Monteiro / Rocha / Santos: Erich Korngold: Music for Violin, Cello & Piano
Etcetera Records

These days, Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) is better known for his film scores than concert works, but that could change, if musicians like the three featured on this recent set, violinist Bruno Monteiro, cellist Miguel Rocha, and pianist João Paulo Santos, have their say in the matter. Prodigiously gifted as a child, Korngold matured early, primarily as a symphonic composer. He, like many an artist of Jewish heritage, escaped Europe for America in the wake of Nazism's rise. In one respect, the move worked in his favour, as he achieved great renown as a soundtrack composer for films such as Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Kings Row (1942), and many others. Post-WWII, Korngold attempted to revive his musical career in Europe but to little avail. Even so, his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, premiered by Jascha Heifetz, is today considered a staple of the violin repertoire, and in recent years other works have received newfound attention.

Something of a prodigy himself, Monteiro, one of Portugal's leading classical music exports, performed his first public recitals at thirteen and fourteen, thereafter studied in New York and Chicago, and in the decades since has appeared on concert stages throughout the world. For more than twenty years he has performed with his recital partner Santos, who accompanies the violinist on this latest recording. Monteiro has issued more than a dozen albums, which have featured works by Stravinsky, Ravel, Chausson, Szymanowski, Schulhoff, and others. Despite the marquee-level status of some of the composers whose works he's performed, Monteiro often gravitates to ones less familiar to a general audience and has helped direct attention to their often underappreciated efforts.

Consistent with the programming design of previous releases, the Korngold set presents a trio work alongside duo pieces, one for violin and piano and the other cello and piano. Initiating the album is his Piano Trio in D major, Op. 1, written when he was a mere thirteen years old. What makes it even more impressive, however, are the maturity and sophistication shown by the writing throughout the half-hour work. The allegro with which it begins endears for its romantic expressiveness and the arresting entwining of the strings' patterns. With Santos providing able and attentive support, Monteiro and Rocha engage in a passionate pas de deux that's wholly engaging. The scherzo that follows is playful and flirts with waltz rhythms, but its eight-minute duration allows for many another stylistic direction too. That aforesaid maturity is perhaps most noticeably evident in the “Larghetto,” its music remarkably poignant considering that it was written by someone so young. The finale is, true to form, marked by vitality and a generally radiant, uplifting tone though a wry gesture emerges as it nears its end.

Three years separate the writing of the opening selection and the Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 6, which premiered in Berlin in October 1913. Coupling Monteiro and Santos, the work reflects, as expected, further development in the refinement of Korngold's writing. That's dramatically shown in the harmonic adventurousness of the opening two movements and the modulations they progress through over the course of their combined twenty-four minutes. Monteiro shines throughout the scherzo in the rapid scale leaps he's called upon to execute, but his expressive voicings in the atmospheric trio section are as memorable. The violinist himself proposes that the adagio movement, the work's third, is “clearly influenced” by Richard Strauss and Mahler, and certainly its chromatic harmonies and lyrical coda indicate such an argument could credibly be made.

Based on a baritone solo aria from the opera Die Tote Stadt, Op. 12 (The Dead City), Tanzlied des Pierrot concludes the release strongly with a hushed, salon-styled setting that crowns a Debussy-esque intro with a lovely, heartfelt performance by Rocha. In terms of production quality, the recording captures the performances effectively, the strings in particular. An audible degree of echo shadows the piano, however, suggesting that the microphone might have been positioned closer to prevent the instrument from sounding so distant. That disconcerting detail aside, the recording earns its recommendation, with Monteiro and company doing their part to remind us that Korngold, as formidable a soundtrack composer as he was, was much else besides.

October 2023