The Prince And The Pauper (1937)

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was, twice over and in two separate areas, one of the most renowned musical figures of the 20th century. Beginning at age seven, he was a celebrated performing prodigy, with a level of technical development and an understanding of music that awed such giants of the musical world as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, who delighted in his prodigious talent. Greeted in such circles as a new Mozart, from his teens until his thirties Korngold was the author of a series of compositions – orchestral works, operas (most notably Die Tote Stadt), and chamber works – that were uniquely popular and among the most critically acclaimed of their era.

Sony Classical announces another ten releases in its popular series of Classical Masters. This new batch of budget-priced sets contains major recording projects by some of the 20th centurys most celebrated musicians. It was the Warner Brothers 1946 Bette Davis starrer Deception in particular, its score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold that originally aroused a passion for film music in the American conductor and producer Charles Gerhardt. Beginning his career in 1950 as a technician for RCA, where he came into contact with Toscanini, he went on to become a producer for Westminster before returning to RCA as a conductor, moving to Europe and making his name in the 1970s with the monumental series of recordings collected here for the first time: twelve discs of classic film scores, many of them Oscar winners or nominees, from Hollywoods golden age with Gerhardt at the helm of Londons elite recording ensemble, the National Philharmonic Orchestra.