Another phenomenal instrumentalist.
Erich Korngold was a true child prodigy.
Mahler called him a "musical genius" before he had reached his teens, and recommended he study with composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky.
Richard Strauss also spoke highly of the youth, and told Korngold's father there was no benefit in having his son enroll in a music conservatory since his abilities were already years ahead of what he could learn there. When he was 11, his ballet
Der Schneemann (The Snowman), became a sensation in Vienna, followed by his Second Piano Sonata, played throughout Europe by
Artur Schnabel. His one-act operas
Violanta and
Der Ring des Polykrates were premiered in Munich in 1916, conducted by
Bruno Walter. At 23, his opera
Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) premiered in Hamburg and Cologne. In 1921 he conducted the Hamburg Opera. These works all remain among the "standard repertoire" of classical music.
Due to the rise of the Nazi regime, Korngold moved to the U.S. in 1934 to write music scores for films. His first was
A Midsummer Night's Dream. He subsequently wrote scores for such films as
Captain Blood,
Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, Of Human Bondage, etc...
Unfortunately, Korngold was active after WWII at a time when there was a push toward Progressive Modernism in the Arts in the US as proof of the United States' progressive vision in contrast to the "reactionary" Romanticism of the Arts of the Soviets and the defeated Germans. Korngold for years attracted almost no positive critical attention, but considerable critical disdain... not unlike the same afforded to Rachmaninoff and other late-Romantics. One critic infamously spoke of Korngold's music as comprised of "more corn than gold."
After years of success as a composer for the film industry, Korngold made a return to "serious" efforts toward "classical music". The violinist,
Bronisław Huberman prodded Korngold to compose a violin concerto. The violin concerto was a lush, beautifully crafted, romantic work full of gorgeous melodies.
It was premiered on 15 February 1947 by
Jascha Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony. Heifetz later played the concerto in Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic. The composer wrote about Heifetz's playing of the work:
"In spite of the demand for virtuosity in the finale, the work with its many melodic and lyric episodes was contemplated more for a Caruso than for a Paganini. It is needless to say how delighted I am to have my concerto performed by Caruso and Paganini in one person: Jascha Heifetz."
Heifetz's performance launched the work into the standard repertoire, and it quickly became Korngold's most popular piece
.
