ESCAPE TO PARADISE
DANIEL HOPE, Violin
Royal Stockholm
Alexander Shelley, Conductor
Deutsche Grammophon 479
2954
*****
It has been said that the Second World War and rise of Nazism during the 1930s helped fuel
the Hollywood film music industry.
Persecution of European Jewry meant that many talented composers from Austria Germany Central Europe fled to the free world
of America Hollywood sound we know and love.
The central work is Korngold’s well-loved Violin Concerto, which recycles music
from four movies including The Prince And
The Pauper. Hope’s sweet tone and broad sweep is a winner from start to
finish. The Hungarian Rozsa is represented by themes from Ben Hur, El Cid and Spellbound, while the Italian Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco makes an entry with his popular Sea Murmurs. The latter was the teacher of John Williams, whose Theme from Schindler’s List has become ubiquitous in film-themed anthologies.
The raspy-voiced Sting makes a cameo in The Secret Marriage, which is an
adaptation Hanns Eisler’s An Den Kleine
Radioapparat (To A Portable Radio), a number from his Hollywood Songbook. The collection
closes with an unaccompanied violin meditation on Herman Hupfeld’s Everybody’s Welcome, now better known as
As Time Goes By from Casablanca
NEW YEAR’S
CONCERT 2014
DANIEL BARENBOIM, Conductor
Sony
Classical 88883792272 (2CDs)
****1/2
Every
conductor who leads the Vienna Philharmonic’s legendary New Year Concerts tries
to leave his mark on the proceedings by means of astute programming of works
that best reflects his preferences and personal “credo”. In Daniel Barenboim’s
second run on the podium, his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (which
he co-founded with the late Edward Said in Palestine ) was referenced. A number of works were
broad hints on peace and reconciliation like Joseph Strauss’s Friedenspalmen (Palms Of Peace) and Johann Strauss the Younger’s Seid Umschlungen, Millionen (Receive My Embrace, Ye Millions), the
latter being a quote from Schiller’s Ode
To Joy. Also included was Johann’s Stormy
In Love And Dance, a fast polka and the pseudo-Middle Eastern chanting in
his Egyptian March.
There
is also a not-so-veiled tribute to his wife Elena in Eduard Strauss’s Helenen-Quadrille which recycles
melodies from Offenbach ’s operetta La Belle Helene. Biases aside, there is much to enjoy in favourites
like Tales From The Vienna Woods and
first performances of the Moonlight
Interlude from Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio
and the Pizzicato from Delibes’s Sylvia. As usual, the Blue Danube Waltz and Johann Strauss’s
the Elder’s Radetzky March closes the
proceedings, which no good Neujahrskonzert at the Goldener Saal of the Wiener
Singverein can do without. Wallow and enjoy!
BOOK IT:
NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT
The Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by
Lim Yau
School of the Arts Concert Hall
Tickets available at SISTIC
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