Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Straussiana for orchestra (audio + sheet music)

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, child prodigy and favoured Hollywood composer, is branded onto collective memory. Korngold, who had to emigrate in 1938 to the US, tried a comeback in Europe after the Second World War. He stayed in his home country Austria for some years but could not regain his former popularity. Finally he went back to Hollywood, where in 1953 he wrote his last orchestral work Straussiana, commissioned for America’s school orchestras. Today, it usually appears in concert programmes during the holiday season and as an encore piece, but it is also suitable for ballet performances.

Since the 1920s, the composer committed himself to the operettas of Strauss and helped to perform forgotten works by adapting them carefully. Korngold’s father Julius, a famous critic, wrote about his son’s devotion to Johann Strauss: "When he once had been asked to rehearse and perform a Strauss-operetta, he soon felt the urge to revive the receptivity for Strauss’ forgotten music. That is how Erich’s approach led to a kind of Strauss-renaissance." A kind of homage, Straussiana contains lesser known melodies from Fürstin Ninetta, Cagliostro in Wien and Ritter Pasman. Korngold eventually created a brilliant orchestration for symphony orchestra, bringing the distant fin de siècle flair of his native city of Vienna to the ever-booming metropolis of Los Angeles.

After the experience of war and exile, the composer certainly felt a certain melancholy writing Straussiana, remembering the glorious past in his native city Vienna. Only four years later, he died in Hollywood at the age of sixty.

(Schott Music)

Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.

Performers: Swiss Romande Orchestra, conducted by Kazuki Yamada (PentaTone, 2014)
(   • Straussiana  )
Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Straussiana_(Korngold%2C_Erich_Wolfgang)