Goldmark: Rustic Wedding Symphony / In The Spring

Description

Karl Goldmark (1830 - 1915)Overture: Im Fr??hling (In the Spring), Op. 36 Landliche Hochzeit (Rustic Wedding), Op. 26 Hochzeitsmarsch (Wedding March): Variations Brautlied (Bridal Song): Intermezzo Serenade: Scherzo Im Garten (In the Garden): Andante Tanz (Dance): Finale Overture: In Italien (In Italy), Op. 49Karl Goldmark was born in the Hungarian town of Keszthely in1830, three years before the birth of Brahms in Hamburg, and died in Vienna in 1915 fouryears after the death of Mahler, three years before the death of Debussy. His careerspanned a long period of great musical change, although he remained himself firmly in thetradition of Mendelssohn, tempered by the influence of Wagner and Liszt. He was one of afamily of twenty , familiar from childhood with the music of the countryside and of thesynagogue. The size of the family and the modest resources of his father deprived him of aconsistent education and he had his first instruction on the violin from a local choirmember in 1841 in Deutsch-Kreuz, where his family had settled in 1834. In 1842 hecontinued his music studies in the nearby town of ?ûdenburg and two years later was sentby his father to Vienna, where he was able to study for some eighteen months with Jansabefore lack of money compelled cessation of this course, leaving him to teach himself inpreparation for entry first to the Vienna Technical School and then to the Conservatory tostudy the violin with Joseph Bohm. The disturbances of1848 and the temporary closure ofthe Conservatory brought a return to Deutsch-Kreuz and work in the theatre orchestra in?ûdenburg, followed in 1851 by similar employrnent in Vienna at the Josefstadt Theatre andlater at the Carlstheater. Here he acquired a thorough practical knowledge of theatre music that was of use to him in his ownwork as a composer.Goldmark's first concert of his own compositions in Vienna in1858 was not well received, inducing him to move to Budapest, where he supported himselfby teaching, while studying traditional textbooks on the techniques of composition and themusic of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. By 1860 he was again in Vienna, where he wonsuccess with his Opus 8 string quartet and began to establish himself as a music criticand fervent supporter of the cause of Wagner . His importance as a composer was fullyestablished with his Overture Sakuntala in 1865, reinforced ten years later by the mostsignificant of his operas, Die Konigin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba). Official honours inVienna and Budapest confirmed his leading position in the musical world of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, an eminence acknowledged also in Italy, where DieKonigin vonSabawon immediate popularity. His later operas include Merlin, Das Heimchen am Herd (TheCricket on the Hearth), based on Dickens, Die Kriegsgefangene (Briseis) (The Prisoner ofWar), Gotz von Berlichingen, after Goethe, and, with greater success, Ein Wintermarchen(A Winter's Tale), from Shakespeare. In orchestral repertoire his works in