Berthold Goldschmidt: The Chamber and Instrumental Music

Extract

My previous article on Berthold Goldschmidt (in TEMPO 144) dealt with the basic facts of his career, a career that received a severe setback when Hitler came to power in 1933 and Goldschmidt's music was banned in his native Germany. There seems little doubt that, had the Nazis not taken over, Goldschmidt, an up-and-coming young composer with a publishing contract from Universal Edition and an opera about to be staged in Berlin, would have consolidated his early success and become a prominent figure in German musical life. As it is, his music is at present scarcely played at all, and the works I shall discuss here are either long out of print or unpublished. I believe Goldschmidt's music to be of high quality and his neglect totally unjustified, but only performances of his work—and especially of his two operas—will substantiate my personal conviction.