George Korngold (December 17, 1928 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

– November 25, 1987 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California) was a prominent record producer as well as a music editor and producer active within the film industry. He was the younger son of Austrian composer

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...

. George's father first went to Hollywood in 1934 to work on the

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...

production of ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'', and travelled to and from Vienna for the next several years. During this time, George remained in Vienna: it was not until February 1938 that George arrived in the United States with his parents for the scoring of Robin Hood, and after the Anschluss in March and the emergency arrival of his older brother Ernst with his grandparents the family permanently remained in Los Angeles. Reports that George Korngold attended the Vienna Academy of Music are thus mysterious: at the time he left Vienna, he was not yet ten years old. However, since Erich Korngold taught at the Academy throughout the early 1930s, it is thought possible that the young boy was permitted to be present in classes. As a record producer, George Korngold was much involved with film music, in the 1970s co-producing (with Charles Gerhardt) the 14-volume ''Classic Film Scores Series'' for RCA Records. He also produced a series of 'landmark' recordings of his father's works, including the operas ''

Die tote Stadt ' (German for ''The Dead City''), Op. 12, is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold set to a libretto by Paul Schott, a collective pseudonym for the composer and his father, Julius Korngold. It is based on the 1892 novel '' Bruges-la-Mo ...

'' (for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

) and ''

Violanta ''Violanta'', Op. 8, is a one-act opera by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The libretto is by the Austrian playwright Hans Müller-Einigen. It is Korngold's second opera, written when he was seventeen years old. Performance history It was premiered on ...

'' (for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

) and a disc of the First and Third String Quartets (for RCA; played by the

Chilingirian Quartet The Chilingirian Quartet is a British string quartet. It gave its first public concert in Cambridge in 1972. By the time the quartet celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, there had been various changes in the line-up. However, it has continued t ...

). In 1979, he produced one of the first digital audio recordings, for

Chalfont Records Chalfont Records was an American record label located in Montgomery, Alabama,Solodchin, Galina, David Ogden, John Underwood, and Stephen Orton, perfs. Serenades. The Delmé String Quartet. Chalfont Records, 1977. Vinyl recording. and associated wit ...

; it was the first commercial release of his father's music for ''

Kings Row ''Kings Row'' is a 1942 film starring Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Betty Field that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century. The picture was directed by Sam Wood. ...

'', Charles Gerhardt conducting. In Hollywood, George Korngold worked as a music editor on a number of high-profile films, including the big-budget '' The Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1964), ''

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

'' (1978), '' The Fury'' (1978) and '' Outland'' (1981).

External links

Obituary for George Korngold
in the ''New York Times'' (1987) * 1928 births 1987 deaths Austrian Jews Austrian record producers American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Austrian emigrants to the United States {{Austria-musician-stub