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The centenary of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's birth was 1997, a year during which his memory had to compete with the likes of such musical giants as Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms. Yet there have been signs in recent decades of a Korngold "revival.''l Aside from performances and recordings, the appearance in I997 of Brendan G. Carroll's book, billed as the first fulllength biography of the composer, is a landmark occurrence. As Carroll tells the reader in his Introduction, he spent nearly twenty-five years working on this biography, writing copiously about Korngold along the way, in the article on the composer in New Grove, liner notes to many recordings, and a preliminary study of the composer, Erich Wolfgang Korn,gold-His Life and Works, first published in I983.
Carroll's interest in Korngold's music began as a teenager with the recording The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolf,gang Korn,gold (RCA LSC 3330). From the notes to this I97I recording, Carroll learned that Korngold was a composer not only of movie music but also of operas and symphonic and chamber works; furthermore, he had been a Wunderkind in imperial Vienna and later as a Jew had had his music labeled "entartete" (decadent) by the Nazis. Carroll wrote to RCA, asking about additional recordings of Korngold's music, and eventually received a reply from Korngold's younger son, George. The author became friends with both George and the elder son Ernst, both of whom encouraged him to write this biography and helped him to do so. The author began collecting materials from various libraries and archives but found the task arduous because of the damage caused by World War II. Sources for Korngold's life included the I922 biography written by Dr. Rudolf Stefan Hofmann (when Korngold was twenty-five years old), the 1967 account by Korngold's widow Luzi, and memoirs by his father Julius. These sources were full of errors, but their authors had the advantage over Carroll of having personal knowledge of the subject as well as the Viennese milieu from which he emerged. Furthermore, Carroll's knowledge of German was by his own admission "limited"
Nevertheless, Carroll persevered. In 1975 he "embarked on a long series of interviews in Europe and America with musicians, actors, directors, writers,...