Not exactly unrecorded repertoire, but this combination of orchestra, conductor and label has been winning plaudits in other repertoire recently:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Karl-Goldmark-1830-1915-Symphonien-Nr-1-L%E4ndliche-Hochzeit-Nr-2/hnum/1765525 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Karl-Goldmark-1830-1915-Symphonien-Nr-1-L%E4ndliche-Hochzeit-Nr-2/hnum/1765525)
Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony is the perfect example of an old warhorse put out to grass. Good to see this coupling, though.
This is great news indeed! Why the Rustic Wedding is so neglected is something I don't understand, after all, Previn, Bernstein, Beecham had it in their repertoires and recorded it. Why did it fall by the wayside? But then that's a question we've all been asking for years...
The third movement of the 2nd has a slower theme in the middle that may not be a Austrian folk song but it sure sounds like one - and it's one of the most beguiling, beautiful themes in the whole repertoire as far as I'm concerned. Right up there with the big tune from the overture to The Wasps.
So the recording is with unfamiliar orchestra and conductor. I'll still take it. Love Goldmark.
I'm not (alas) in the position of being able to make deals with BIS. But if I was, I'd agreed to buy this CD if BIS undertook to record some of the other orchestral works. Goldmark wrote a number of concert overtures, symphonic poems etc, some of which are used as 'fillers' on discs of the symphonies or violin concerto. From what I've heard / read they seem rather good, but there are some which haven't been recorded. (Perhaps they're not all that good?)
There is, apparently, a second violin concerto but it was never published. Anyone know whether it ever gets performed?
Fortunately the chamber music and works for solo piano are pretty well represented. I'm full of praise for Goldmark's two Piano Quintets.
Would be really interesting to hear the operas besides Merlin and The Queen of Sheba. But that is probably like wishing for the moon, and anyway quite beyond the resources of BIS.
The 2nd violin concerto? You're more certain than I am that it ever even existed, or still does. As to whether it gets performed, almost certainly not. I know that people here and elsewhere have been asking after it for two decades straight; those questions would reduce to a trickle (one assumes; one hopes; well... maybe not, given how often one has to repeat oneself sometimes, true...) after a few such performances established its existence.
VC2? Not that old chestnut again. All we have is speculation, so let's not go down that road again, please.
I must put in a word here! I agree with Alan about the speculation angle but lets not forget that until we have some sort of proof we can't write off a piece as lost altogether. Look at Moszkowski's early Piano Concert [B minor?] A few years ago we could have argued that it was speculaion, a wrong wiki entry, Grove entry, etc.... but the manuscript was eventually found [even one of the symphonies also I believe!]. The more recent case of Stojowski's 3rd Piano Concerto which, it turned out never existed, was a result of many inquiries from many members.
The problem with Goldmark seems to be that there isn't a Goldmark specialist [for lack of a better term] amongst us. His catalog is incomplete. Let's answer some major question first like where are his manuscripts held? Are there any members here or elsewhere who has researched Goldmark. The existence of the 2nc concerto however speculative is interesting. Let's not write it of completely; instead ask some constructive question which might lead to some answers.
[PS: Old Grove is notorious for wrong entries! I once found a Violin Concerto in A Major by Glazunov, in addition to the well known A minor one! ;D]
Peter, in the Download Archive board here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1590.msg34742.html#msg34742) there are radio broadcasts of four of Goldmark's smaller orchestral works: the Overture to the Opera: Merlin (1886), the Sappho Overture op.44 (1893), the Overture to the Opera: Ein Wintermärchen (A Winter's Tale) (1907) and the Overture: Aus Jugendtagen (From Youth) op.53 (1913), together with his Ballade for Violin & Orchestra op.54 (1913). Not fabulous recordings, but good enough to get to know the music.
As for the Second Violin Concerto, what evidence is there that it ever existed? Are there letters from Goldmark or his contemporaries, are there newspaper reviews of its performance? I'm all for not writing something off as irretrievably lost if we are sure, or at least there is a shred of evidence, that it ever existed, but is that the case with Goldmark's Second Violin Concerto? It would be interesting to know what the earliest mention is of it.
Thanks Mark. I'll put an ear to those works in the Archives. (However my plea to BIS or whoever remains - in the ideal world we could do with good recordings of the orchestral works other than the symphonies).
Apologies to all for cluttering up the ether with talk of that alleged 2nd Vn Cte. (I should have trawled around earlier posts before blurting out). However I plead some innocence: Wiki mentions it, and in the New Grove of 1980 there's an entry that reads: "? Vn Conc. no 2". But your very last sentence, "It would be interesting to know what the earliest mention is of it", is an especially interesting one surely? OK, it is a question not about Goldmark or his music, but about those who compile catalogues or initiate rumours - but nonetheless an interesting question.
I do fully acknowledge FBerwald's point: a sensible person is one who is conscious that all claims are fallible and should be alert to new evidence. However on reflection I doubt if there is much reason to suppose there is such a work. For example, Hungaroton is a company quite renowned for research and scholarship. Their catalogue seems to contain recordings of just about every work of Goldmark, and had there been such a work I'm sure they would have pursued it.
So, yep, I'm happy that the old chestnut is laid to rest. But a last lingering question: what of the other four operas besides Merlin and Die Konigin von Saba? Prima facie it is odd that these are the first two operas Goldmark composed and we don't hear the later ones. Die Kreigsgefangene (1889) appears a particularly interesting one, as does Ein Wintermarchen (1908). Grove claims it "can be considered significant as a post-Wagner fairy-tale opera". That whets my appetite!
Grove online also has: "? Vn Conc. no.2". Grove 4 (pub. 1948) contains this mysterious entry at the end of Goldmark's works list: "Without opus numbers: ....and a second violin concerto", so these dictionary entries have been around for a while, obviously without any form of explanation. It could be a case of Chinese whispers, of course; in any case, I'm inclined to think that, if the work hasn't emerged in the past 65 years, then it probably never will. So, as I said before, unless there is some concrete information, let's not repeat the same debate that we've had before.
By far the best approach here is for someone among us to do some research him/herself and then report back. Any volunteers?
I'm not volunteering, but I have done a quick check of several musical dictionaries I have dating from the early 1900s and, although a Violin Concerto is mentioned in them all, there's no mention of a second one. I wonder if, after Goldmark died, some musicologist or dictionary compiler read about the Ballade, which is quite a late work (1913), and thought it a reference to a full-blown concerto? Wouldn't be the first time.
A quick check at the Fleisher library in Philadelphia and the Austrian National Library turn up nothing: only the violin concerto op 28 is listed in either source.
I'm thinking the National Széchényi Library catalogue (http://nektar2.oszk.hu/librivision_eng.html) might be the place to check for things Goldmark speaking generally - putting any putative 2nd violin concerto aside- but I may be wrong. They do seem to list 169 recordings and scores and books etc. under "Goldmark" (not all applying to Goldmark Károly, I'm sure. Still, no.4 is the autograph score of the 2nd symphony it seems? --
Zweite Symphonie für Grosses Orch. [zenemű kézirat] : Op.35 : partitúra : G 25 : autográf
So maybe this partially answers the question above about where Goldmark's manuscripts are- some of them are in that library.
hrm. They also have the autograph of the 1st violin concerto - or an earlier 0th concerto - I'm not sure. (The brief entry says
Conzert F violine mit orcht. [zenemű kézirat] : partitúra : G 19 : autográf / Goldmark Károly.
I assume F is brief for "für", but I don't know what "G 19" is in Goldmark's catalogue, so maybe this is actually an earlier work in F major that's only available in autograph manuscript - in which case it really is a find. I doubt it and suspect this is the autograph of the A minor. )
Perhaps an email to Budapest might be the best way forward? By the way, Eric, I can't make your link work.
That keeps happening, I think I know why, but I really need to test such things. Very very sorry... Fixed now, I hope.
Worked fine for me, Alan.
And now for me too. Thanks, Eric, for the adjustment.
Again, sorry about that. Some odd special-character thing from where I was cutting/pasting. I need to be more careful.
Anyhow, they do seem to have a lot of Goldmark's ms there and what seem to be early editions, etc.- I wonder if they will ever consider digitizing them :) (perhaps those of some other Hungarian composers too, I don't doubt.)
That something is mentioned in Grove is absolutely no guarantee of its existence. When it comes to "unsungs" that work is littered with errors - the 2nd PC of Bronsart, listed in one edition, comes to mind: the error was corrected in the next ed.
Looking through the various editions of Hugo Riemann's Musik-lexikon the 1887 edition lists a single violin concerto (http://archive.org/stream/musiklexikon03riemgoog#page/n356/mode/1up) which Reimann describes as "ein forciert pikantes violinkonzert." The 1894 edition lists zwei violinkonzerte (http://archive.org/stream/musiklexikon01riemgoog#page/n394/mode/1up). Subsequent volumes at least down to the 1959 edition list two. In that volume it lists the A minor Opus 28 and "eins ohne Opuszahl."
Oh, well done!
So there is at least a historical precedent for what appears in Grove.
And, crucially, it's a reference well within Goldmark's lifetime, at a time when he was still a prominent composer, so to my mind it lends a lot of credence to the idea that he might have written a second concerto. He wrote a memoir: Notes from the Life of a Viennese Composer, which was published posthumously in 1927 in the USA in an English translation by Alice Goldmark Brandeis (a relative, I guess). I wonder if that has a reference to a second concerto or if it has a work list? Google Books list the book, but in the UK at least it isn't fully readable, and I can't find another digital copy online. It may be worth tracking down the memoir, but the only second hand copies I can find online are ridiculously expensive.
Hrm. Alice Goldmark Brandeis...
maybe also(?) related to composer Friedrich (Frederick) Brandeis? I wonder.
One for the Genealogy sites, so far as they are trustworthy...
"Louis D. Brandeis: A Life" has what a quick summary skim of a description suggests may be love letters from Louis Brandeis to an Alice Goldmark. So maybe not to the composer Friedrich Brandeis, but to the (very much) more famous Louis Brandeis. Interesting!!!
Alice Goldmark-Brandeis, 1866 to 1945. Bio. (http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/brandeis-alice-goldmark)
Randy Schoenberg has maintained what seems a detailed genealogy of the various branches of the Goldmark family at geni.com . Alice Goldmark-Brandeis - mother Regine Rozine Goldmark (Wehle) (1835-1924, born in Bohemia), father Dr. Joseph Jakob Goldmark (1819 - 1881) (born in Poland) - does not seem closely related to the Carl Goldmark/Rubin/etc. Goldmarks. from what I can tell anyway...no, that's not true.
Joseph Jakob Goldmark was one of Karl Goldmark (1830-1915)'s _brothers_ - their father was Ruben Goldmark (1798-1868). So yes, you're quite right. So I guess that makes Alice Goldmark Karl's niece?...
Hrmph. So his nephew teaches Aaron Copland, and his niece marries Louis Brandeis. They're taking over the USA (I mean we, actually. I think his family came from the same countries, more or less, as my ancestors...well, mine didn't come from Poland, but Hungary, Germany, yes.) :D
On the subject of Goldmark's orchestral music, does anyone know of a recording (or better still have an uploadable version!) of, his Scherzo in A major, Op.45. I've had it on my wants list for years. ::)
Can't help with the Scherzo, Colin, but I have tracked down a cheap(er) copy of Goldmark's autobiography. It'll be interesting on its own account, but in particular as soon as it arrives I'll see if it helps on the question of whether he wrote a second violin concerto. Riemann recorded the second concerto as early as 1894 and the autobiography was only published in 1922, after Goldmark's death, so with any luck its writing will post-date 1894 by quite a few years. I'll post as soon as I've had chance to look it over.
Sheetmusicplus has two copies of the Scherzo in A - one for $110 and the other for $20. Both are the 1980s Kalmus reprint. I wonder if one is a piano reduction... doesn't say.
Thanks very much for the Scherzo recording, Matthias. Very kind of you.
Oh, Matthias! Thank you so much for the Scherzo. That is very kind of you, and much appreciated. :) :)
I'll second that THank You.....
Jerry
Returning to the question of a second violin concerto, I've now had the chance to scan Goldmark's autobiography. Not only is there no catalogue of works in his book, Goldmark makes no mention anywhere of the Violin Concerto, never mind a second one. He appears to have been writing in 1912, but the autobiography effectively finishes in 1896, with the appearance of his opera The Cricket on the Hearth. Rieman's first listing of two violin concertos appeared in 1894. However, in his 1921 foreword to Goldmark's book, the Viennese musicologist Ferdinand Scherber (1874-1944) wrote "The popularity of The Queen of Sheba, the violin concertos, The Rustic Wedding, and other compositions never faded". Interesting, but maddeningly inconclusive.
This obituary of Goldmark appeared in the Musical Times 1 February 1915:
It is announced from Vienna that CARL GOLDMARK, the composer of the popular opera 'Der Königin von Saba,' has died, at the age of eighty-four. He was born, of a Jewish family, at Keszthaly, Hungary, showed early talent for the violin, and entered the Vienna Conservatoire, where he studied also composition and the pianoforte. In 1860 he definitely settled at Vienna as a teacher, and soon won recognition as a composer. The well-known 'Sakuntala' Overture was first performed at a Philharmonic Concert in 1865. 'Der Königin von Saba' appeared in 1875 after ten years of slow creation and careful revision, and was successful from the first. Being based upon a Biblical story it has not yet been staged in England. Goldmark's later operas are 'Merlin,' 'Das Heimchen am Herd,' 'Die Kriegsgefangene,' 'Götz von Berlichingen,' and 'Der Fremdling.' He wrote two Violin concertos; a Symphony in E flat; six Orchestral overtures, of which 'Sakuntala' and 'Im Frühling' are well known, other orchestral works including a Symphonic-poem, 'Zrinyi'; 'Frühlingshymne' for alto solo, chorus and orchestra; choral songs ; concerted chamber music; violin and pianoforte works, and songs. He was a strong supporter of Wagner, whose works he praised, early in the 'sixties, in his capacity of musical critic. Goldmark's music is characterized by an easy command of colour and effect, by abundant vitality, and by melodic interest.
You're putting a great deal of energy into sleuthing this one out, Mark!
I suppose - dismal comment as it is - that the Musical Times is just repeating something the author has read elsewhere? That, after all, is just what journalists do - both then and indeed now.
Hrm. I'm curious about that Spring-hymn, too - if it's any good anyways. :)
Thank goodness for sleuths !
My father was a detective. Must be in the blood.
Thanks to Mark we seem to have established there is not an unreasonable chance that Goldmark did indeed write 2 Violin Concertos. Now where is the score of that second one?
That's kind, Gareth, but I don't think that I have established that he wrote two violin concertos. There is certainly now a lot of quite early circumstantial evidence, but that's not proof. Barring tracking down the manuscript, what I'd like to find is a contemporary werkverzeichnis or a report of a performance of the second one. Then, we could be sure.
Agreed. I will moderate my comment to "established there is a not unreasonable likelihood..." etc.
To Mark Thomas:
Thank you very much for the uploads of Goldmark's works (the overture to "A Winter's Tale" is especially a very fine work and I enjoyed listening to it).
Dave.