Erich Wolfgang Korngold; Joseph Marx - Piano Concertos (Marc-André Hamelin)

Information

Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold; Joseph Marx

• Marx - Romantisches Klavierkonzert in E major
• Korngold - Piano Concerto for left hand in C-sharp major, Op. 17

Marc-André Hamelin, piano

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä, conductor

Date: 1997

Label: Hyperion

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Review

Lush as lush can be – that’s the Joseph Marx Romantisches Klavierkonzert. It’s all the most wildly romantic concertos you can think of rolled into one huge pianistic feast. Without sounding too much like the wine expert Jilly Goolden, it’s early Scriabin, it’s Korngold (particularly in the ravishing slow movement), it’s Debussy (I’m thinking of the Fantasie for piano and orchestra here), it’s Delius, it could even at times be the grandaddy of all those 1930s and 1940s quasi-piano concerto film scores. From the very first bar you know why Joseph Marx (1882-1964) gave the concerto the epithet Romantic.

Though by no means a profound piece, it’s a delight to listen to and a work of exceptional craftsmanship also. Its pianistic difficulties are legion and this could well be the reason for the work’s neglect since the 1920s. Jorge Bolet had it in his repertoire but this is the first commercial recording of the piece. As ever Marc-Andre Hamelin delivers the music with consummate ease.

After a similar period of neglect Korngold’s left-hand Piano Concerto is making a remarkable comeback on disc. Unlike many of the pieces composed for Paul Wittgenstein after he lost an arm in the First World War, this one actually makes a virtue out of all the inevitable spread-chords trickery required when writing for one hand. Listening to the Concerto afresh it struck me how incredibly difficult it would be to play it with both hands and still make it sound the way the composer intended – perhaps this was why Wittgenstein enjoyed playing it so much. Whatever, it’s a splendid work that thoroughly deserves its current revival. Its gladiatorial solo part certainly emphasizes the ‘struggle’ inherent in the concerto form, but it is certainly not a concerto in the traditional sense, more, as Brendan Carroll suggests in the booklet-notes, a symphonic poem for piano and orchestra.

Hamelin’s main rival here is a fine account by Howard Shelley and Matthias Bamert on Chandos. Shelley’s approach is, overall, more luxuriant perhaps, but Hamelin’s reading has plenty of poetry as well and is allied to tremendous power and authority. I’m sure I will vacillate between these two performances, but for now Hamelin just gets my recommendation. Korngold fans will want both, and of course there’s the marvellous Marx Concerto to get acquainted with. An inspired coupling. Good recorded sound, and superb accompaniment from the BBC Scottish SO under Osmo Vanska.

— Michael Stewart

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Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born composer and child prodigy, hailed as a genius in early 20th-century classical music. He gained early fame for his operas, particularly Die tote Stadt (1920), before fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria in the 1930s. In Hollywood, Korngold became a pioneer of film music, composing lush, romantic scores for films like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which won him an Academy Award. He wrote scores for 16 Hollywood films in all, and is considered one of the founders of film music, along with Max Steiner and Alfred Newman.

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Joseph Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Educated at the University of Graz, he earned a doctorate in 1909 with a study of tonality that introduced the term "atonality". Beginning his compositional career in 1908, he wrote extensively, producing more than 150 lieder, for which he is chiefly remembered, alongside orchestral and chamber works. A longtime faculty member and later rector of the Vienna Music Academy, he influenced numerous students. He was also active as a music critic in Vienna, writing about aesthetics and musical philosophy.

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Marc-André Hamelin (born 5 September 1961 in Montreal) is a distinguished Canadian pianist and composer renowned for his exceptional technique and distinctive interpretations of the classical repertoire. Internationally acclaimed, he has earned 11 Grammy Award nominations and has recorded extensively with the Hyperion label. Hamelin is particularly noted for his commitment to exploring and performing works by lesser-known composers, especially from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as pieces by pianist-composers. He has composed several works himself, including a set of piano études in all the minor keys.

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