Among the highlights of the 2004 Salzburg Summer Festival was the special tribute to
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, which featured performances of his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, and several of his early chamber works; these live recordings were compiled by Oehms Classics as part of the annual festival's documentation. The most important of the selections is the Violin Concerto, a splendid work in
Korngold's late-Romantic, post-Mahlerian vein, with ample displays of technical prowess and ravishing melodic outpourings from the soloist and orchestra. Befitting a major but long-neglected work, and aiding substantially in its continued revival, violinist
Benjamin Schmid, conductor
Seiji Ozawa, and the
Vienna Philharmonic give the work gorgeous expression, concentrated energy, and magnificent color, and imbue the piece with a golden warmth uncommon in performances of unfamiliar modern fare. The chamber works -- four pieces from Much Ado about Nothing, Op. 11, for violin and piano, an arrangement for violin and piano of the aria "Das Wunder der Heliane," and the Suite, Op. 23, for two violins, cello, and piano left-hand -- partake of the same lush mood, though the performances in the highly resonant Mozarteum are a little distant and less enjoyable than that of the concerto in the responsive acoustics of the Grosses Festspielhaus.