Composer and conductor, born 18 January 1903 in Hamburg, died 17 October 1996.
Biography
Berthold Goldschmidt studied in Berlin with Franz Schreker. In 1927 he became conductor in Darmstadt, where he worked with the director Carl Ebert. In 1931 he moved to the Städtisches Theater Berlin. In 1932 his opera Der Gewaltige Hahnrei was performed in Mannheim. In 1935 he emigrated to the UK. From 1941 to 1947 he worked for the BBC as Music Director of the German Service. In 1947 he became chorus master at Glyndebourne.
Between the 1950s and 1980s he composed very little and grew increasingly disillusioned. In the 1980s interest in his music grew again, and in 1987 he conducted his opera Beatrice Cenci for the first time. The opera had won a prize in an Arts Council competition during the Festival of Britain in 1951, but was not performed. Since the 1990s his music has been performed more widely, especially in Germany. An album of his major works, The Goldschmidt Album, was released by Decca in 1996.
Major Works
Der Gewaltige Hahnrei (Opera, 1929-30, first performed 1932)
String Quartet No.2 (1936)
Beatrice Cenci (Opera, 1949-59, first performed 1988)
Chronica (ballet, 1938)
Links and Sources
Berthold Goldschmidt on Desert Island Disks
Music and the Holocaust article on Goldschmidt’s work and legacy, with further reading
Berthold Goldschmidt on the website of Boosey & Hawkes
Busch, Barbara. ‘8 Preisgekrönt und doch kein Glück? Anmerkungen zu Berthold Goldschmidts Belcanto-Oper Beatrice Cenci’. In Music and Exile. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill (2023). doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004544109_010
Matthews, David. “Berthold Goldschmidt: A Biographical Sketch.” Tempo, no. 144 (1983): 2–6. doi:10.1017/S0040298200020702.
Read Goldschmidt’s own writing
Berthold Goldschmidt. “‘Brief Encounter, 1931.’” Tempo, no. 173 (1990): 3–5. http://www.jstor.org/stable/946392.
Berthold Goldschmidt. “Brief Encounter: Ferruccio Busoni.” Tempo, no. 176 (1991): 7–7. http://www.jstor.org/stable/944638.
