Karl Goldmark

Karl Goldmark was born in 1830 in Keszthely, Hungary, one of many children of a poor Jewish cantor, and had little formal training; he learned much of his craft on his own while scraping by as a theater violinist in Vienna. That city became his home, and he gradually rose from obscurity to become one of its established musical figures, a friend of Brahms and a respected teacher.

Fame arrived in 1875 with his opera The Queen of Sheba, which held the Vienna stage for decades. His concert music blends warm Romantic melody with a taste for the exotic and the picturesque, and for a time it was played everywhere. He lived to 84, long enough to see tastes move past him, and died in Vienna in 1915.

Start with the Rustic Wedding symphony, a genial set of country scenes, then the Violin Concerto no. 1 in A minor, still a favorite of violinists hunting beyond the standard concertos.