Goldmark, Karl
GOLDMARK, KARL
GOLDMARK, KARL (1830–1915), composer. Goldmark, the son of a cantor in the small town of Keszthely, was sent to study in Vienna. He was financed by his half-brother Joseph, who, however, was involved in the revolutionary activities of 1848 and had to leave the country. Karl himself was led out to be shot as a rebel, but was saved by the intervention of a friend. He settled in Vienna as a teacher, conductor, and composer, and displayed his great talent for orchestration in the overture Sakuntala (1865) and his Laendliche Hochzeit (1876) symphony. His opera Die Koenigin von Saba (1875) with a libretto by S.H. *Mosenthal, on which he worked for ten years, was an immediate success in Vienna and many other cities. Goldmark wrote other operas that had limited success, violin concertos, chamber music, choral music and songs. For a short time he was the teacher of Sibelius, and did much to encourage the performance of Wagner in Austria. His autobiography, Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben (1922), was translated into English in 1927 as Notes from the Life of a Viennese Composer.
bibliography:
O. Keller, Karl Goldmark (Ger., 1901); mgg; Riemann-Gurlitt; Grove, Dict; Baker, Biog Dict.
[Marc Rozelaar]