Is Erich Wolfgang Korngold my favorite film composer? Quite possibly, yes. In fact, he’s one of my favorite composers, period. Chalk it up to a childhood misspent in the company of Errol Flynn and Bette Davis.
I’m especially excited, then, that Korngold will be the focus of this year’s Bard Music Festival. The festival, now in its 30th year, will be held over two weekends – from August 9 through August 11, and August 16 through August 18 – at Bard College, in upstate New York. Concert programs, talks, and panel discussions will examine every aspect of Korngold’s output, including an ample representation of his film music and that of some of his colleagues.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” my guest will be conductor Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and co-director of the Bard Music Festival. Dr. Botstein will join me in previewing some of the festival’s highlights and providing commentary on this most fascinating composer, who, as one of classical music’s greatest prodigies, had one foot in Old Vienna and the other in New World Hollywood.
As a kind of special preamble to the festival, Korngold’s opera, “Das Wunder der Heliane” – “The Miracle of Heliane” – will be presented in a fully staged production, in its U.S. premiere, starting tonight and running through August 4, again on the campus of Bard College. Korngold’s most famous opera, “Die tote Stadt,” will be performed semi-staged, as the festival’s finale, on August 18. For more information, visit fishercenter.bard.edu.
Then strike for the shores of Dover! It’s an hour of Korngold’s film music on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
