Korngold writes a symphony

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1972, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp received its first successful concert performance by the Munich Philharmonic led by Rudolf Kempe. A recording was made of the work following their performance, supervised and produced by the composer’s son, George Korngold.

The composer himself had died in 1959, so was not able to enjoy the eventual success of this major work. He completed his Symphony in 1950, and its premiere performance in 1954 as part of an Austrian Radio broadcast had been a disaster. As the composer himself put it: “The performance, which was an execution in every sense of the term, took place under the most unfavorable conditions imaginable, with inadequate rehearsals and an exhausted and overworked orchestra.”

“Nonetheless,” Korngold added hopefully, “there was genuine enthusiasm on the part of those listeners who like a good tune and others rather more progressively inclined.”

Korngold had become an American citizen during the 1940s, and dedicated his Symphony to the memory of America’s wartime President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The postwar European premiere of his Symphony came at a time when shifting tastes in music made such lush late-Romantic music seem hopelessly old-fashioned to many of the “progressively inclined” Korngold mentions. “More corn than gold” was one dismissive appraisal of his style.

With the passage of time, however, Korngold’s “good tunes” seem more and more appealing, and belatedly, his big Symphony in F-sharp has found a place in the concert repertory.

Music Played in Today's Program

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957) Symphony, Op. 40 Philadelphia Orchestra; Franz Welser-Most, cond. EMI 56169

On This Day

Births

• 1750 - Bohemian composer Anton Stamitz, in Nemecky Brod (now Havlickuv Brod);

• 1759 - Moravian composer Franz Krommer (Kramár), in Kamenice;

• 1860 - Russian composer Viktor Ewald, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Nov. 15);

• 1867 - French composer Charles Koechlin, in Paris;

• 1942 - American rock guitarist and composer Jimi Hendrix, in Seattle, Wash.;

Deaths

• 1474 - French composer Guillaume Dufay, in Cambrai, age ca. 74;

• 1955 - Swiss-born French composer Arthur Honegger, age 63, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1743 - Handel: “Dettingen Te Deum and Anthem” in London at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, to celebrate the safe return of George II to England, after a victory over the French in Bavaria (Gregorian date: Dec. 8);

• 1745 - Rameau: opera-ballet "Le temple de la gloire" (to a text by Voltaire, for the victory of Fontennoy), at Versailles;

• 1748 - Rameau: opera-ballet "Les surprises de l'Amour," at Versailles;

• 1836 - Glinka: opera “A Life for the Tsar,” in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 9);

• 1842 - Glinka: opera “Russlan and Ludmilla,” in St. Petesrburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 9);

• 1843 - Balfe: opera "The Bohemian Girl," in London;

• 1855 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B (first version, American premiere), at Dodworth’s “Saloon” (Hall) in New York, by violinist Theodore Thomas, cellist Carl Bergmann, and pianist William Mason; Mason claimed it was the world premiere of this work; The most recent Grove Dictionary, however, lists this Trio’s European premiere as occurring in Danzig on Oct. 13, 1855 – but does not indicate whether this was a private or public event;

• 1896 - R. Strauss: tone-poem "Thus spake Zarathustra," in Frankfurt, with the composer conducting;

• 1903 - Wolf-Ferrari: opera "Le donne curiose" (The Curious Woman), in Munich at the Residenztheater;

• 1913 - George Tempelton Strong, Jr.: orchestral suite "Die Nacht" (The Night), in Montreux, Switzerland, by the Orchestre du Kursaal, Ernest Ansermet conducting;

• 1928 - Stravinsky: ballet, "Le Baiser de la fée" (The Fairy's Kiss), at the Paris Opéra, by the Ida Rubinstein Company, with the composer conducting;

• 1972 - first successful concert performance of Korngold: Symphony, in Munich (posthumously), with Rudolf Kempe conducting; Harold Byrns had conducted the Vienna Symphony in a poorly rehearsed and performed Austrian radio premiere of this work on October 17, 1954.