Korngold The Snowman
Korngold The Snowman Program Notes
Child prodigy Erich Wolfgang Korngold came from a Viennese musical family, and Mahler, Strauss and others recognized his talent at a young age. His ballet-pantomime The Snowman was premiered at the Vienna Court Opera, with orchestration by his teacher Anton von Zemlinsky, when he was 11! In the late 1930s, a visit to Los Angeles to compose the film score for The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn, became a one-way trip, following the Anschluss (Austrian integration into Nazi Germany). Composer of many other swashbuckling film scores, his works also include a fair number of chamber pieces, opera, and the violin concerto, which is part of the adventurous-but-not-obscure repertoire. Born: May 29, 1897, Brno, Czechia Died: November 29, 1957, Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, CA
Der Schneemann (The Snowman) is a charming one-act pantomime composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold when he was just 11 years old. It tells the story of a snowman brought to life by a fairy, and it caused a sensation when its extraordinary young composer’s age became known.
Korngold composed The Snowman in 1908 at age 11, and it was premiered at the Vienna Court Opera on October 4, 1910, conducted by Franz Schalk. Emperor Franz Joseph attended the premiere.
A typical performance of the orchestral suite from The Snowman lasts approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
Listen for the confident, lush orchestral writing that seems almost impossible from a child composer. Korngold already showed the gift for melody and the mastery of orchestral color that would later make him one of Hollywood’s greatest film composers.
When the score of The Snowman was sent anonymously to composer and conductor Gustav Mahler for his assessment, Mahler was so impressed he refused to believe it was the work of a child. When the composer’s identity was revealed, Mahler reportedly declared Korngold a genius and predicted a brilliant future for him.
