Music Reviews : Major Korngold Work at Chamber LA / Fest

Four years before Erich Wolfgang Korngold came to Hollywood to work on Max Reinhardt’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” he wrote his 45-minute Suite, Opus 23 for piano left hand, 2 violins and cello. A Sunday afternoon performance on the third Chamber Music LA/Festival concert was far from perfect but still reaffirmed Korngold’s stature.

Commissioned by one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, the Suite’s clotted-cream flow characteristically impregnates dense, serially resonant harmonies with the extravagant Romanticism lyricism that Korngold would bring to such Warner Bros. scores as “Captain Blood” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” Equally characteristic, the string writing demands the virtuosity of two Perlmans and one Rostropovich.

After a hauntingly obscure Prelude and Fugue and an infinitely sad Waltz comes an enormous, 10-minute scherzo (“Groteske”) charged with frighteningly aggressive string riffs. A gentle song movement refreshes the palette for a dazzlingly varied theme and variations finale.

Unfortunately, there was not much agreement on how to interpret the immensely difficult music. Violinists Paul Rosenthal and Christiaan Bor opted for safe clarity; cellist Nathaniel Rosen for risky, ultra-Romantic slides and glides; and pianist Jerome Lowenthal for a moderating combination. The results were occasionally thrilling, but too often incoherent.

The concert at the Japan America Theatre began with more conventional Viennese fare. Hugo Wolf’s “Italian Serenade” was played neatly by Bor, violinist Yukiko Kamei, violist Marcus Thompson and Rosen.

Then, after Kamei and young Taiwanese violinist Nai Yuan Hu cavorted gracefully in four short “Komische Landler” by Schubert, Lowenthal joined Hu for Schubert’s Rondo Brilliant, Opus 70. Lowenthal played beautifully but Hu had intonation problems and never gained satisfactory musical control of the proceedings.