Korngold, Goldmark: Violin Concertos

Karl Goldmark (Composer), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Composer), Yu Long (Conductor), Razumovsky Sinfonia (Performer, Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Razumovsky Sinfonia
• Orchestra: Razumovsky Sinfonia
• Conductor: Yu Long
• Composer: Karl Goldmark, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
• Audio CD (August 5, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B0000014A0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,522 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #50 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Korngold, Erich Wolfgang

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful romanticism, March 14, 2005

By 

William J. Mertens (Bethesda, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Korngold, Goldmark: Violin Concertos (Audio CD)

This disk is well worth buying if only for the Korngold concerto. Korngold was born in Austria in the late 19th century and was recognized as a prodigy. Mahler supposedly proclaimed him a genius. Yet Korngold's "classical" output is relatively small. He moved to Hollywood in 1934 and scored about 20 movies, winning 2 Oscars. The time will come when movie music takes its place as serious "classical" music of the 20th century - alongside, e.g., Purcell's music for the popular theater of his own day - but that day is not yet. Korngold's reputation as a "serious" composer probably suffered, but he wrote some fine scores in the European romantic tradition. He became a naturalized US citizen. He wrote this concerto after World War II, and Heifitz premiered it.

It is a work of fine, late romanticism. The Chinese-born but Julliard-trained violinist, Vera Tsu, gives a beautiful performance. A Heifitz performance is still in the catalog. I haven't heard it, but comparisons in any event can be unfair, and Tsu's performance is quite beautiful in its own right and virtuosic when it needs to be. This recording is very easy to enjoy.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Performances of Chestnuts!, October 21, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Korngold, Goldmark: Violin Concertos (Audio CD)

The odd thing about the violin concerti by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Karl Goldmark is that though everyone seems to regard these as staples in the orchestral repertoire and popular among concertgoers, there are very few recordings of them. Yes, some of the gold standard recordings such as those by Heifitz are apparently out of the catalogue, but given all the fine young fiddlers on the concert stages it would deem there would be more contemporary recordings.

This CD is a very fine combination of the two works as performed by violinist Vera Tsu and the Razumovsky Sinfonia conducted by Yu Long. Tsu's approach is straightforward which serves these works well. Too often soloists milk the romance found here to the point of sounding maudlin. Though there are violinists with a bigger and richer sound than Tsu's, these readings are respectful of the scores and are very lovely to hear. Yu conducts with thoughtful support, and when the orchestra is given time alone - away from the soloist - Yu pulls out the beautiful melodies and the tensions well. This is a fine introduction to these two concerti and it seems from hearing them performed here that they should once again enter the standard repertoire. Grady Harp, October 05

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Saved by Hollywood & A Transitional Composer, October 1, 2011

By 

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel "World Music Explorer" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Korngold, Goldmark: Violin Concertos (Audio CD)

Written in 1945, Korngold's romantic, joyful violin concerto has some of the same romp and lyricism as his famous Oscar-winning cinematic music to Robin Hood. He was already an established classical composer before traveling to the United States for the first time in 1934 at the urging of Max Reinhardt to assist in the film, Midsummer Night's Dream. A young student of Zemlinksy and supported by Mahler, Korngold had already composed a piano sontata, incidental music to another Shakespearean play (Much Ado About Nothing), a piano concerto for the left hand, and several operas, and the movie project primed him to an alternative career. He returned to Vienna to conduct opera, but in 1938 quickly returned to Hollywood, with many other Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and Austria. Before his death in 1957, he picked up his classical pen again to compose a cello concerto, a symphony, and other works. Goldmark is a less familiar composer of an earlier generation that moved from classical to romantic styles. His Violin Concerto of 1877 is in the tradition of Mendelssohn, sometimes meditative, sometimes rhapsodic. The violinist of these excellent recordings is Vera Tsu, born in Shang-Hai and educated at Julliard, who is in mid career as soloist and symphony member. Yu Long, also from Shang-Hai, ably leads the Razumovsky Sinfonia of Slovenia. The album is a fine pairing of concerti, linked by ethnicity and region and affording musical generational contrasts: over an hour listening of interesting, satisfying music at a bargain price.