KORNGOLD ~ The Constant Nymph ~ Special Concert Overture

The only commercial recording (to date) of the special overture to the 1942 film THE CONSTANT NYMPH created by its composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold for the film's gala premiere in July 1942 and performed only on that occasion by the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra and conducted by Korngold himself.

It binds together most of the major themes of the score. The film (based on a 1920s novel by Margaret Kennedy) starred Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer and is almost never shown today, owing to complex copyright restrictions.

This recording, made for Readers Digest in 1965, features the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the late Charles Gerhardt, a great champion of Korngold's music and a dear friend of mine. Apart from the tone poem 'Tomorrow' (which is also from this film and provides its highly effective climax) this overture remains the only music from Korngold's ravishing score to be commercially recorded until now. The overture is regrettably unavailable and unpublished and the partitur is only available from the Warner Brothers Archive at University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The montage I have assembled features movie ephemera from the film, and photos of Korngold and Charles Gerhardt himself.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Korngold
• The Constant Nymph
• Charles Gerhardt