GOLDMARK Karl (G-55)

Hungarian-born Viennese composer. Goldmark came from a large Jewish family. Among the musical influences Goldmark absorbed was the inescapable one, for a musical colorist, of Richard Wagner, whose anti-semitism stood in the way of any genuine warmth between them; in 1872 Goldmark took a prominent role in the formation of the Vienna Wagner Society. He was made an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Budapest and shared with Richard Strauss an honorary membership in the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome. Goldmark's opera Die Königin von Saba ("The Queen of Sheba"), Op. 27 was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years thereafter. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 28, was once his most frequently played piece. The concerto had its première in Bremen in 1877, initially enjoyed great popularity and then slid into obscurity.