Partita

Dedicated to the conductor Erich Kleiber, who had given the successful first performance of the Passacaglia op.4, Goldschmidt’s Partita caused what the composer later remembered as ‘ein grossen Skandal’ at a performance in 1929, on account of what seemed to be the works’ uncompromising modern idiom. From today’s perspective, it seems to be an archetypal product of its time and place, and a work fully worthy of comparison with the contemporary masterpieces of Hindemith and Weill. At 25 minutes and in four substantial movements (including an amazing double-fugue finale), the Partita is Goldschmidt’s largest extant orchestral work and his most significant statement in the years leading up to Der gewaltige Hahnrei.