Chandos’s on-going
Korngold series reaches his film music
and a world premiere recording of
the complete score for the 1941 Warner
Bros chiller, The Sea Wolf,
based on Jack London’s dark, sea adventure
novel.
The Sea Wolf
starred Edward G. Robinson in the
role of the sadistic Wolf Larson,
captain of the ‘Ghost’, plagued by
crippling headaches and the on-set
of blindness. It was one of Robinson’s
most distinguished roles delivering
a finely shaded performance that revealed
Larson’s complicated character, a
man capable of immense cruelty but
also something of an intellectual:
well read enough to quote Milton,
"…Better to rule in hell, than
serve in heaven…" Robinson was
very ably supported by Alexander Knox
as Larson’s victim, the quiet, sensitive,
scholarly Humphrey Van Weydon. But
in the main starring roles, with Robinson,
were John Garfield as tough guy George
Leach and Ida Lupino as Ruth Webster
a woman with something of a shady
past.
The story opens with
Van Weydon, Leach and Webster all
on a San Francisco ferry when it collides
with Wolf Larson’s ship. Larson takes
them aboard as the ferry sinks but,
against their protestations, he refuses
to return to port to let them off.
Instead he sets out to sea with them
as reluctant passengers and in servitude.
It proves to be an ill-fated voyage.
After intolerable cruelty, the crew
of ‘Ghost’ mutiny against Larson,
the ship is scuttled leaving only
Larson aboard. However he is rejoined
by Van Weydon, Leach and Webster who
had previously escaped only to be
lost in the fog and to return, in
error, to the ‘Ghost’. In a powerfully
dramatic climax, van Weydon sacrifices
his life in a duel with the mad, and
now blinded Larson to allow the young
couple, by now in love, to escape
... this time to freedom. The film
was directed by the great Michael
Curtiz. The atmospheric low-key photography
of Sol Polito added to the gifted
Anton Grot’s art direction. Using
diffused light and deep shadow they
created a claustrophobic mood with
the ‘Ghost’ forever sailing through
swirling mists.
I have described
this scenario in depth to explain
how much Korngold empathised with
this material for it resembles the
style and mood of his mystical operas
Die tote Stadt and Das
Wunder der Heliane. Korngold even
considered developing this score into
an opera. In fact Korngold regarded
his film scores as ‘operas without
singing’.
As Brendan G. Carroll,
President of the Korngold Society,
writes in his notes for this release,
"It is relatively short compared
to his other film scores, for Korngold
knew instinctively when and where
to place music in a film. Here, he
allowed the tense, eerie silences,
with just the creaking of Wolf Larson’s
sinister ship to stand out in stark
contrast, without musical embellishment."
This is a powerful,
dramatic but stark score, darkly hued,
atmospheric, and, except for the final
cues, deeply pessimistic. The score
is dominated by endless variations
on the brutal-sounding descending
six-note theme for Larson’s ship ‘Ghost’.
The love interest between Leach and
Webster is pessimistic and despairing
and initially stated on a harmonica,
the ubiquitous instrument favoured
by so many Hollywood sailors. Korngold
would adapt this theme as the basis
of his Third String Quartet (1944).
Korngold significantly uses a Novachord
to imply Larson’s worsening insanity.
The Novachord’s upper registers gave
Korngold just the weird, other-worldly
effect he wanted. The Main Title music
is arresting with its upward flourish
of a pair of fifths on horns, trumpets
and trombones. This is thrillingly
evocative sea music, restless, turbulent
and menacing. Korngold uses a large
orchestra with a hefty brass section,
piano, harp, celesta, vibraphone and
generous percussion. But he uses his
forces imaginatively and sparingly;
listen, for instance, to ‘Fog’ the
swirling wisps of cloying mist so
brilliantly evoked.
The album’s notes
‘extend particular thanks to Brendan
G. Carroll ... for the unstinting
assistance in the preparation of this
CD.’ This is an important addition
to the Korngold discography and I
have a sneaking suspicion that we
have Brendan to thank for much of
the music’s preparation for this recording.
And how magnificently Rumon Gamba
and the BBC Philharmonic respond to
this brooding, atmospheric music thrillingly
realising all its dramatic power and
evocative subtleties.
A most interesting
bonus is included in the shape of
the music Korngold created for the
theatrical trailer for The Sea
Wolf. This trailer had a special
sequence showing a young man, in a
bookshop, being shown a copy of the
Jack London novel. For this scene
Korngold adds material strongly reminiscent
of his The Prince and the Pauper
score - an Errol Flynn starring vehicle
based on the Mark Twain novel.
The album is rounded
off with music from one of Errol Flynn’s
most popular films, The Adventures
of Robin Hood (also Warner Bros).
Korngold’s score won him a second
Oscar for Best Score. I have to admit
that I groaned somewhat when I first
noticed its inclusion for there are
recordings aplenty of the Robin
Hood music. I would much preferred
to have heard the more neglected Korngold
scores such as Escape Me Never
or the Constant Nymph. But
then I realised that this was something
different: the four movement suite
that Korngold, himself, developed
for concert performance, from the
Robin Hood score. It is somewhat different
in that it has a slightly reduced
orchestration. This is most apparent
in the love scene which here uses
the saxophone very much to the fore.
It sounds more intimate and less opulent
than in the film
The complete Sea
Wolf score - powerfully dramatic
and eerily atmospheric – played with
conviction and intensity by the BBC
Philharmonic and recorded in superb
Chandos sound. A must for all Korngold
admirers.
Ian Lace
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Rumon Gamba 
