More of Classical Hollywood

Erich Korngold was born on this day in 1897. I never really paid attention to who he was until recently when I heard part of a program devoted to his life and music on the radio. He was essentially a romantic composer stuck in an era that was pushing atonal serialist music. Korngold was also the first serious composer that wrote music for Hollywood, having written full scores for some 16-or-so films in the mid 1900's, and influencing many film-score composers after him. Due to his work in Hollywood, he was not taken seriously by other composers of the day, and he died thinking his music would sink into oblivion. However, after his death, the interest in his non-film music has grown large due to his influence in Hollywood and film scores.

His violin concerto remains his most popular work. It was written in 1945 and premiered by the great violinist Jascha Heifetz in 1947. Listen/watch here to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd movements. It's quite a nice piece of music, with a late-romantic feel. Though some of it does sound like it could go well as film-music (several of it's themes are taken from his film scores), it has a lot of depth and feeling, and many interesting, sometimes somewhat modern, passages and melodies.