"WHAT OTHERS SAID ABOUT HIM"
Quotations ABOUT Erich Wolfgang Korngold
"This child...changed in a strange manner when carried
away by his music. Then his childish features were suddenly transformed
by an expression of deep absorption, a strong assertiveness and tense energy.
He seemed to be burning with a hidden flame, betraying a temperament
that might rise to the heights of ecstasy..." (Julius
Korngold)
"He has so much talent that he could easily give us
half - and still have enough left for himself!" (Giacomo
Puccini)
"The stream of rhythm on which he launched his orchestra
flowed freely, melodies rippled with laughter and surged with passion,
while harmonies were pure and deep as an alpine lake. Not one
rubato, crescendo or diminuendo was calculated.... In obedience to
some inner law of his, they were simply right and unassailable." (Gottfried
Reinhardt on Korngold's conducting)
"Somehow Korngold knew: knew how to compose, how to
play the piano, how to score, all brilliantly and all apparently without
any untoward expenditure of effort. We should remember however
that genius often contrives to grasp instantly and intuitively what mediocrity
may spend year after year laboriously laying up... How Korngold
found, evolved or summoned his style into being is a question which can
never properly be answered in terms which the scientific mind would find
satisfactory." (Christopher Palmer)
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