Goldschmidt, Berthold

▪ 1997

      German-born British composer (b. Jan. 18, 1903, Hamburg, Ger.—d. Oct. 17, 1996, London, Eng.), was among Germany's most promising composers when the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. After his work was banned, Goldschmidt fled to England in 1935; following decades of obscurity, however, his lyrical music enjoyed a triumphant renaissance in the 1980s and '90s. Goldschmidt, who was influenced by the music of Ferruccio Busoni and Gustav Mahler, was an assistant conductor (1926) at the Berlin State Opera before moving (1927) to the Darmstadt Opera, where in 1929 he became the company's composer in residence. During the early '30s he was an adviser to the Berlin Municipal Opera. Goldschmidt's first opera, Der gewaltige Hahnrei, premiered in Mannheim in 1932 and was the last opera by a Jewish composer to premiere in Germany before the Nazis took power. He became a British citizen in 1947, thereafter eking out a living as a teacher, singing coach, and occasional conductor while composing a number of works that were largely ignored. An unexpected commission in 1982 for his Clarinet Quartet began an extraordinary revival of interest in Goldschmidt's music. The first complete performance of his 1951 opera Beatrice Cenci was given in London in 1988. Goldschmidt's works were also featured at the 1987 and 1994 Berlin Festivals. In 1995, at age 92, Goldschmidt conducted the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in recordings of his 1925 overture, The Comedy of Errors, and a new rondeau he had composed for violin and orchestra. A cycle of French songs for baritone and orchestra, Les Petits Adieux, was completed in 1994.

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