Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sound of Hollywood

Photo: Hollywood Conductor John Mauceri at a round-table discussion, organized by Exil.Arte at the Haus der Musik.

As the 50^th anniversary of the death of one of Hollywood’s prolific composers drew nearer in November, Vienna became the center of a Korngold Festival, alongside the exhibition at the Jewish Museum, celebrating his music in concerts, film retrospectives and lectures.

The early career of child Prodigy Erich Wolfgang Korngold, born in Brno in 1897, began as a composer in 20^th century Vienna, particularly after the huge success of his opera Die tote Stadt (1920).

Nevertheless, his colorful career in Hollywood, after his arrival in 1934, for Warner Brothers drew most attention to the émigrés composer in recent decades; the RSO Vienna conducted by one of Hollywood’s prolific musicians, John Mauceri, on Nov. 29 at the Konzerthaus, performed excerpts and arrangements of some of his most characteristic film scores. However, chamber works of Korngold, including some of his early compositions were presented in a worthwhile Matinee at the Haus der Musik on Sunday, Nov. 25.

Hollywood in Vienna was the title of the orchestral concert at the Konzerthaus’ Grosser Saal; a rare occasion where film music was performed in a concert setting without the motion pictures. But the evening was “more about Vienna in Hollywood,” as John Mauceri said, referring to the influence Max Steiner and, most prominently of course, Erich Wolfgang Korngold had on Hollywood’s musical style.

Listeners to the concert entered a different world when they bought programs and took their seats. The golden stucco still caught the attention in one of Vienna’s magnificent concert halls. But tonight palm trees and underlining color lighting created an atmosphere of glamorous Hollywood times.

While the concert beginning was delayed, the receptive audience could witness prominence sneaking in on the side or engaging in serious discussions, like Education Minister Claudia Schmied and State Opera director Ioan Hollender.

A captivating suite of the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flinn, complied by John Mauceri, formed the center piece of the first half, bringing out clearly the descriptive aspects of soundtracks. Not surprisingly, the score won Korngold his second Oscar.

And, if someone ever thought that film music is simple and cheesy, Korngold proved those critics wrong, as he incorporates a whole musical tradition of the previous centuries. Of course, the sound world is undeniably Viennese with a thick layer of schmaltz.

So, why do recent film scores sound like Korngold, one might ask. In search of an explanation, the second half offered a bridge from Korngold to the current writings, when music by Jerry Goldsmith famous Star Trek – the Motion Picture – the main tune of the 1979 film, or extracts of John Williams’ Harry Potter soundtracks were played.

The descriptive musical language – either Korngold or his successors – does not need a visual stimulant that evening, as the stories of the well-known films became instantly visible in the listener’s imagination through the music. And while the enthusiastic audience demanded encores, the performers were ready to serve. The charm of Max Steiner’s passionate film score Gone With The Wind (1939) moved some of those to tears who grew up with those film memories as adolescent.

The scene was quite different at the Haus der Musik a few days earlier where the intimate chamber music and some of Korngold’s earlier works were performed. The organizers – Professor Gernot Gruber for Exil.Arte and Sandra Tomek of the Best of Film Music – amazed by the huge interest, were quick to provide more chairs in the small, triangular performing venue at the top of the museum. In the presence of Korngold’s grand children, presenter Wilhelm Sinkovicz, Music Critic of the daily Die Presse and ORF Radio presenter, led routinely but nevertheless charmingly though the event.

Sinkovicz, not without pride, reminded us that he himself is a “professional descendant of Julius Korngold, influential and often feared music critic as well as Korngold’s father.” A position, the presenter occupies now with the same paper.

Korngold “had at the age of 10 already a unique sound,” Sinkovicz continued in his introduction. As to prove this point, American pianist Alexander Frey performed Don Quixote (1909) of the 12-year-old composer, a vivid study of Cervantes’ character. The seriousness of the piece, which occasionally refers to Franz Liszt and Claude Debussy, nevertheless confirms the uniqueness of Korngold’s musical writing. The tenderness and the soft touch of Frey’s playing showed a good sense of the dramatic development, enriched with a variety of colors.

Frey confirms what the connoisseur notices immediately. ”Korngold’s writing is technically demanding and difficult. But not in the sense as young composers tend to write complicated technically to show their skills.” Therefore, the interpretation is always a challenge for any pianist, though Korngold’s piano works lie well in the hands, as the composer was also well-grounded pianist in his early age.

The morning rounded off with charming song settings of Shakespeare poems, written the early 1940s, and leaves the listener of this morning in with the impressions of the American musical tradition added with Viennese charm.

This is an excerpt, the full article was published in December 2007 in The Vienna Review.