Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg - Humoresque (1998)

Inspired by the 1947 Warner Bros. film of the same name, Humoreque is the renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg's first album for Nonesuch, as well as the realization of a long-standing wish: “I have found myself drawn to the Humoresque story, a document of a musician’s life, and a story I have lived.”

The program of the disc is highlighted by first recordings of arrangements and compositions by Hollywood scoring legend Franz Waxman, whose aria-like Carmen Fantasie is considered among the most difficult pieces ever written for the violin. Dvorák’s melodic title work, which opens and closes the set, frames a diverse group of works including Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, a solo movement from J. S. Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, as well as standards by George Gershwin and Cole Porter sung by Broadway singer/actor Judy Blazer. Principal accompaniment is provided by the London Symphony, conducted by Andrew Litton.

The film, which stars John Garfield, Joan Crawford, and Oscar Levant, tells the story of a young man’s rise from New York’s Lower East Side to a career as a concert violinist. Humoresque is among the few films to feature classical music in a central role, with a score conducted by Waxman, and violin playing by a young Isaac Stern. In addition to the Carmen themes, Waxman arranged the title work, a Tristan and Isolde Fantasie, and contributed a composition entitled City Montage. He supervised the entire musical content of the picture, and earned an Oscar nomination. “I have always been attracted to the way that Waxman could bring together all of these different types of music” comments Salerno-Sonnenberg, “from Bach to the standard violin war-horses, from movie music to the great popular songs that speak so distinctly of that era—all that I have always loved, each piece with its own place in my life.”

One of modern classical music’s most intensely passionate performers, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is widely regarded as one of America’s most dynamic violin soloists, a riveting presence on the world’s concert stages for over 25 years.