Korngold - Sextet (1916) op. 10 [audio + score]

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Sextet in D major op. 10 (1916)

00:00 I: Moderato allegro
10:05 II: Adagio
20:00 III: Intermezzo (Moderato, con grazia)
26:47 IV: Finale (Presto)

Performed by Copenhagen Classic:

Johannes Søe Hansen, violin
Arne Balk-Møller, violin
Katrine Bundgaard, viola
Ida Speyer Grøn, viola
Ingemar Brantelid, cello
Henrik Brendstrup, cello

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was born in the Moravian city of Brunn then part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire (today Brno in the Czech Republic). He grew up in Vienna where his father was a music critic for one of Vienna’s leading papers. Recognizing his son’s extraordinary talent, Korngold’s father took him to see Mahler when the boy was nine. Mahler declared him a genius and other noteworthy musicians such as Humperdinck and Richard Strauss held that he was the greatest child prodigy since Mozart. Mahler saw to it that Korngold studied with Vienna’s best teachers—–Robert Fuchs, Hermann Grädener and Alexander Zemlinsky. Korngold became one of Europe’s leading operatic and instrumental composers and conductors and subsequently served as a professor of composition at the Vienna Conservatory. In the 1930’s he was invited to Hollywood and thereafter became one of the leading film composers of his time. After 1946, he left the film industry to concentrate on composing absolute music.

When, at the age of 17, Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed his string sextet he was already a widely recognised and much-admired wonder child in Vienna of his time. Everywhere his work was recived with enthusiasm and the great composers praised his talent unanimously. Mahler called him a genius and Richard Strauss conducted many of his orchestral works.
Korngold's music was advanced but also melodious and romantic and, contrary to many of his contemporary colleagues in Vienna like e.g. Arnold Schöberg, Korngold held on to this tonal yet harmoniously original way of writing throughout his entire life and career.
The relationship between Korngold and Schönberg, two very different characters, was further restrained by the fact that Korngold's father was a much feared music critic at DIE PRESSE who led a life-long crusade against the modernism of the so-called New Vienna School of which Schönberg was the most distinguished representative.
His father's occoupation became something of an obstacle to the son's career and this engendered a fair share of gossip and intrigues, yet still young Korngold's talent was undeniable and he recaped the fruits of his talent rigth until the end of his life and career when he lived in America and wrote film music for Hollywood for which he recived two Acadamy Awards,. Ironically a warm friendship developed in America between Korngold and Schönberg who had also been forced into exile by nazism and WW2.
Korngold's String Sextet in D Major was completed in 1915 and premiered two years later to great acclaim with critics calling it the finest such work since Brahms. The style is post Brahmsian late romantic. In four movements, Korngold’s operatic talent is foreshadowed almost immediately in the very lyrical and romantic first subject. A calmer melody serves as the second theme. The second movement is an Adagio. It is tinged with sadness and introspection but it is not funereal. Next comes an Intermezzo which in many ways recalls the days of Golden Vienna at the end of the 19th century. The rousing finale alternates between a sense of urgency and a mood of jubilation.

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