- Addinsell composed this concerto for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight. In the United States, this film is called Suicide Squadron.1
- In the film, the concerto is both composed and performed by the character Stefan Radetzky, a Polish refugee in England during WWII.
- Fun fact: the filmmakers wanted this work to be written in the style of Rachmaninoff, and they actually approached Rachmaninoff to write it. He declined, and Addinsell got the job instead.
- As of 2001, when Addinsell’s Grove article was written, sales of Warsaw Concerto recordings had passed five million.2
Sources
- John Glover, “Warsaw Concerto: Richard Addinsell,” LA Philharmonic, accessed January 4, 2021, https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/4639/warsaw-concerto.
- David Ades, “Addinsell, Richard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 4, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000000180.
Cut IDs
16956, 21143, 20300, 40970