Kirill Petrenko: Korngold’s symphony is very important
mainRolling out the next Berlin Philharmonic season,the incoming chief conductor has placed particular emphasis in under-performed orchestral works from the past century. Of the greatest personal importance, he says, is the Symphony in F-sharp by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the composer’s only symphonic work, premiered in Vienna in 1954 to universal deprecation.
The symphony is built around themes from the 1939 Hollywood theme The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.
Watch Petrenko here.
Everyone says he is so shy, but I think he did a good job.
He is doing an exceptionally good job on the podium, and just rolled out an interesting program for next season. Who cares if he is not extroverted and loquacious?
Good for him! I hope they’ll take it on tour to the U.S., too, but that’s probably too much to hope.
In a future season maybe he’ll shame his U.S. counterparts and take on Harold Shapero’s Symphony for Classical Orchestra? Would seem to be in character.
I would love to play the Shapiro Symphony…Bernstein conducted the slow movement with us once, I think . And would like to hear Petrenko conduct the Kurt Weill Symphony #2 as well.
can’t say it’s an auspicious beginning
I’m curious: why? I’m rather tired of listening to the same 150 or so works all the time. There are so many worthwhile works that are almost never performed. So, this strikes me as an extremely auspicious beginning. Why not??
Well we already knew it was important, but it does not have the white heat inspiration of the op5 Sinfonietta.
Agreed: love the symphony, but LOVE the sinfonietta! Wish we could get a major league recording of it.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra had it on the schedule for this month until the COVID-19 flareup blew that plan to smithereens …
I love the Werner Andreas Albert recording on CPO.
Bamert is pretty good
Well, the film is brilliant.
Here is the thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVLVCJU6c3U
Brilliantly done.
But it also sounds like R Strauss who went to the movies too much and writing a symphony under the instruction of Pauline; you can hear the grumbling protests popping-up in the music.
Doesn’t the violin concerto count as a symphonic work?
… or the Sinfonietta … or the Cello and Piano Left-Hand Concerti … or the Overture ‘Sursum Corda’ … usw.
Bravo Petrenko! Berlin has a music director who’s willing to explore the fringes of the repertoire. A fantastic Schmidt 4th, now Korngold. Wish more conductors – everywhere – would take up some obscure repertoire and give us all a break from the constant rehashing of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mahler….(what I would really like is to hear Berlin to the Raff 5th!)
The music of Raff is an ideal place to give both ears a well-deserved rest from Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss (the R variety), Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky etc. etc. who intrude into the listener’s quiet interior and stirr all kinds of emotional experiences which have not been asked for. The bland, ephemeral soundscapes of this much maligned composer, who (NB!) taught Franz Liszt orchestration, combines best with contemporary tortured nerves, desperately longing for liberation from the pressures of the modern world, especially in these days. Also much recommended for insomniacs.
To all the naysayers out there regarding Raff: If it wasn’t for Bernard Herrmann (yes, the same man that gave us great film scores for Hitchcock, Welles and Truffaut) and his championship of this composer by way of his recording of Raff’s “Lenore” Symphony, he would still be a footnote in the annals of music history.
And speaking of Herrmann, when will conductors stop programming the umpteenth performance of “Psycho” and start looking at his only symphony, which is rarely heard?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zNSbGFlk3k&t=806s
Recorded recently and superbly by John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London. The slow movement in particular is absolutely heavenly.
Literally was about to post the same comment. Previn and Welser-Most versions aren’t good, but John Wilson really knocks the symphony out of the park.
Welser-Most is the best and most serious recording EVER – a part from Kempe, of course.
Wilson and his orchestra do wonderful things and the standard of playing is just superb. Thank you, John Wilson, for keeping alive a wonderful musical heritage!!
Their second movement is way too frantic for me. I prefer the recording by Marc Albrecht and the Strasbourg Philharmonic They’ve got a nice third movement too! But I’m just glad we all love this work.
I’m very fond of Rudolf Kempe’s 1972 recording with the Munich Philharmonic. So, I see, is Alex Ross – see his comments here: https://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/10/epiphany_11_kor.html
Dora Pejacevic also has an only symphony in F sharp recorded by Rasilainen some years ago. Excellent piece and definitely worth playing.
I had a ticket to hear it on May 7th under Oramo..one of dozens to throw away
Sincere condolences…
To all of us…
Here is the work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=940dNX5zHEU
Good too to hear that they’ve programmed Suk’s A Summer’s Tale… very fine piece!
Is this the first Berlin Phil season ever to not have a single Beethoven symphony in it? I scrolled through the new season a couple of times and didn’t see one.
The Beethoven 24/7/365 backlash begins …
His 250th anniversary and no Beethoven. Ah well; we can put on our own CDs. On 16th December!!
It’s only no Beethoven symphonies. They have Prometheus with Minkowski and the violin sonatas (complete cycle) with FP Zimmermann and Helmchen.
The symphonies are hidden between the lines to prevent audiences from first listening to their own recordings before the concerts.
Well, one theme from “Elizabeth and Essex,” in the slow movement. There’s some “Captain Blood” and “Kings Row” in there, too, but the symphony is far from a simple potpourri of recycled film scores.
That score for “Kings Row”; magic. Do you hear the somewhat ‘english’ sound, reminiscent of William Walton?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tysCiL1-24w
There was a Berlin performance scheduled for next week by the DSO…:(
The Symphony is not “built around” themes from Elizabeth and Essex; the two “themes” from that film are integrated into a greater whole, subjecting them to development much as any material would be that is fit to be included in a work titled “symphony”. This work also employs a notable theme from the film Kings Row in the Finale. It’s the motive used for the Grandmother and Korngold alters it in the symphony with the utmost imagination.
It’s a truly great work.
Great to hear Korngold is getting more exposure.
Exposure is the right word here.
Misleading, the Symphony is not his only symphonic work, just his only symphony. Calling it the former implies that it’s the only piece he wrote for a symphony orchestra.
In fairness to the maestro, he starts off by saying the German classical repertoire will be the heart of his music making in Berlin. He also pays huge tribute to Tchaikovsky (“The Queen of Spades”) and to Mozart, whom Tchaikovsky idolized. Thus, Mozart’s “Requiem” will be performed.
To me, this sounds like a good mix; perhaps unusual for the BSO but not in Boston, Los Angeles or San Francisco.
The Sinfonietta is certainly a symphonic work, so too is the piano concerto, and of course (the clue’s in the name) the superb Symphonic Serenade for strings…
The Korngold symphony is on the Cleveland Orchestra’s schedule for next season as well.
A favorite of mine, Korngold’s “Much Ado About Nothing” Suite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1GZft_X3s
My apologies – here’s the complete suite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCQf7MaoKYs
Petrenko is right about the Korngold symphony! It’s a simply wonderful work and, like much of Korngold’s compositions, it’s been influential for others, particularly film composers like John Williams, whilst remaining comparatively neglected in the performing repertoire. There are now several good versions on disc, but a live recording by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka heard today on BBC Radio 3 was thrilling, the slow movement particularly exquisite.