Berthold Goldschmidt

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Memorial plaque for Berthold Goldschmidt, Hamburg, Steinstrasse 12

Berthold Goldschmidt (born January 18, 1903 in Hamburg ; died October 17, 1996 in London ) was a German-British composer . After a promising start to his career in Germany , he was forced as a Jew by the National Socialists to emigrate to England in 1935 .

Life

Berthold Goldschmidt grew up as the son of a merchant family in Hamburg. He received music lessons early on. Alfred Sittard's organ concerts in the main church of Sankt Michaelis shaped his later work . In 1922 he passed the Abitur examination in Hamburg and then studied art history and philosophy at the University of Hamburg for a semester .

He then moved to the Berlin University of Music , where he took courses in composition and conducting until 1926. His teachers were Rudolf Krasselt , Julius Prüwer and Franz Schreker . In 1925 he won the Mendelssohn Prize with his Passacaglia for orchestra op.4 , which was premiered by Erich Kleiber . During his studies he became his assistant and was involved in the premiere of the opera Wozzeck by Alban Berg on December 14, 1925. In the Wozzeck performances he played the celesta - an instrument whose part he also played in several other important works of the so-called Second Viennese School ; for example in the Gurre songs by Arnold Schönberg or the world premiere of Anton Webern's Passacaglia op.1.

Goldschmidt's works have been performed in Chemnitz , Oldenburg , Vienna and Geneva . This was followed by the world premiere of his first opera The Powerful Cuckold in Mannheim in 1932. The planned resumption of the work in Berlin for 1933 did not take place.

Goldschmidt, "one of the great hopes of German music before 1933" (Hans Ferdinand Redlich), was able to flee to England in 1935 and, like many emigrants , had to start over. The emigrant Martin Esslin wrote the libretto for the opera Beatrice Cenci after Shelley for him in 1949 . However, the opera was first performed in concert with other operas by emigrants at a festival in London in 1988 . This festival was under the direction of Odaline de la Martinez , who Beatrice Cenci conducted herself. He was forgotten as a composer until the eighties. Only one composition was written between 1958 and 1982. During this time he also worked as a conductor and was committed to the music of Gustav Mahler , from whose fragments for a 10th symphony he created a performance version together with Deryck Cooke in 1964, which is still played today.

With its rediscovery, almost 20 works were available, which were premiered internationally and again in Berlin. His opera The Powerful Hahnrei was also performed in Berlin in 1994 after more than 60 years and, like numerous other works, is now available on sound carriers. A notable late work was composed by his death in 1996, including a string trio, two string quartets, and a few songs and violin pieces.

In 1993 Goldschmidt was awarded the German Critics' Prize.

Works

Selection from over 70 works, some of which have been lost:

piano

  • 1926 Sonata op.10
  • 1927 Capriccio op.11

Opera

Songs

  • 1933: Two chants from "Melancolie" by Christian Morgenstern for medium voice and piano op.27
  • approx. 1942: The Former (Cabaret Song) for voice and piano
  • 1957/58: Mediterranean Songs

Chamber music

  • 1925/26 string quartet No. 1 op.8
  • 1936 String Quartet No. 2
  • 1982/83 Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola and violoncello
  • 1985 piano trio
  • 1988/1989 String Quartet No. 3
  • 1992 String Quartet No. 4

Orchestral works

  • 1926 Passacaglia for orchestra op.4
  • 1953 Concerto for violoncello and orchestra op.23
  • 1953/54 concert for clarinet and orchestra
  • 1995/1996 Deux Nocturne. Dramatic Aria for Soprano an Orchestra

See also

literature

  • Michael Struck :  Goldschmidt, Berthold. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 7 (Franco - Gretry). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1117-9 , Sp. 1253–1261 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Barbara Busch: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Berthold Goldschmidt: two classics of their time . Series of publications Oldenburg University Speeches. BIS-Verlag 2004. ISBN 3-8142-1155-3 .
  • Peter Petersen and the Exile Music Working Group at the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg (editor): Berthold Goldschmidt. Composer and conductor. A musician's life between Hamburg, Berlin and London. von Bockel, Hamburg 1994, 2nd edition 2003 ISBN 3-932696-50-6 .
  • Peter Petersen : Berthold Goldschmidt in Hamburg. In: ways. Festschrift for Susanne Rode-Breymann, edited by A. Kreutziger-Herr a. a., Olms, Hildesheim u. a. 2018, pp. 501-515.
  • Giesela Jaacks: Goldschmidt, Berthold . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 108 .
  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 393.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Struck:  Goldschmidt, Berthold. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 7 (Franco - Gretry). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1117-9 , Sp. 1253–1261 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ↑ a b Elke Mascha Blankenburg: Female conductors in the 20th century. Portraits from Marin Alsop to Simone Young. Hamburg European Publishing House, 2003, ISBN 3-434-50536-9 , p. 256.
  3. ↑ Online marker. In: der-neue-merker.eu. Retrieved July 20, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Barbara Busch : "Berthold Goldschmidt's operas in the context of music and contemporary history." Oldenburg 2000.
personal data
SURNAME Goldschmidt, Berthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer who had to flee to England in 1935
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 1996
Place of death London