Austrian composer.

Career summary

Initially Goldschmidt worked for the Rothschild banking house in Vienna, but he abandoned that for the study of composition with Friedrich Adolf Wolf. His first success in the field, the oratorio Die sieben Todsünden (1876) earned Hanslick's disapproval as being imitative of Wagner. Thereafter, he wrote two operas and a dramatic tone-poem, a symphonic poem, songs, chamber music, and piano works. Goldschmidt's salon ‒ his address was Vienna I, Opernring 6 ‒ was an important center for Viennese musical life.

Goldschmidt and Schenker

Little is known of the relationship between Goldschmidt and Schenker. Schenker wrote a letter dated July 27, 1897 (OJ 6/3, [4]) to Moriz Violin when the latter was staying with Goldschmidt in Unterach am Attersee. Reference is made to him and his widow in Schenker's diaries for 1906 and 1907: December 21, 1906 ("Adalbert von Goldschmidt's death, in total solitude!"), January 7, 1907 ("In the evening, at Mrs. von Goldschmidt's place."), January 9, 1907 ("Goldschmidt's picture and songs, the scent of which lingers as a last remembrance.") (diaries, pp. 31-32).

Schenker attended his funeral on December 23, 1906 and accompanied the coffin to the grave, writing a sympathetic note in his diary, but describing himself as "at one time the person he most detested" ‒ although Schenker appears not, during his years as a music critic 1891‒1901, to have reviewed any of Goldschmidt's work.

Moriz Violin refers to him twice in his later correspondence with Arnold Schoenberg: LC ASC 27/45, [3], April 17, 1938 and LC ASC 27/45, [17], January 26, 1940, in the latter referring to him as "old Berty" in connection with a younger relative, Nicolaus Goldschmidt in San Francisco.

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