Allow me: Emilie Goldberger, piano virtuoso!

Allow me: Emilie Goldberger, piano virtuoso!

Thank you for being here. One more person who is about to learn about an amazing woman from Vienna, whose piano playing drew applause from almost all of Europe: Emilie Goldberger (1858–1942). A web presence for a woman who was unknown for some 80 years until February 2023.

Clara Schumann (1819–1896) is known as the most important pianist of the 19th century – an icon, revered and appreciated worldwide, who was sometimes sneaked into concerts in disguise like the legendary Ethel Smyth (1858–1944). Today, no one knows Emilie Goldberger. She was one of those who made the pilgrimage from Vienna to Frankfurt am Main to Clara Schumann, in order to perfect her playing with this great master – she had graduated from the Vienna Conservatory with excellent grades and was already in demand as an aspiring pianist.

Until now nothing was known about Emilie Goldberger as a pupil of Clara Schumann. Why she discontinued her half-year study with this important musician and composer is still in the dark.

From Frankfurt am Main, Emilie Goldberger traveled through Europe for about four years with a special stay in Paris. Who was she able to meet there? Who listened to her there? Unfortunately, very, very much is still unknown about her life and work.

As brilliantly as Emilie Goldberger’s career began and flourished, her life ended abruptly and brutally as an 80-year-old in the Theresienstadt ghetto. One of about 50,000 from Austria, Vienna and the surrounding area who were driven to their deaths from the Aspang railway station in Vienna, one of more than 6,000,000 Jewish people who were deliberately, calculatedly and organizedly put to death under National Socialism.

Currently, this is the only web site dedicated to Emilie Goldberger. On these pages you will find interesting facts about Emilie Goldberger and her rediscovery, a timeline of her life and work so far, and repertoire that Emilie Goldberger played. This web presence is constantly being expanded, and scholarly publications are now in preparation.

Susanne Wosnitzka, August 2023

 

+++Update February 21, 2024+++
On April 1, the first academic publication on Emilie Goldberger in German will be published by Königshausen & Neumann in the anthology It’s a Man’s World? Künstlerinnen in Europas Musik-Metropolen des 20. Jahrhunderts (It’s a Man’s World? Female Artists in Europe’s Music Metropolises of the Early 20th Century), edited by Prof. Dr. Sabine Meine and Dr. Kai Müller. You can find more information here.

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