On Friday, May 8th, the London Symphony Orchestra will perform “The Korngold Violin Concerto (Op. 35)”, by you guessed it, Erich Wolfgang Korngold in the Barbican Hall, London. Here’s a bit of background on the piece:

Korngold’s Violin Concerto (op. 35) was the first piece he wrote after the Second World War having vowed to write only film music, to support his family, until Hitler had been defeated. Korngold had moved to Hollywood at Max Reinhardt’s request in 1934 and became established in his film composing. His experience of composing for Hollywood films had left an impression and the Violin Concerto borrows themes from his movie scores in all three movements.

The soaring violin solo which opens the concerto was taken from the Errol Flynn feature Another Dawn (1937), while the entrancing second theme originally accompanied a love scene in William Dieterle’s 1939 movie Juarez.

The lyrical principal theme of the central Romance, first heard on solo clarinet and quickly adopted by the violin, was originally used in the Oscar-winning score for Anthony Adverse (1936).The virtuosic Rondo finale contrasts a playful dance-like theme with a down-to-earth, folk-like second theme borrowed from Korngold’s 1937 score for Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, ending with a fast and furious coda.

The Korngold Violin Concerto is being performed by the London Symphony in the Barbican Hall, London on Friday, May 8 at 7:30pm.

More info: lso.co.uk