“That boy's talent is so great,” said Puccini of Erich Korngold, “he could easily give us half and still have enough left for himself!” A child prodigy, Korngold was born in Moravia and grew up in Vienna. At five, he was playing four-hand piano pieces with his father; at seven he started composing; at nine he played his cantata Gold for an amazed Gustav Mahler.

In 1934 Max Reinhardt invited him to Hollywood; Korngold settled permanently in the United States four years later, and a string of film scores followed: Anthony Adverse, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and King's Row, among others. He won two Academy Awards.

Long before his film successes, Korngold was commissioned by the Vienna Volksbühne to compose music for a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in 1918. He wrote fourteen sections of incidental music, but the production was canceled.  Instead, the Schönnbrunn Palace Theatre picked it up. The composer conducted members of the Vienna Philharmonic at the first performance on May 6, 1920. It was so successful that Korngold assembled a suite he conducted the following January.

The suite begins with a lively Overture, followed by “The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber,” depicting Hero’s wedding preparations in Act III. “Dogberry and Verges” is a grotesque march. The Intermezzo accompanies Beatrice’s realization that she loves Benedick in the third act. “Masquerade” is a hornpipe that ends the play, just after Benedick’s line, “Strike up, pipers!”

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2022.