The Viennese in Los Angeles: Erich Korngold, Ernest Kanitz. The ARC Ensemble, (Erika Raum and Marie Bérard, violins; Steven Dann, viola; Tom Wiebe, cello; Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet and Kevin Ahfat, piano). April 7, 2024 at Mazzoleni Hall, Toronto.
This past Sunday, the Artists of The Royal Conservatory (ARC) Ensemble honoured Viennese composers Erich Korngold and Ernest Kanitz. The Ensemble’s main goal remains to perform works that have been suppressed or marginalized under oppressive regimes of the 20th century.
The four-part concert, as introduced by artistic director Simon Wynberg, offered a refreshing change with the inclusion of Glenn Gould School students contributing Kanitz’s String Quarter in D major. As Wynberg put it, the decision to have students perform this piece, largely unheard since the 1940s, was to encourage the next generation of instrumentalists to assess music outside the typical and popular classical repertoire.
While both Korngold and Kanitz were Jewish Viennese who narrowly escaped the Nazis by relocating to the U.S., Korngold found commercial success and acclaim while Kanitz remained relatively unknown. Without much guidance from historical contexts for the seldom-performed works, musicians must decide for themselves how the piece should be interpreted.
In The Royal Conservatory’s Mazzoleni Hall, the young String Quartet was received quite well — perhaps the best of the concert. Violinists Grace Wride and Miranda Hollingsworth joined violist Shyler Macaggi and cellist Lexie Krakowski in an engaging, animated jaunt through Kanitz’s four-movement piece. The third movement, “Old Viennese Tune and Variations”, was a particularly compelling and joyous performance, made more so by the fact that the students looked like they were having a thoroughly good time together. Their enthusiasm was rewarded with standing ovations and a four-bow applause.
The afternoon’s program featured Kanitz for the first three pieces, saving the final performance for Korngold’s Piano Quintet in E major, op. 15. The artist himself is as interesting as his music. A musical prodigy, Korngold wrote his first ballet at age 11. After fleeing Nazi Europe, he became one of the most influential composers in the history of Hollywood films. Though his work was largely dismissed in the 40s by musical purists, it was later revived in the 70s with deserved acclaim.
His Piano Quintet begins abruptly — an appropriate start to a composition that is difficult to classify. Just as you think you know where the piece is going, the tempo suddenly takes a dive and the piano’s ominousness contributes to a general sense of sustained chaos. It’s clear how rigorously talented and creative musicians must be to switch motifs as often as Korngold demands. His career as a Hollywood composer is especially evident as each movement resembles a complex score. The performance certainly asks more of the audience than perhaps other, more conventional works of chamber music in that it rarely allows one to settle into a consistent rhythm.
The consistency is really in the whimsy of it all. While you might not know where the music will take you, it is a worthwhile journey through seldom heard works.
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