The Last Prodigy: A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold Review

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The Last Prodigy: A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold ReviewBrendan G. Carroll spent over 25 years working on this definitive biography of the Viennese-American composer (1897-1957). This unabashed encomium for the music of Korngold is supported by carefully crafted arguments responding to critics, real and imagined. Carroll is especially exercised about those critics whose prejudicial assessments of the Korngold oeuvre are based solely on a superficial knowledge of Korngold's scores for the motion pictures. Korngold himself was super-sensitive about his reputation when it was based upon his Hollywood fame, though he never disavowed the work he did there for the films, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Anthony Adverse, The Sea Hawk, Kings Row, Of Human Bondage, and much more. He mainly feared, and rightly so, that the film scores would over-shadow his earlier career in Europe when his serious music might become lost. He worried, too, that even his film scores would be lost along with the films as they faded from public view. Korngold's complete oeuvre are Carroll's strongest defense.  From the age of 10 (Yes, 10!), Korngold's works began to receive private notice. By 11 and 12, his prodigious first compositions dumbfounded and awed musicians such as Gustav Mahler, Alexander von Zemlinsky (his composition teacher), Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter, Puccini, and a host of other admirers and performers. In 1910, he completed (age 13) his Piano Trio in D Major, Opus 1. In 1911, he met Max Reinhardt (his future collaborator), who brought him to Hollywood, saving Korngold and his family from the concentration camps in 1938. Carroll is convincing that Korngold's greatest achievements are his five operas, especially his Das Wunder der Heliane and Die tote Stadt, for which he is best known in Europe. In 1999, his separate CDs are approaching one hundred, making his music available as never before. Following my own prolonged and extensive study, I predict that Korngold's next career, based upon his recordings, will elevate him into the empyrean of twentieth century composers. Two commemorative postage stamps have been issued about Korngold: In Austria, a stamp recalls his operas (properly); in America, he is included among 5 other Hollywood composers, as he anticipated. Carroll's work is a great deal more than a festschrift: It is a searching, well-written, objective account of the life of his subject: Korngold. (Reviewed by Allan Shields in Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000. Copyright © by Allan Shields.)The Last Prodigy: A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold Overview

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