The decision to juxtapose two violin concertos both connected to cinema (albeit through different channels) was an inspired one. 

Elena Kats-Chernin’s concerto, sub-titled “Fantaisie im Wintergarten” was inspired by 1930s silent cinema in Berlin – usually referred to as Expressionist – and a unique element of between the wars German culture. Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s concerto was composed as a Jewish émigré from Nazism and the darling of Hollywood who could be said to have invented the American symphonic film score. 

Korngold incorporated themes from his various film scores into his 1946 concerto written for Jascha Heifetz. Kats-Chernin was inspired by one silent film in particular about “love and betrayal that takes place inside the fairground and circus world” with scenes shot at Berlin’s historic variety theatre, the Wintergarten. 

Expressionist cinema was a product of the traumatised mood of Germany in the aftermath of the First World War, which left German society in a state of traumatised social and economic chaos. It highlighted the fear, horror, cruelty towards and often death of marginalised people. The concerto depicts the world of the circus (traditionally the scene for grotesque types...