Korngold: String Quartets 1-3 (Chandos)
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Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born old and burdened with intolerable expectations. His father, a Viennese newspaper critic, middled him with Mozart’s name and groomed him as a child prodigy. His first ballet was commissioned by Gustav Mahler. Between the two wars Korngold had the biggest operatic hit of the age, Die Tote Stadt. Yet, for all his gifts, Korngold never sounded entirely himself. There was always something nostalgic and referential about his music.