Franz Waxman: Carmen Fantasy
Haram Kim, violin
Jungeun Kim, piano
Performed on Sunday, October 20, 2017
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
Franz Waxman (1906-1967) was a German-American composer best known for his scores for classic Hollywood films such as Rebecca, The Philadelphia Story, and Sunset Boulevard. During the 1920s, he studied at the Dresden Music Academy, played piano in the jazz band the Weintraub Syncopators, and established himself as an orchestrator in the burgeoning German film industry. In 1934 Waxman, who was Jewish, fled Germany after he was assaulted by Nazi thugs in Berlin; he eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he joined with Austrian Jewish expatriates Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold in forging the style of modern film music from the ashes of the German Romantic tradition.
A musical potpourri based on themes from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, the Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra was composed in 1946 as part of the score for the film Humoresque. Waxman later created an expanded version of the piece at the request of violinist Jascha Heifetz. In this form-and in various arrangements, including for violin and piano-it has become Waxman’s most popular concert work.