends

Deutsche Grammophon 459 631-2

Disc One: 14 tracks (4 works) - 59:20    Disc Two: 13 tracks (4 works) - 59:55
 

Suite for Piano (Left Hand)

Piano Quintet

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The Schubert Ensemble of London

ASV CD DCA 1047

8 tracks - 69:16

I've sometimes blamed Erich Wolfgang Korngold for locking Hollywood film scores in the Prison of Prettiness. After all, his Captain Blood was ultimately the most influential of the three scores which are credited with convincing producers that all films needed to be fully scored. The other two -- Steiner's King Kong and Waxman's The Bride of Frankenstein -- are much wilder affairs, full of outre orchestrations and outrageous ideas.
By comparison Korngold is downright cozy; certainly executives and audiences were more comfortable with his approach. Steiner and Waxman -- and others -- locked themselves into the Big Melody for Melody's Sake approach for years. Only the grittier subject matter of post-war films released them (Steiner never really recovered).

But the more I hear of Korngold's concert work, the more I realize he, too, was a victim of the success of his approach. Even though he was a staunch advocate of Romantic tonality, his concert works reveal some flirtation with more modern compositional approaches. His Symphony and Violin Concerto -- both created just after he left the employ of Warner Bros. -- have hints of dissonance and flirtations with impressionism.
Still I was not prepared for the two pieces for piano and strings on this new collection from Deutsche Grammophon. Both, while tonally created, are filled with harsh dissonances and brutally modern urgency. Surprisingly, they also pre-date Korngold's Hollywood work. The Suite for Piano Left-Hand is one of several works commissioned after World War I by Paul Wittgenstein, a famous concert pianist of the period who lost his right arm in the fighting. It is the more fearlessly modern of the two -- although both feature passages which call Bartók to mind, juxtaposed with melodies which could only have come from Korngold. Both also create that curious dislocation of time which is another Korngold hallmark. As conventional as the music seems, it forever slithers off in unexpected directions, creating the odd feeling that it has been going on forever and will continue endlessly.

The song cycles -- included on the discs because they are quoted within the chamber pieces -- are closer to stereotypical Korngold, which is to say total fudge. Only the purity of Anne Sofie von Otter's singing and Bengt Forsberg's piano technique keep Mr. Tooth Decay from staging a full frontal assault.

At this point it would be great to say, "For those who'd like to hear the chamber works, but not the songs..." Alas, the Schubert Ensemble's approach is radically different from Forsberg & Friends, so the choice is not quite that simple. The Schubert's approach is mellower, somewhat slower in tempo and possessive of a warmer sound. In fact they seem to be playing in a lower register, and the crystalline dissonances of Forsberg's interpretation are practically indiscernible.

Less prominent too, is the off-kilter, slightly sloshed melodic progression which characterizes the composer's own readings of his work. This has been captured by several contemporary conductors -- notably John Mauceri and William T. Stromberg -- and it does keep Korngold's writing from sliding into complete Viennese Romantic goo. While it might appeal to some, I find the Schubert Ensemble's interpretation simply too cautious.   -- Harry Long

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