Addinsell: "Warsaw Concerto"

The movie was called “Dangerous Moonlight", where a Polish pianist and war pilot finds himself caught in the midst of the "Battle of Britain" during World War II. The soundtrack of the 1941 British film would originally include the romantic Concerto No. 2 of Rachmaninoff, which had been published forty years before and has since captivated audiences for its unique beauty. But copyright problems impeded its use and the producers had to opt for an "original" concert piece a la Rachmaninoff, more precisely, in the mood of his second Concerto.

The composition of this work was given to the composer Richard Addinsell, born in London in 1904. Apart from his works for theater, he had created the soundtrack of many films, including the blockbuster “Goodbye, Mr Chip”, released in 1939.

"Warsaw Concert"
Addinsell responded with Warsaw Concert, a piece for piano and orchestra that became the soundtrack of the film. According to the storyline, it was  the work the protagonist, Stefan Radetzky, was composing, to be performed during the fictional narrative.

Richard Addinsell (1904 - 1977)

The work is written in the style of Rachmaninoff and more, because Addinsell borrowed from the Russian master's second concert not only its spirit, warmth and tenderness, but also, and blatantly, bits and pieces of it. This was what the British needed in 1941, which indeed, Addinsell delivered with great skill, paving the way to the fashion of including soundtracks "in the style of classical music" in many subsequent films, although none more memorable than that of Addinsell.

Of course, the beautiful and deeply romantic Warsaw Concert is not a concert in the usual sense of the term. It lasts less than ten minutes and has a single movement. Nevertheless, a screenshot in the film shows a poster stating that the concert has three movements. The magic of cinema!

The rendition is by the Hungarian pianist Laszlo Kovacs, accompanied by the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kovacs himself from the piano.

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