Sometimes even music critics do something good. The son of the influential Viennese critic Julius Leopold Korngold (1860-1945) was the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), a child prodigy who emigrated to Hollywood in 1934 and composed some of the best film music. In 1945, however, he returned to classical forms with the Violin Concerto. We spoke with violinist Roman Simovic, who will perform it with the Athens State Orchestra and conductor John Warner.
I first heard you collaborate with the Athens State Orchestra in 2016 at the Kalamata Concert Hall with Leonidas Kavakos. Since then, you have developed a relationship with the orchestra.
I am very grateful to Leonidas for introducing me to the orchestra the first time. For an artist, it’s very important to play well in the first appearance with an orchestra, so they get invited back. And I am very happy that I received an email from Ms. Aliki Fidetzi to come and play again with this wonderful orchestra. The second time was a huge piece by Béla Bartók, the Second Violin Concerto. This concert was at the Athens Concert Hall. It went well, and I am very excited to be back. This time it’s my favorite Korngold Violin Concerto.
Have you collaborated with conductor John Warner in the past, or will this be your first collaboration on Greek soil?
This is my first time working with Maestro Warner. I’m looking forward to it!
What initially drew you to Korngold’s Violin Concerto? It’s not the most obvious choice. Have you played it before? Many times?
My first performance of this piece was in 2011 with Maestro Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. Leonidas was supposed to be the soloist, but he couldn’t participate in the first concert in Ireland; he could only do the second one at the Barbican. I was extremely lucky that this gave me the opportunity to play this masterpiece. Of course, I’ve heard Heifetz’s recording. I was speechless when I realized that I would never be able to play like that (no one ever will), and I also fell in love with the piece. I’ve played it a few times since then.
What are its main qualities, those that make it appealing to both performer and audience?
Who doesn’t like watching Hollywood blockbusters with music by Waxman, Rozsa, Korngold, and later Williams, to name a few? It’s something that immediately touches the heart and reminds you, at least in my generation, of our childhood, when we watched movies like Ben Hur! We’re talking about composers who have won Grammy Awards!
Specifically for you, what are the main interpretative demands it poses?
You have to tell the story with this piece, as with any other. In each movement, Korngold draws themes from four different films. The piece started with Huberman, who played at the premiere, but its final form was given by Heifetz, who asked the composer to write a more demanding finale! So, from the beginning, we know it will be extremely difficult! All the arpeggios are not typical; instead, they are very jazzy, in chords of non-classical harmony. The other challenge is the rhythm, which changes in every bar. Once you realize what’s happening in the violin part and the score, you can’t think about bar lines, because you’re busy with phrasing and the music.
But again, it’s a huge challenge for the conductor to know all these elements and follow the soloist’s freedom, which is absolutely essential in this piece, otherwise all the jazz influence is lost. The concerto is so beautiful that the orchestra truly enjoys it and very often can overwhelm the soloist. The orchestration is overwhelming. There are so many different challenges!
Korngold was a child prodigy born and raised in the musical environment of Vienna and its immense musical tradition. One might say, in some respects, the Concerto seems to pick up where Brahms left off.
I partly agree, because Korngold emerged from the tradition established by Brahms. Both were masters of composition. Korngold was a great admirer of Brahms. Brahms, in a way, laid the foundation for Korngold.
On the other hand, after the rise of the Nazis, he was forced to leave Austria and Europe, taking refuge with many other exiles in Hollywood, where he wrote music for the film industry. Is this also something that is evident in the work?
As Rachmaninoff used to say when he planted a Russian tree (a small birch) that he brought to the US and it eventually withered: How can a Russian soul adapt to this country, if even a tree couldn’t? Like Rachmaninoff, Rozsa, Bartók, and many other immigrants felt this nostalgic element in their works, as well as the reaction against the Nazi regime and the immense human suffering for what was happening in Europe. Writing music for Hollywood was, in a way, ‘light’ work, which of course could support them financially. But I’m not sure how much it satisfies your soul to be a serious composer in Europe and then only write for the film industry to survive.
The composition of the concerto coincided with the end of World War II and the death of the composer’s father. Are these two events connected to the creation of the work?
Probably. All the greatest works in music history were written when composers suffered the most. And this is something that cannot be described in words, only in music. Because where words end, music begins. The loss of a parent is one of the greatest pains in our lives.
In the same concert, we will hear Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony. It was written 40 years before the concerto, when Korngold was an infant, but it sounds more innovative. As if one work looks to the future, the other to the past.
The Violin Concerto was dedicated to Alma Mahler, the wife of composer Gustav Mahler. Mahler was Korngold’s mentor during his childhood. And I believe this is the strong connection between the Fifth Symphony, where the Adagietto is a love letter from Gustav to Alma, although it can sound so tragic, especially if performed too slowly.
As concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, the symphony will also be very familiar to you. Which work do you prefer to play?
Impossible decision. Both pieces are very different. Mahler’s Fifth has a deeper meaning.
