Die tote Stadt (The Dead City)

This arrangement was created out of great admiration for the incredible abilities of the “child prodigy” Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who was only 19 years old at the time of composition.

Reducing such a dense orchestration, which in some places comprises around 38 different instruments or parts, to a chamber music version for only five instruments was, however, less complicated than it might initially appear. Korngold largely employs a strict four-part writing style, as he had probably learned from numerous great composers. In many places, this is ingeniously doubled or even tripled, which contributes to the tremendous magic of the music, which also seems to revel through the text in the past.

Reproducing the timbres of Korngold’s orchestration is certainly the greatest challenge in interpreting this aria in the chamber music version. All melodies and accompanying parts require a very intense sound with plenty of vibrato so that the audience does not miss anything, especially the singing voice. The pizzicatos in the cellos and viola should linger as long as possible to imitate the sound of the harp. The triplet eighth notes at the beginning in the second violin are played by the celesta in the original, which has a bell-like sound. The high passage in the first violin shortly before the recapitulation is played by the entire group of second violins. This is another stroke of genius from Korngold, who surely knew that such high notes in the second violin section would probably automatically sound more distant than in the first violin section. Analogous to the text: “It has another verse – How did it go?”. Accordingly, it should also be played very delicately.

- Thomas-Michael Auner