Korngold

[Fran88]

Several years ago I accidently discovered the music of Eric Korngold and have since become a devoted fan of both the man and his music. The first work of his that I heard was his score for the film, "Kings Row." I'm very happy to see that more and more of his music is being played and made available on CDs. I'm wondering if there are others in the beethoven.com world who share my interests?<P>Fran88@beethoven.com

[shostakovich]

For sure, Fran88. Film is to the 20th C. what opera was to the 19th. And Korngold was one of the pioneers. It's sometimes said (sorrowfully) that he gave up a promising "serious" career to become a film composer. But he brought his seriousness of purpose to films, and hollywood took a quantum leap to art thanks to him and a few others of his time. <BR> He also brought another rare quality to Hollywood: ETHICS. In writing the score for an Eroll Flynn vehicle (either Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk) he included some music of Liszt. He refused to have the credits read "music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold", but rather "music arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold".