Symphony in F sharp major (Korngold)
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The Symphony in F sharp Op. 40 is the only symphony written by the 20th-century Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, though there is also the Sinfonietta Op. 5, composed in 1911-12. The symphony was completed in 1952 and was premiered in Vienna on 17 October 1954 by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Harold Byrns. The work is dedicated to the memory of American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt who died in April 1945. It runs for about 50 minutes and is in four movements:
- Moderato, ma energico -- intense and stormy, with a jagged main theme
- Scherzo
- Adagio -- long, profound and meditative, in the tradition of Bruckner. A memorial to Roosevelt.
- Finale -- optimistic; listeners will recognize references to film music and the song, "Over There".
The work is scored for large orchestra augmented by piano, celesta and harp. The percussion group includes marimba and xylophone.
In 1959, Dimitri Mitropoulos wrote: “All my life I have searched for the perfect modern work. In this symphony I have found it. I shall perform it the next season.” But Mitropoulos' death intervened, and the symphony, though played several times on European radio, was not performed in concert until November 1972 in Munich, under Rudolf Kempe. Since then the work has entered the repertoire with a number of CD recordings available, and the full score has been published by Schott Musik in their Eulenburg series.
