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Part of a sketch for the MUSIC OF opening of the Symphony Erich Wolfgang Korngold in F# dated (by Korngold’s (1897 – 1957) father) Christmas 1919. THE SEA HAWK 1. Main Title / Reunion / Finale (8:06) By the opening bar, Korngold Symphony in F-Sharp, Op. 40 [53:54] has written ‘Sinfonie - 1 Satz - Dedicated to the memory of Haupthema’ (Symphony, Franklin Delano Roosevelt 2. I. Moderato ma energico (15:20) 1st movement, Main Theme), 3. II. Scherzo: Allegro molto (10:33) but as his writing looked 4. III. Adagio: Lento (16:57) 5. IV. Finale: Allegro (11:04) circa 1950. The original TOTAL PLAYING TIME : 62:00 title is erased. (The Korngold Estate) JAMES DEPREIST , conductor

THE OREGON SYMPHONY

While working on this project my thoughts have often turned to Erich Executive Producers: Amelia S. Haygood, Monitor Loudspeakers, Recording: Genelec 1030 A; Carol Rosenberger Post-production: JBL 250 Ti Korngold’s son George, with whom Recording Producer: Ramiro Belgardt 20-bit Recording & Processing: Prism AD-1 I had a warm and collegial friend - Recording Engineer: John M. Eargle Microphones: Sanken CU-41, Sennheiser MKH-20, Associate Engineer: Jeff Mee Neumann KM84 ship for many years. How he would Editing: Ramiro Belgardt Console: Soundcraft K1 have enjoyed both the musical and Recorded: November 12 & 13, 1997 Tray Photo: Brendan G. Carroll/The Korngold Society Archive Baumann Auditorium, George Fox University, Creative Direction: Harry Pack, Tri Arts and Associates sonic level of this recording! Newberg, Oregon Graphics: Mark Evans AMELIA HAYGOOD President and Executive Producer

7 & W 1998 Delos Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 343, Sonoma, California 95476-9998 (707) 996-3844 • Fax (707) 320-0600 • (800) 364-0645 • Made in USA • www.delosmusic.com NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

y the 1950s, the symphony had become a despised prodigy, and later in the 1920s, as a major operatic com - medium of musical expression. Post-war modern poser in Vienna, had ended abruptly with Hitler’s an - composers could not — and would not — recon - nexation of Austria in March 1938. With the end of cile the large-scale rhetoric of traditional symphonic World War II, Korngold retired from films and devoted writing with their own, sparser and more concentrated the remainder of his life to composing concert music. B The luminous violin concerto (premiered by Heifetz in structures. If symphonies were written, they were almost always ‘qualified’ in some way or other: the chamber St. Louis, 1947) his fine 3rd string quartet and a superb symphonies of Schoenberg and Milhaud, the simple sym - work for string orchestra, the Symphonic Serenade (intro - phony of Britten and the short symphony of Copland are duced by Furtwängler in Vienna, 1950) all date from this good examples of this. However, there were exceptions. period. Yet, his last years were to be in stark contrast to In the musical desert of the immediate post-war period, his early career. Largely snubbed by the musical estab - one now perceives the late symphonies of Walton, lishment and ridiculed for continuing to write in a tonal Shostakovitch and Vaughan Williams, not as throwbacks idiom, he was also dogged by ill health. However, these to an outmoded idiom but as expressive peaks in an oth - setbacks did not stop him from composing. erwise orchestrally barren era. One of the finest post-war symphonies however, was that by an Austrian — Erich Korngold suffered a major heart attack in September Wolfgang Korngold , which (unlike those mentioned 1947, and after a lengthy hospitalization, he took a brief above) was almost completely ignored at the time. holiday in Canada to recuperate. While there, he began to formulate plans for a large scale symphony, which he Korngold, by then an American citizen, had spent ten eventually completed in 1952. In fact, the seeds of the years pioneering symphonic film music during Holly - work had been in his mind far longer than might be sup - wood’s golden era, winning two Academy Awards in posed. In 1980, the Korngold family asked me to help the process, for his magnificent scores to the epic An - them in preparing his manuscripts for donation to the thony Adverse in 1936 and for the classic adventure fable Library of Congress. Among the thousands of pages, I The Adventures of Robin Hood which starred , came across a sketch for the opening of the first move - in 1938. His earlier career as an astonishing child ment of the F# Symphony — dated Christmas Eve 1919 . This sketch (entitled Sinfonie in Korngold’s writing as it later I do not know — but I am very glad that he did. looked in 1947) was clearly written much earlier. The Korngold’s Symphony in F# is a major work, conceived paper is faded, and the musical handwriting is that of on a grand scale and scored for a large orchestra. Its the - the young Korngold. It was clearly a sketch for another, matic structure is expansive, its approach to tonality typ - planned but unrealized composition, perhaps an opera, ically inventive. Korngold is often criticized for not for the original title has been rubbed out. having embraced serialism or developed in more mod - ern directions as he grew older. In fact, he saw such end - less possibilities in both traditional forms and language, that to depart from them seemed to him unnecessary.

Hence, this huge late-romantic symphony, written at a time when it was already an anachronism even before Korngold had written its final bars. As the 20th century ends, we can now ignore the partisanship of passing trends and value this symphony for what it really is — a great work of art in the long line of major symphonies, from a highly individual master composer.

Symphony in F#, Opus 40 Erich Wolfgang Korngold conducting the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra in the mid 1930s. (The Korngold Estate) The tonality of the opening movement — and the rela - tionship of keys throughout — is deliberately ambigu - Otherwise, the key — and the sinuous, plaintive, clarinet ous. Korngold entitles the work Symphony in F# without melody — are identical. The date on the sketch is written specifying major or minor. The given key signature is F# in the hand of Korngold’s father — for Christmas Eve major but the opening, dissonant chords appear to be was his birthday and his son invariably presented him atonal until the entry of the clarinet in the third bar. The with a new composition each year. tonality of F# (both major & minor) is implied throughout the exposition of this haunting first subject, rather than What made Korngold return to this music thirty years resolutely stated. At the entry of a subsidiary idea, a lyri - cal theme for flute which leads us eventually to the sec - ond subject proper, the 6 sharps of the key signature are The Scherzo is a tour de force, beginning with a taran - canceled and the music ‘dips’ into the most remote key tella. The virtuosity of the writing, the demand for the (from the tonic) that one could go — C major. greatest articulacy, all adds to the kaleidoscopic effect. Suddenly into the fray, an heroic theme sings out in the Thus, Korngold within the space of a few minutes, runs horns leaping up, typically, from a rising perfect fourth. across the entire harmonic spectrum, his key scheme at It is so quintessentially Korngoldian and recalls the opposite ends of the harmonic spectrum demonstrating mood of the Scherzo of what might be considered his his virtuosity in using the very building blocks of music. early symphony — the Sinfonietta of 1912, written at the The second subject — a wistful, long-spanned theme of age of 15. The Trio is a different matter. Sparsely scored, rising fourths (a typical melodic structure) purifies the it is based on a simple, descending four-note theme strident mood. which passes through a seemingly endless series of keys, ghostly, unsettling and almost surreal. The Scherzo re - The tense development of the first movement moves turns and, after a full reprise, Korngold brings back the surprisingly into G minor and the thrilling treatment of Trio — but it is a false return. The coda sweeps it away, the serene second subject as a heroic fanfare for horns, defiantly, before the triumphant conclusion. interspersed with the stern march, underpinned with the bass octaves of the piano, leads relentlessly to the climax The Adagio is perhaps Korngold’s finest slow movement. of the argument and a return to the sinister opening. The Here, the composer looks back to the symphonic models mysterious conclusion, where the strings play the open - of his great mentor Gustav Mahler, whose works he ad - ing chords col legno (with the back of the bow) and the mired his whole life, to create a funeral march of over - clarinet intones the mournful rising 7th of that strange powering solemnity. It is the emotional heart of the first theme, crowned with the chord of F#, is inspired. symphony. A somber three-note motif sounds, developing into a long spanned elegy that unravels for over 30 bars. This music, harshly dramatic as it is, marks a return to the uncompromising tones of Korngold’s Left Hand This theme is a completely transmogrified version of the Piano concerto (1923) and especially, his opera Das Wun - Death March Korngold originally composed in 1939 for der der Heliane (1923-27), with an added brittleness and the Earl of Essex, in his score for the film The Private Lives almost pointillistic brilliance. of Elizabeth and Essex starring and Errol Flynn. Here it provides the source for a masterly series of varia - The Sea Hawk tions. Three climaxes occur — each penentrating the tragic mood, the last of which is an ecstatic outpouring The Sea Hawk is without question, the finest swashbuck - in the major key, before a brutal modulation back to the ler ever made. Filmed by Warner Brothers at a cost of tonic D minor, and the final, death-like whisper of those $1.7 million (a huge sum in 1940), it was directed by the ubiquitous three notes heard in the timpani before the great (who later made Casablanca ) and final chord. boasted a superb cast led by Errol Flynn, , Henry Daniell, Donald Crisp and Flora Robson with a The Finale is a joyous Rondo which ingeniously uses the huge roster of supporting players. Its dramatic pace and wistful second subject of the first movement as its dance- exciting set-pieces made it a tremendous box-office suc - like main theme. A subsidiary idea is borrowed from the cess. Such a thrilling action film demanded music to film Kings Row — the noble Grandmother theme, here match — which it got in full measure from Erich Wolf - heard in jaunty syncopation in the cellos. As the music gang Korngold. develops, Korngold recapitulates (in cyclic form) mate - rial from the earlier movements, before a return to the The result was one of Korngold’s best-loved scores for mysterious coda of the first movement which this time motion pictures. Its heroic main title perfectly captures leads to the triumphant and resolute conclusion. the mood of derring-do on the high seas during Eliza - bethan times, replete with the swell of the ocean and rip - The Symphony in F# was first performed in Vienna as ple of the waves. The passionate love theme (which is part of a radio concert given by the Austrian State Sym - the second subject of this overture), with its erotic modu - phony conducted by Harold Byrnes, on October 17, lations to distant keys and typically complex harmonies, 1954. The performance was so bad, Korngold (who was is one of the finest he ever composed. The title music present) asked for the tapes to be destroyed. Two further ends with the exotic theme (in the minor key) for the European performances (conducted by Alois Melichar Spanish, (especially, the cunning Ambassador played by and Jan Koetsier) failed to establish the work and it Claude Rains) complete with tambourine, which pro - proved impossible to arrange an American premiere vides just the right coloring. (this did not in fact take place until 1984). Undeterred, Korngold actually began a second symphony but this re - The love music, which forms the centerpiece of this short mained incomplete at his death on November 29th 1957. concert suite (distilled from a score of some 106 minutes in length, of a total running time of 127 minutes!) uses the (Brendan Carroll is the author of The Last Prodigy , the love theme from the main title, together with a languid definitive biography of Korngold, available from and passionately lyrical version of the main title fanfare (to Amadeus Press) represent Errol Flynn’s character) — a typical example of Korngold’s skill at variation. Interspersed too is the theme for Doña Maria (played by Brenda Marshall), based on her song — a song Korngold had originally composed at the age of 14 in 1911 but never published! Later it was pub - lished as one of his Opus 38 lieder in 1947.

The final section of the suite is taken from the closing THE LAST pages of the score when Flora Robson (as Queen Eliza - beth I) knights Captain Geoffrey Thorpe — The Sea Hawk PR ODI GY of the title, and arguably Errol Flynn’s finest performance. A Biography of Korngold completed this massive score — one of the ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD longest and most complex he composed for the screen — By Brendan G. Carroll in June 1940 and the film and its wonderful music remain This richly detailed evaluation of Korngold as a the yardstick by which all swashbucklers are measured. 20th-century composer draws on interviews with many of the great musicians, singers, It is particularly apt that this recording should be made actors, writers, and directors from Hollywood’s golden age who knew and worked with in Portland by the Oregon Symphony, for it is here in Korngold. This first full-length biography Portland that Korngold’s eldest son Ernst spent his final features many rare photos, a comprehensive years of retirement before his death in 1996. His daugh - discography and bibliography and previously unpublished correspondence. ter Kathrin, a violinist, also lives here with her family and she was delighted to be able to join the string sec - “Brendan Carroll gives us everything a musical tion of the Oregon Symphony for this recording — biography should be.” MICHAEL HAAS which is dedicated to the memory of Ernst Korngold. Gramophone

BRENDAN G. CARROLL ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

“One of the finest conductors this nation has produced” ( Chicago The Oregon Symphony is the oldest orchestra in the west and the Tribune ), James DePreist has been Music Director of the Oregon sixth oldest major orchestra in the United States. Founded as the Symphony since 1980. He is also Music Director of the Monte-Carlo Portland Symphony in 1896, and renamed the Oregon Symphony in Philharmonic. Much in demand as a guest conductor, DePreist pur - 1967, it has grown to be one of the finest major orchestras in the na - sues a distinguished career in America and abroad, regularly per - tion. Ovation critic Paul Turok wrote of Bravura , the Oregon Sym - forming with the major American orchestras, including the phony’s first recording under James DePreist: “In less than a Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco decade, James DePreist has built an orchestra of regional signifi - Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony. cance into one worthy of national, and perhaps even international, He led the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic on a second United States attention...” In press commentary on Bravura and subsequent tour in the spring of 1998; recent appearances abroad include Ams - recordings, the Symphony has been ranked “first-class” by Gramo - terdam, Helsinki, Vienna, England, France, Australia, New Zealand, phone and “a virtuoso ensemble” by The Washington Post . the Czech Republic and the Far East. The Oregon Symphony has the highest per capita subscription at - Born in Philadelphia in 1936, DePreist studied composition with tendance of any major orchestra in the United States, and serves its Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory and obtained entire region with an innovative touring program. In 1996 it used Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from the Univer - the touring model to launch a local series of free neighborhood sity of Pennsylvania. In 1962, while on a State Department tour in parks concerts and educational outreach events funded through the Bangkok, he contracted polio but recovered sufficiently to win a Regional Arts and Culture Council by the city of Portland. In May first prize in the 1964 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conduct - of 1997 the orchestra was featured on PBS’ Newshour with Jim ing Competition. He was selected by Leonard Bernstein to be an Lehrer; a 90-minute television special produced by CBS affiliate assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1965-66 KOIN Channel 6 in honor of the Symphony’s Centennial featured a season. performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 and was awarded a Northwest Regional Emmy in June of 1997. DePreist made his highly acclaimed European debut with the Rot - terdam Philharmonic in 1969. In 1971 Antal Dorati chose DePreist to become his Associate Conductor with the National Symphony Or - chestra in Washington, DC. From 1976 to 1983 DePreist was Music Director of the Quebec Symphony.

James DePreist has been awarded 15 honorary doctorates and is the author of two books of poetry. He is an elected fellow of the Ameri - can Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and is a recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland. DePreist is the nephew of the leg - endary contralto Marian Anderson.

James DePreist PERSONNEL FOR THIS RECORDING

MUSIC DIRECTOR AND Julie Coleman, Friends of the Gayle Budd-O’Grady BASS CLARINET BASS TROMBONE CONDUCTOR Oregon Symphony Centennial Deloris Plum Todd Kuhns Alan Pierce James DePreist Young Musician Chair Pansy Chang Eileen Lande ALTO SAXOPHONE TUBA VIOLIN I Catherine Noll BASS Mark Eubanks John Richards, Principal Michael Foxman, Janet & Ann Leeder-Beesley Frank Diliberto, Principal KEYBOARD (P IANO AND Richard Geary Kathleen Follett Kenneth Baldwin, Assistant BASSOON CELESTE ) Concertmaster Chair Karen White Principal Mark Eubanks, Principal Katherine George, Principal Peter Frajola, Acting Associate Kathrin Korngold Hubbard Tommy Thompson Robert Naglee Concertmaster Karen Bryan Jeffrey Johnson Juan de Gomar HARP Kathryn Gray , Acting Harold & Donald Hermanns Jennifer Craig, Principal Jane Pollin Assistant VIOLA William Oftstad CONTRABASSOON Denise Fujikawa Concertmaster Chair Joël Belgique, Maybelle Clark Eric Johnson Juan de Gomar Greta Eder Macdonald Fund Principal Phillip Murthe TIMPANI Eileen Deiss Viola Chair HORN Paul Salvatore, Principal Aida Baker Charles Noble, Assistant FLUTE John Cox, Principal Clarisse Atcherson Principal Dawn Weiss, Bruce & Judy Joseph Berger, Associate Princi - PERCUSSION Mary Ann Coggins Kaza Martha Warrington Thesenga Principal Flute pal Niel DePonte, Principal Sigrid Clark Patricia Miller Chair Lawrence Johnson, Assistant Steve Lawrence Deborah Singer Connie Whelan Martha Herby Principal Christine Perry Hugh Ewart, Associate Stephen Price Carla Wilson Mary Grant Concertmaster Emeritus Anna Schaum Barton Parker LIBRARIAN Marlene Majovski Peggy Swafford PICCOLO Robert Olivia Jonathan Dubay Brian Quincey Martha Herby TRUMPET Ron Blessinger Michelle Mathewson Carla Wilson Fred Sautter, Principal ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN Camilla Wilson Nancy Lochner Sally Nelson Kuhns, Assistant Mary Rowell Dawn Carter Joel Rosenberg OBOE Principal Frederick Korman, Principal David Bamonte, Musicians of PERSONNEL MANAGER VIOLIN II CELLO Yvonne Stiso the Oregon Symphony Mary Ann Coggins Kaza Dolores D’Aigle, Acting Mark Votapek, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Thornburg Trumpet Truman Collins Principal Edmund Hayes, Jr. Principal ENGLISH HORN Chair STAGE MANAGER Second Violin Chair Cello Chair Harris Orem Bruce Chaddock Ginger Iles, Acting Assistant David Socolofsky, Assistant TROMBONE Principal Principal CLARINET Robert Taylor, Principal Lynne Finch Naomi Blumberg Yoshinori Nakao, Principal Phillip Neil Hatler Gyrid Hyde-Towle Timothy Scott Cheri Ann Egbers David Bryan Daniel Ge Feng Bridget Socolofsky Michael Sigell Stephanie McDougal Kenneth Finch Other Delos Recordings featuring James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony

BRAVURA • RESPIGHI: Roman Festivals TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture • Hamlet RACHMANINOFF: The Sea and the Gulls MUSIC of STRAVINSKY: The Rite of RESPIGHI’S ROME – Fountains of Rome • • STRAUSS: Don Juan • LUTOSLAWSKI: • The Tempest • “… unquestionably the (Étude-Tableau Op. 39 No. 2, orch. Spring • The Firebird Suite (1919 version) Pines of Rome • Roman Festivals • Concerto for Orchestra • Recording of most successful modern recording.” Respighi) • Symphony No. 2 • Vocalise • DE 3278 (DDD) DE 3287 (DDD) Distinction, Ovation • DE 3070 (DDD) Gramophone • DE 3081 (DDD) Recording of Distinction, Ovation • DE 3071 (DDD)

AMERICAN CONTRASTS – Benjamin SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 11 The SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2 • Symphony WALTON: Suite from Henry V, Cello TRAGIC LOVERS – WAGNER: Prelude and Lees : Passacaglia for Orchestra • Vincent Year 1905 • DE 3329 (DDD) No. 7 • Recorded Live • DE 3334 (DDD) Concerto, Violin & Piano Sonata • Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde • Persichetti : Symphony No. 4 • Michael RANDS: Tre Canzoni senza Parole • BERLIOZ: Romeo et Juliette, Op. 17 - II. Daugherty : Philadelphia Stories for Mark Kosower, cello; Herbert Greenberg, Scene d’amour • TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo violin; Ann Schein, piano • Orchestra: Sundown on South Street; and Juliet Fantasy-Overture • DE 3369 DE 3342 (DDD) (DDD) Hell's Angels • DE 3291 (DDD)