Non-Christmas Christmas music

Eric Wolfgang Korngold: Symphony in F-Sharp, Op. 40, "Much Ado About Nothing" Incidental Music; London Symphony Orchestra; Sir Andre Previn, conducting

I don’t know when I made the decision to see the movie, but I do know that Emma Thompson was my motivation to see “Much Ado About Nothing”. Her then husband Kenneth Branagh stood at the helm of nearly all aspects of this film: director, producer, actor, husband of beautiful actress, and script collaborator (with Mr. Shakespeare). It took me a while to figure out that it would be difficult to see this wonderful play by the bard on the big screen. Then it dawned on me: cruise ship. Oh, what a snag! I tried to console my frustration at not seeing Emma Thompson by reminding myself that New Zealand stood at our starboard bow. It helped a little.

Then, as we navigated the waters of Australia, the good news came. The movie theatre aboard the Royal Odyssey had scheduled a viewing of “Much Ado About Nothing” on the next cruise! Yes! Now I needed to get a copy of the play because I had never read it. I learned from Mrs. A in high school that a good book should ruin a bad movie and not the other way around. So when we docked by the city of Brisbane, I hustled to a bookstore to nab a cheap copy of the play. Book of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”: two pounds. Can of coke on the table while reading on the back deck: one dollar. Drinking in the view of the northwest coast of Australia to the port side and admiring the Great Barrier Reef on the starboard side on a beautiful sunny day while consuming a masterpiece by one of the greatest writers who ever grasped a pen: thousands and thousands of dollars. Money which I never paid, so, yeah … priceless.

I finished reading the play while sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to begin. And I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and Emma Thompson … I, I mean the movie. I never would have expected to see Ms. Thompson, Mr. Branagh, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton and Keanu Reeves on the same screen. But, whatever. It knocked me out.

My friend Eve has revealed to me on more than one occasion that she hears all classical music as Christmas music. If I recall correctly, it has something to do with her memory of how frequently her parents took out the classical LPs, which was as often as they took out the Christmas LPs. I would imagine that when one is younger it’s difficult to decipher the difference.

A similar phenomenon happened to me when I purchased the CD of this symphony by Eric Wolfgang Korngold. By the way, when you bear the name of Wolfgang, you have to decide whether to make your career as a chef or a composer. I bought the CD for the symphony. But I stayed for the selections from “Much Ado About Nothing”. I find it fascinating that of the five pieces in the set, in this recording, they left off the overture, which, after looking at the timings, definitely would have put the recording over the seventy-five minute limitation. You don’t see the producers of classical albums cut up a composition like that very often.

But, why Christmas? The music comes across as very light-hearted and bears the hallmarks of all the secrets, conniving, whisperings, plottings, hustle, shuffle and bustle of a gift-filled Christmas morning. Also, the melody of the Intermezzo, the fourth section (or in this recording, the third section), bears just a fleeting resemblance to “Oh, Holy Night”. It doesn’t sound very Shakespearean to me.

Credits: To the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, for bringing romance, comedy, drama and suspense ala bard to the silver screen in a thoughtful, artful way. Hang in there, Keanu. Another “Bill and Ted” has to happen soon. Thank you, Emma. Big fan.