Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing & Sinfonietta

Erich Wolfgang Korngold ranks securely among the principal composer prodigies. Born in Brünn, Moravia (now Brno, Czech Republic) on 29 May 1897, the second son of music critic Julius Korngold, he impressed Mahler with his cantata Gold when only nine and went on to consolidate this with a score for the ballet-pantomime Der Schneeman, premiered at the Vienna Court opera in 1910.

Numerous orchestral, chamber and operatic works followed – including such ambitious pieces such as the Schauspiel-Ouvertüre (1911), the Sinfonietta (1912), and an operatic double-bill that comprised Der Ring des Polykrates (1914) and Violanta (1915) – culminating with the dual premiere (in Hamburg and Cologne) of his opera Die tote Stadt (1920) which made him world famous at the age of only 23.

However, the success of his next opera – the highly ambitious Das Wunder der Heliane (1927) was to be blighted by the deteriorating political situation, while his last opera Die Kathrin (1938) could not even be heard in Vienna on account of Austria’s Anschluss with Germany.