Korngold, Brahms–Schönberg – Gabriel Bebeșelea

Johannes Brahms’s (1833–1897) Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1873) takes as its basis the main theme from the so-called St Anthony Chorale, which research has since shown is not a work by Haydn, but was perhaps written by Ignaz Pleyel. Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s (1897–1957) Violin Concerto in D major (1945) is an exceptionally beautiful post-romantic gem in the violin literature, written by the Austrian composer as an American citizen (and an extraordinarily successful film composer) eleven years after his emigration.