Korngold: Four songs

Day 346

Korngold: Four songs

Glückwunch 

Alt-Spanish

Sterhelied

Gefasster abschied

Sarah Connolly

Eugene Asti

My experience of performing Korngold is limited to the two notes in the contrabassoon part in his violin concerto!. Other than that I am no conscious of hearing any of his other music though I must have experienced some of his film scores.

These four songs are very much in the last 19th century/early 20th century lieder tradition. They occupy a place somewhere between Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss with perhaps a hint of early Berg. The Straussian influence is particularly strong and Korngold uses some of those harmonic techniques , such as a sudden lurch up or down a semi-tone, which personally I find rather off putting. So although these songs clearly show the work of a skilful composer in command of his material they only had a limited attraction for me. I. I can’t imagine that I will want to explore much more of this repertory: there are plenty of other priorities.