KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata [CD de audio] Kristóf Baráti and Korngold

The son of a prominent music critic, Erich Wolfgang Korngold is primarily known as one of Hollywood 's greatest soundtrack composers; a man whose score for the 1938 adventure film The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, saved his life. For his first 40 years, however, he wrote music for the concert hall, and even after he had sold his soul to film studios, Korngold continued to write late romantic art music, his Violin Concerto marking a significant return to this genre in 1945. The music is entirely characteristic of the composer's mature style: expansive, opulent, and melodically memorable. The orchestration is also abundantly colorful and sensitive, with the virtuosity of the violin part particularly prominent in the last movement. In the program for the first of the work, Korngold wrote: [la obra] was intended more for a Caruso of the violin than for a Paganini, how happy I am that my concerto is performed by Caruso and Paganini in one person: Jascha Heifetz . The Violin Sonata precedes the Concerto by about 30 years; Completed when Korngold was only 16, it refers to the later work in several ways, most notably through the composer's penchant for long intervals and the use of several of the themes that reveal Korngold's precocious craftsmanship and use of organic unity. Its inclusion in this publication amounts to skillful programming, as the work is in many ways the perfect accompaniment piece to the Concerto. Violinist Kristóf Baráti is no stranger to Brilliant Classics , having appeared on no less than five recordings so far. After the release of his Ysaÿe Sonatas album (BC94678), Fanfare recognized his searing technique and brilliant tone. As one of the most talented violinists of his generation, he has performed with the world's leading orchestras and collaborated alongside many distinguished conductors. He plays a 1703 Stradivarius violin, the Lady Harmsworth, kindly lent by the Stradivari Society. In this publication, Baráti is accompanied by musicians from the philharmonie zuidnederland under Otto Tausk, with Gábor Farkas on piano.