Karl Goldmark (b. Keszthely, Hungary, 18 May 1830; d. Vienna,
Austria, 2 January 1915) straddled the geographical divide
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as the musical world
of Romanticism from the nineteenth century into the first
part of the twentieth century. He was born as one of twenty
children in a small Hungarian border town where his father
served as a Jewish cantor and village notary. Financial limitations
prevented regular attendance at school. Village dance music
provided his first musical impressions. Young Karl moved to
Vienna as a teenager and began violin lessons, but had to
give them up for financial reasons. Eventually, an older brother,
Josef (who became involved on the revolutionary side of the
Viennese disturbances of 1848), paid his rent, enabling Goldmark
to study violin and music theory at the Vienna Conservatory.
The political upheavals of 1848 almost ended Goldmark's musical
career, as he became caught between the military lines and
narrowly escaped being executed as a revolutionary. In 1851
he returned to Vienna for good. He returned only sporadically
to Hungary, though he would later reflect that, "just as a
sheep is branded by its owner, so Hungary put its brand upon
me; and I have never lost it." In later years he won growing
attention and acclaim as a music teacher, critic, and composer.
A young pupil, Karoline Bettelheim, whom he began to tutor
in piano when she was seven years of age, later became a highly
considered court singer and pianist; it was she who gave Goldmark's
first piano trio, Op. 4, its initial performance in Vienna
in 1864. The musical skills, which he acquired while playing
in several Viennese theaters, enabled him to devote himself
seriously to composition.
Goldmark developed a strong admiration for Richard Wagner
and formed close friendships with Johannes Brahms, Eduard
Hanslick, Peter Cornelius, and Anton Rubenstein. A trip to
Pest, Hungary, from 1858 to 1860, enabled him to study counterpoint,
canons, and all forms of fugues, with the aid of J. S. Bach's
Well-tempered Clavier. Upon his return to Vienna, he began,
in slow succession, the composition of the works that were
eventually published. The String Quartet, op. 8, made him
famous overnight. In 1875 the first of his six operas, Die
Koenigen von Saba, was completed and performed, with a Hungarian
government grant. Goldmark had moved into the forefront of
Viennese musical life. In 1879, with Brahms and Hanslick,
he judged a distribution of grants to artists as honorary
member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.
Today the compositions of Karl Goldmark are largely ignored,
but the substantial body of his chamber music is deserving
of a second hearing by modern artists and audiences in search
of less-traditional repertoires of strong musical inspiration
and quality. Although allusions to Mendelssohn, Schumann,
and Spohr abound in the chamber music, Goldmark's musical
language was largely determined by Hungarian folk culture,
by his childhood memories of the synagogue, and by a great
variety of musical influences. He never belonged to any real
"school" and left no real disciples. When he died in 1915,
it was as an honored member of the Viennese musical establishment.
He was praised both in Vienna and in Budapest, where his operas
enjoyed continuous production until 1930, effectively bridging
a major Central European cultural divide.
The Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 4, in B-flat Major,
was composed in 1858/1859, during the composer's visit to
his native Hungary. It reflects some of the new training in
counterpoint and the fugal compositions of J. S. Bach which
Goldmark received during that short stay in Pest. The opening
movement, marked Schnell, opens with a frisky buoyant theme
in the piano, which the strings pick up and repeat. The spirit
of Mendelssohn seems to hover attentively over the initial
theme. A short, pensive motif in the strings provides a wistful
relief, but the original theme returns for a lengthy development,
a final recapitulation, and a brisk repartee between the piano
and the strings. The second movement, an Adagio marked Langsam,
doch nicht schleppend [Slowly, but not dragging], opens with
a tender, soulful cello solo, above detached chords in the
piano. Each instrument is featured as soloist in the varied
repetitions of the theme, which seems to predate passages
from Tchaikovsky's great A Minor Piano Trio, especially in
the quiet piano arpeggios. Delicate pizzicato chords bring
the song to a subdued end. The Scherzo presents evidence of
Goldmark's study of Bach's fugal style during his two-year
visit to Budapest. After a brusque introduction, a fugato
theme is picked up by all the instruments in turn, followed
by a relaxed trio section. The restless energy of the initial
theme and its fugato companion return and lead to a headlong
rush a la Mendelssohn to the movement's sudden end, on two
quiet pizzicato chords. The Finale, also marked Schnell [quickly],
features a noble cello statement, followed by a tender and
wistful second statement introduced by the piano (one of Goldmark's
happier inspirations). A vigorous development of these major
themes (note especially the graceful cello entrances) ends
this youthful effort on a bright and optimistic note.
The Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, op. 33, in E minor,
is a more mature work, written twenty years later, around
1880. An opening Allegro con moto introduces a vigorous theme,
followed by a second theme, which features a wistful second
subject in halting rhythm. The development provides especially
the cellist with some noble solo passages and enables Goldmark
to demonstrate his mastery of fugato elements from his studies
of the music of J. S. Bach. The return of the second subject
in a major key produces an effect that is especially magical.
The Scherzo, marked Presto, features a scurrying melody that
betrays again the composer's admiration of Felix Mendelssohn.
This time the second subject is an Austrian Laendler [country
dance], introduced by the piano. The Andante sostenuto is
especially brief, a prayer for violin with piano accompaniment
that features some unexpected harmonic touches and piano chords.
The concluding Allegro opens with a statement for piano, followed
by a more wistful second subject (a Goldmark trademark in
his chamber music). After more fugato treatment in the development,
the strings linger on the second theme, now transposed into
a major key, as if reluctant to end. But end it must, and
Goldmark concludes the piece in silence. It is difficult to
imagine a more fitting tribute to the brief flourishing of
the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy than this nostalgic setting
by one of its finest musical talents.
Louis J. Reith