John Pitman Reviews: Les Korngold’s Korngold Symphony
Imagine if we could hear, decades after a composer has passed, a note-for-note set of instructions of what how they intended their music to be heard? It’s rarer than you might think. In this Arts Blog, program director John Pitman has a conversation with the grandson of the Austrian born composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Leslie or “Les” Korngold – and John Mauceri, a conductor who has devoted his career to elevating the importance of music by Korngold and other 20th century European composers who were effectively saved by Hollywood studios, who needed the rich traditions for their new art form.
The new recording shares a rediscovered record made by Korngold himself, at the piano, of his Symphony in f-sharp minor, from the 1950s. This is a fascinating story that takes us from pre-war Vienna, to Hollywood California, and ultimately back here to Portland, Oregon, where the Korngold legacy continues.
Hear John Pitman’s conversation with Les Korngold and John Mauceri below:
Photo of the Korngolds and John Mauceri at the Hollywood Bowl – by Donald Dietz in 1993 (Leslie Korngold is seen behind John’s left shoulder):
Front of LP, back of LP, and LP in sleeve photos – courtesy of the Special Collections and Photograph Archive, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:
The Korngold Symphony is available now through Supertrain Records.
