Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

11. Erich Wolfgang KorngoldDie Tote Stadt

Korngold, this is maybe my favourite piece of music, one of my favourite songs in the list. It’s an opera I’ve seen a couple of times. There are pieces in there that will just floor you. The main motif that runs through it is about a man who’s getting over his dead wife and keeps seeing recurring visions of her and he can’t let go of it. Ah, oh man the music is so, so sublime with this one tune, it’s just devastating when he finally gets his release at the end and it finally comes back and he gets this angel in the music. The angel says it’s going to be ok, and the clouds open and he moves on.

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