MUSIC: Goldmark: opening of the third movement (Scherzo) from The Rustic Wedding Symphony performed by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel [Vanguard Classics SVC-10, track 3] [under the following]

Hello and welcome to Compact Discoveries. I’m your guide, Fred Flaxman. Stay with me for the next hour and I promise to fill it with “Goldmark Gold” -- the very best of the music of Karl Goldmark.

Goldmark came from a very large Hungarian Jewish family. He was one of 20 children. His early training was as a violinist at the music academy of Sopron. Two years later his father sent him to Vienna, where he studied for 18 months before his funds ran out. Later he went to the Vienna Conservatory until the Revolution of 1848 forced the conservatory to close down.

Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer, supporting himself in Vienna by playing violin in theater orchestras. He also gave lessons, and Jean Sibelius studied with him briefly.

In 1858 Goldmark’s first concert in Vienna met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest. But he returned to Vienna in 1860, where, to make ends meet, he pursued a side career as a music journalist. His writing was evenhanded in his praise for both Brahms and Wagner at a time when audiences and most critics were solidly in one composer’s camp or the other.

Goldmark became a personal friend of Brahms, but although Wagner’s anti-semitism stood in the way of any friendship there, Goldmark took a prominent role in the formation of the Vienna Wagner Society.

Goldmark’s opera, The Queen of Sheba, was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years afterwards. FIrst performed in Vienna in 1875, it remained in the repertory of the Vienna State Opera continuously until 1938.

Today Goldmark is known essentially as a one-hit composer, that hit being his Rustic Wedding Symphony, which premiered in 1876. But he wrote many other first-class works including a violin concerto, which was once his most frequently performed piece.

Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in the Central Cemetery along with many other notable composers.
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MUSIC: ends

Let’s listen to the five-movement Rustic Wedding Symphony now as performed by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel on a Vanguard Classics ultra analog 20-bit digital compact disc recording from 1996.

MUSIC: Goldmark: Rustic Wedding Symphony performed by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel [Vanguard Classics SVC-10, tracks 1-5] [42:22]

Karl Goldmark’s Rustic Wedding Symphony performed by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel.
You are listening to “Goldmark Gold” on this hour of Compact Discoveries. I’m your guide, Fred Flaxman.

[one-minute break not included in the total timing of the program]

I’m going to conclude this tribute to Karl Goldmark with the final movement from his Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, Opus 30. The pianist is Oliver Triendl. The strings are provided by the Quatuor Sine Nomine on a cpo release from Germany.

MUSIC: Goldmark: Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 30: Finale performed by the Quatuor Sine Nomine with pianist Oliver Triendl [CPO 777 277-2, track 4] [3:28]

The final movement from Karl Goldmark’s Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 30. Oliver Triendl was the pianist with the Quatuor Sine Nomine: Patrick Genet, violin; François Gottraux, violin; Hans Egidi, viola; and Marc Jaermann, cello.

MUSIC: Goldmark: opening of the third movement (Scherzo) from The Rustic Wedding Symphony performed by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel [Vanguard Classics SVC-10, track 3] [under the following]

And that concludes this hour of Compact DIscoveries devoted to “Goldmark Gold.” I hope you enjoyed the music. This is your guide to the discovery of music classics, Fred Flaxman, reminding you to check out the Compact Discoveries website at www.compactdiscoveries.com.

There you will find links to stream all the Compact Discoveries programs on demand, including this one, which is number 163. There you will also find articles on compact discs, a basic music library, and recommended concert, opera and ballet digital video discs.

Until next time, then, thank you for listening.

ANNOUNCER (Steve Jencks): Compact Discoveries is made possible in part by Story Book Publishers and their latest offering, a tongue-in-cheek memoir by Compact Discoveries host Fred Flaxman called “Sixty Slices of Life ... on Wry: The Private Life of a Public Broadcaster.” Information and ordering at sixtyslices.com.

And by the financial support of the Puffin Foundation, Isabel and Marvin Leibowitz, Barry and Florence Friedberg, and an anonymous donor from Palm Beach, Florida. And by contributions to local public radio stations by listeners like you. Thank you.

Total Program Timing: 57:00