b'Program NotescontinuedErich Wolfgang Korngold(1897-1957) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35Composed 1945Nicknamed the Hollywood Concerto somewhat pejoratively by New York critics, Korngolds Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra is a beautiful, lyrical, and energetic work full of soaring melodies played by the solo violin. This piece requires the utmost technical facility and musical command to execute even halfway decently. It was premiered in 1947 by the great Jascha Heifetz who, as its first champion, famously requested that Korngold increase the technical difficulty of the concerto after seeing an early version of the work. Heifetz immediately included the concerto in his repertoire, performing it with various orchestras across the globe. Until around the 1980s when the piece experienced somewhat of a renaissance, not many violin soloists beyond Heifetz attempted to master it. Today it is a staple in the violin repertoire, and is performed regularly throughout theworld.The Austrian-born Jewish composer was primarily writing film music as a side gig. His father, Julius Korngold, a well known music critic, always thought of this as a waste of time and continually encouraged him to focus only on writing serious music. When WWII began, he started exclusively writing film music and only returned to writing non-movie music when the war ended. His wife, Luzi, later recalled, It was as if he had taken a vow not to compose a single note outside the genre of film music for as long as the horror was raging throughout the world. After the war, he returned to composing symphonies and concertos. Among the first projects he revisited was the Violin Concerto, which went on to become his most well knownwork.The themes and melodic content used for the concerto come directly from material that appeared in the Warner Bros. films Korngold wrote for. The first movement consists of themes that can be found in two of his films. The opening material can be heard in Another Dawn (1937). The second theme in the first movement can be heard in Juarez (1939). The second movements main theme is taken from Anthony Adverse (1936). The third movement consists of music that can be heard in The Prince and the Pauper (1937). Of all the movies he sifted through to recycle material, this is the one that is the most watchable today. Most have fallen into obscurity and are only known by princetonsymphony.org/ 14/ princetonfestival.org'