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 The
Last Prodigy : A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
by Brendan G. Carroll
The dawn of
the 20th century heralded an age of continuing progress. In terms
of technology, many of the advances were for machines of war;
scarcely anyone would have foreseen the grim future of conflict
that was to run until near the end of the century. The first decade
of the new century also saw the emergence of child prodigy Erich
Wolfgang Korngold, whose advanced tonal technique seemed destined
to win him a place as a major composer. But just as prosperity
and peace were absent during much of this troubled time period,
Korngold's music went into eclipse in the 1930s and only recently
emerged from the tomb to which it was consigned by the main current
of 20th-century musical thought.
Brendan Carroll's
excellent biography of this composer who was so shabbily ignored
by postwar intellectuals is long overdue. From the outset, Carroll
focuses on the phenomenal musical ability shown by Korngold. Not
only did he produce complex musical compositions from an early
age, but these early compositions are adult in style and show
the distinct idiom of the composer. Like Mozart, Korngold's distinguishing
talent was an inexhaustible supply of melodic inspiration that
he skillfully assembled... Sarah Bryan Miller (Amazon.com)
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