Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Performer: Alasdair Beatson, Beatrice Philips, Venetia Jollands, Hannah Shaw, Hannah Sloane, Eusebius Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD0642
Release: 2021
Size: 1.23 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15
01. I. Mäßiges Zeitmaß, mit schwungvoll blühendem Ausdruck
02. II. Adagio. Mit größter Ruhe, stets äußerst gebunden und ausdrucksvoll
03. III. Finale. Gemessen, beinahe pathetisch – Allegro giocoso
Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11: suite for violin (or cello) & piano
04. No. 1, Mädchen im Brautgemach (Version for String Quartet)
05. No. 2, Holzapfel und Schlehwein (Version for String Quartet)
06. No. 3, Gartenscene (Arr. T. Poster for String Quartet & Piano)
07. No. 4, Mummenschanz (Version for String Quartet)
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26
08. I. Allegro
09. II. Intermezzo. Allegretto con moto
10. III. Larghetto – Lento
11. IV. Waltz. Tempo di valse
Wonderful!
Hailed by musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky as “the very last breath of the romantic spirit of Vienna”, Korngold’s stellar beginnings in Europe’s concert halls and opera houses were later overshadowed by his success in America where his soaring symphonic signature forged the template for the Hollywood soundtrack. But, as Korngold authority Brendan G. Carroll notes in his informative booklet essay, the composer’s “relatively small body of chamber works… is no less impressive and actually offers a succinct distillation of his style and voice, often to considerably profound effect”.
The earliest work here is the string quartet arrangement of the suite drawn from his 1920 incidental music to Shakespeare’s Viel Lärmen um Nichts (“Much Ado About Nothing”). Its glowing Intermezzo is heard in the world premiere recording of Tom Poster’s sumptuous new arrangement.
The following year’s Op. 15 Piano Quintet was composed shortly after Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt, and, Carroll notes, “its flamboyant, heroic melodic style owes much to the residual influence of that epic score”. The Op. 26 Second String Quartet from 1933 “is one of the most intensely “Viennese” works Korngold ever wrote”. The jolly, bubbling humour of its opening gives way to a rich, expansive Larghetto before concluding with a spirited hymn to that most Viennese of dance forms, the waltz.