Music

The Eight Worlds of Violinist Szymon Goldberg

Forced to flee, the great violinist ended up performing the world over.
The Eight Worlds of Violinist Szymon Goldberg
The legendary violinist Szymon Goldberg was one of the greatest virtuosos of the 20th century. Courtesy of Szymon Goldberg website
Raymond Beegle
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Life, chance, destiny, whatever you wish to call it, sometimes leaves people settled snuggly in one place. Johann Sebastian Bach never ventured more than 150 miles from his childhood home, never left Germany; but then there is Szymon Goldberg (1909–1993), who moved from the small Polish town of Wloclawek to the great city of Berlin, then to Java, then to Australia, then to the United States, and finally to Japan where he died in his 84th year.

Goldberg, a contemporary of Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987) and David Oistrakh (1908–1974), was one of the world’s great violinists. The world-famous harpsichordist Wanda Landowska heard 8-year-old Szymon play, and arranged for him to move to Berlin and study with the masters. He was never to see his parents again.

Raymond Beegle
Raymond Beegle
Author
Raymond Beegle has performed as a collaborative pianist in the major concert halls of the United States, Europe, and South America; has written for The Opera Quarterly, Classical Voice, Fanfare Magazine, Classic Record Collector (UK), and The New York Observer. Beegle has served on the faculty of the State University of New York–Stony Brook, the Music Academy of the West, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. He taught in the chamber music division of the Manhattan School of Music for 31 years.