Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Piano Quintet; String Sextet (Doric String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold

• Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15
• String Sextet in D major, Op. 10

Kathryn Stott, piano

Jennifer Stumm, viola

Bartholomew LaFollette, cello

Doric String Quartet

    Alex Redington, violin

    Jonathan Stone, violin

    Simon Tandree, viola

    John Myerscough, cello

Date: 2011

Label: Chandos

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Review

It was not so long ago that Korngold was dismissed in some circles as a second-rate composer who sold out to Hollywood. ‘More corn than gold’ was a phrase dreamt up by the New York Sun after the premiere of his Violin Concerto. How amusing. Should there be any doubters left, they should be made to sit down and listen to these two works.

The Quintet opens with one of those glorious Korngoldian melodies of the type that would later translate into music for the silver screen. It is extraordinary, given the relatively few piano quintets, that it is not heard more often. True, it is not an easy work to play – the pianist has a particularly demanding time in the first movement, while the second has no fewer than 54 changes of time signature in its 13 pages, a set of nine free variations on Korngold’s ‘Luzi theme’ (the coded message of love to his future wife Luzi Sonnenthal) first heard in the third of his Abschiedlieder, written at the same time (1921). The finale puts one in mind of the incidental music from Much Ado About Nothing. Stott and the Doric Quartet rather put in the shade my old Genesis LP (GS1063) from 1975, with pianist Harold Gray.

The Sextet is given an equally vigorous and stylish reading with passages of great tenderness such as the intense and melancholy Adagio, the second of its four movements. It aches to have lyrics attached – at least that is how the vocal quality of the playing emerges in this warmly recorded disc with its excellent booklet.

— Jeremy Nicholas

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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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The Doric String Quartet, founded in 1998, is a UK-based chamber ensemble. Its membership has evolved, with Hélène Clément and later Emma Wernig serving as violist, Ying Xue joining as second violinist in 2018, and Maia Cabeza becoming first violinist in 2024. The quartet has been Teaching Quartet in Association at the Royal Academy of Music since 2015 and Artistic Director of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival since 2018. With over 20 recordings for Chandos Records, it performs regularly at major venues including Wigmore Hall and Vienna Konzerthaus, and collaborates widely with leading artists.

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Kathryn Stott (born 10 December 1958) is a British pianist. Educated at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, she gained early recognition as a prize-winner at the 1978 Leeds International Piano Competition. Over a 46-year career, she collaborated extensively with leading artists, notably Yo-Yo Ma, and recorded an expansive repertoire ranging from Fauré to tango. An influential festival curator and former Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Music Festival, she concluded her performing career in 2024 and now focuses on teaching and mentoring emerging musicians.

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