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Karl Goldmark (bornKároly Goldmark,Keszthely, 18 May 1830 –Vienna, 2 January 1915) was a Hungarian-born Viennesecomposer.[1]
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Goldmark came from a largeJewish family.[2] His father, Ruben Goldmark, was achazan (cantor) to the Jewish congregation atKeszthely, Hungary, where Karl was born. Karl Goldmark's older brotherJoseph became a physician and was later involved in theRevolution of 1848, and forced to emigrate to the United States. Karl Goldmark's early training as a violinist was at the Ödenburg music school in the city ofSopron (1842-3).[2]
In 1844, Goldmark was sent to Vienna, where he was able to study for some eighteen months withLeopold Jansa before his money ran out.[2] He prepared himself for entry first to the ViennaTechnische Hochschule and then to theVienna Conservatory to study the violin withJoseph Böhm andharmony withGottfried Preyer.[2] Until he became a member of Vienna's Carl Theatre in 1850, Goldmark was impoverished, surviving on menial odd jobs and handouts.[3] TheRevolution of 1848 forced the Conservatory to close down. Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer.[4] After the Conservatory's closing, Goldmark played violin for theaters and taught music to make ends meet. During this time, he honed his compositional talents.[2] Goldmark's first concert, a self-organized show in Vienna (1858) met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest, returning to Vienna in 1860.[5]
To make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued a side career as a music journalist.Johannes Brahms and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmark's prominence in Vienna grew.[5]
Among the musical influences Goldmark absorbed was that ofRichard Wagner,[2] whose anti-semitism stood in the way of any genuine warmth between them. In 1872 Goldmark took a prominent role in the formation of the Vienna Wagner Society. He was made an honorary member of theGesellschaft der Musikfreunde, received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Budapest and shared withRichard Strauss an honorary membership in theAccademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome.
Goldmark'soperaDie Königin von Saba ("The Queen of Sheba"), Op. 27 was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years thereafter. Though he had begun working on it after he first permanently settled in Vienna in 1860, it was first performed in Vienna on 10 March 1875. the work proved so popular that it remained in the repertoire of theVienna Staatsoper continuously until 1938.[5] He wrote six other operas as well (see list).
TheRustic Wedding Symphony (Ländliche Hochzeit), Op. 26 (first performed in 1876), a work that was kept in the repertory bySir Thomas Beecham, includes five movements, like a suite composed of coloristic tone poems: a wedding march with variations depicting the wedding guests, a nuptial song, a serenade, a dialogue between the bride and groom in a garden, and a dance movement. It was very well received, including by Brahms.[5]
HisViolin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 28, was the piece of his played most during his lifetime. The concerto had its première inBremen in 1877, initially enjoyed great popularity and then slid into obscurity.[5] The concerto has started to re-enter the repertoire with recordings by such prominent violin soloists asItzhak Perlman andJoshua Bell.Nathan Milstein also championed the work.
He wrote a second violin concerto, but it was never published. A second symphony in E-flat, Op. 35, is much less well known. Goldmark also wrote an early symphony in C major, between roughly 1858 and 1860. That work was never given an opus number and only the scherzo seems to have ever been published.
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Goldmark's chamber music, in which the influences ofSchumann andMendelssohn are paramount, although critically well received in his lifetime, is now rarely heard. It includes theString Quintet in A minor Op. 9 that made his first reputation in Vienna, theViolin Sonata in D major Op. 25, twoPiano Quintets in B-flat major, Op. 30 and C-sharp minor, Op. 54, theCello Sonata Op. 39, and the work that first brought Goldmark's name into prominence in the Viennese musical world, theString Quartet in B-flat Op. 8 (his only work in that genre). He also composed choral music, two Suites for Violin and Piano (in D major, Op. 11, and in E-flat major, Op. 43), and numerousconcert overtures, such as theSakuntala Overture Op. 13 (a work which cemented his fame after his String Quartet), thePenthesilea Overture Op. 31, theIn the Spring Overture Op. 36, thePrometheus Bound Overture Op. 38, theSappho Overture Op. 44, theIn Italy Overture Op. 49, and theAus Jugendtagen Overture, Op. 53. Other orchestral works include thesymphonic poemZrínyi, Op. 47, and two orchestral scherzos, in E minor, Op. 19, and in A major, Op. 45.
Goldmark's nephewRubin Goldmark (1872–1936), a pupil ofDvořák, was also a composer, who spent his career in New York.[6]
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Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in theZentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), along with many other notable composers. Many of his autograph manuscripts are in the collection of theNational Széchényi Library, with "G" catalogue numbers attached to various works (including those without opus number.)
(Note: All above works have been recorded by theBamberg Symphony Orchestra underFabrice Bollon forcpo label: Vol. 1 555 160-2 and Vol. 2 555 251–2.)
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