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Berthold Goldschmidt: Orchestral Music
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
Extract
With his major work, the opera Beatrice Cenci, unperformed apart from extracts, his other opera Der gewaltige Hahnrei not revived professionally since its highly successful première more than 50 years ago, the Second Quartet having to wait 17 years for its première, the remarkably original Kästner settings of 1931 still awaiting a performance, it is clear that it is not only Berthold Goldschmidt's orchestral works that have been ‘undeservedly neglected’.
But of these orchestral works only one can in any sense be said to have entered the repertoire, and that, ironically, is one of Goldschmidt's very earliest works—the Comedy of Errors Overture of 1925. It is his only orchestral score in print. The three concertos—the Cello Concerto (1953), Clarinet Concerto (1954), and Violin Concerto (1951–5)—received a fair number of performances during the 1950'5 (not all of them under Goldschmidt's baton), but have virtually disappeared, along with the inventive Sinfonietta of 1945. Perhaps the least deserving of the obscurity into which they have temporarily fallen are the Ciaconna Sinfonica (1936) and the Mediterranean Songs (1958)—both of them works of real power and substance, and immediately approachable.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984
References
1 Komödie der Irrungen. Schott, Mainz, 1978.
2 Fortunately much of Goldschmidt's music (including the concertos) received broadcast performances while he was still active as a conductor, and a growing collection of tapes (and scores) is now housed in the British Music Information Centre.
3 Shortly before he left Germany, Goldschmidt was the victim of an extraordinary hoax. An American conductor by the name of Dante Fiorillo offered to help him by giving performances of his music in the United States. Goldschmidt gratefully sent a number of scores, but was perplexed by the lack of response from Fiorillo. Eventually he received newspaper reviews, but in all of them the name of the composer was carefully excised, and when his scores were returned it was clear that they had not been used for performance, but had been recopied. Soon after this Goldschmidt compared notes with Karl Amadeus Hartmann, who had received similar offers from Fiorillo, and it became clear that Fiorillo was simply passing off other composers' music as his own. In a recent conversation with Gunther Schuller I learned that Fiorillo was well known as a plagiarist, but that nobody had found a way to call him to account: indeed he had managed to win several Guggenheim Awards. About 30 years ago he disappeared in mysterious circumstances and has not been heard of since. Further information about this bizarre figure would be most welcome.
4 The first performance was given in New York in May 1959 by Patricia Neway, with the Mannes College Orchestra conducted by Carl Bamberger. Subsequent soloists (with the composer conducting) were Richard Lewis and Gerald English.