|
There is a righteous man perishing in righteousness, and there is a wicked man living long in his evil-doing. Kohelet 7:15 |
Isador Goodman AM (27 May 19092 December 1982) was a South African-Australian Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. He became a household name in Australia in the 1930s-1970s, taught at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music for 50 years, introduced many Australians to classical music, and contributed hugely to music making in his adopted country.
Contents |
Moses Isidore Goodman was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1909 to musical parents of Jewish descent. He started studying music early, as well as composing, and one of his compositions was performed when he was only six. At age seven Goodman played the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. His father died when he was 12, and he moved to London with his mother.
Goodman studied piano at the Royal College of Music with Lloyd Powell (1888–1975), who had been a student of Busoni and Clara Schumann, and conducting with Constant Lambert. In 1924, at age 15, Goodman played the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat under Malcolm Sargent. This concerto was to become his "calling card".
His mother remarried, choosing an uncle of her first husband; when they returned to South Africa, they left Goodman in London because of its greater musical opportunities.
In 1929 at age 20, Goodman accepted an offer to teach at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, Australia. This offer was made by the director, W. Arundel Orchard, over much opposition because local musicians opposed bringing in a man from abroad for a coveted position. Goodman was to teach at "the Con", on and off, for 50 years. While "Professor of Piano by day, he would play all night at jazz clubs in the company of 'hardened drinkers and SP bookies'."
After attending two of Goodman's recitals in 1931, when the young man was 22, the English critic Neville Cardus, who until then had never heard of the musician, described him as"the best pianist in Australia. I would cheerfully stake my reputation on Mr Goodman's playing in any capital city of Europe in pieces definitely pianistic or romantic in style. ... he is a natural pianist, he plays the piano as most of the rest of us breathe ... I did not believe it possible that I could ever again listen to the D flat Waltz of Chopin with virgin and delighted ears. But Mr Goodman rippled the hackneyed piece as though for the first time - Horowitz himself could not have recreated it anew with more enchanting touch and tone and rhythm".
Goodman became well known in society circles, and received the patronage and personal friendship of the Governor of New South Wales Sir Philip Game and Lady Game. Goodman was at Government House for dinner with the Games one night in May 1932. After the governor was repeatedly interrupted for consultation, Goodman asked if he ought to leave. Game replied, "No, that's not necessary, you see, I am about to dismiss the Premier".
Later in 1932 Goodman toured Australia and New Zealand for the Tait organisation as associate artist for the visiting Scottish tenor Joseph Hislop. They did not get on, as Hislop felt Goodman was upstaging him. They came to blows. On 1 July 1932 Goodman was soloist in a concert by the National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. This was the forerunner of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which was broadcast live from the Conservatorium to mark the official start of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
He became musical directors at cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne, and would play classical pieces in between films. Goodman accompanied the English actor Noël Coward in Melbourne in 1940. In 1942 during World War II, he joined the Australian Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He gave 200 performances to over 150,000 servicemen. In September 1944 he was discharged as medically unfit. He dedicated his New Guinea Fantasy for piano and orchestra to the Australian servicemen.
After the war, Goodman returned to Britain. His farewell performance at the Sydney Town Hall included the first performance in Australia of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7. Despite playing at a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at St. James’s Palace in October 1948, Goodman could not find steady work in England in the postwar years.
He returned to Australia, this time permanently. In 1955 he wrote a lush, impressionist score for the Australian director Charles Chauvel’s landmark 1955 film Jedda, about Aborigines. Elsa Chauvel, the director's wife, scrapped the most innovative passages and replaced them with old-fashioned commercial ‘mood’ music. Goodman's music was recently called too European to be appropriate for the film about Aborigines but that was typical of the time.
In 1956 Isador Goodman played on the opening night of television station TCN9 in Sydney, and became the channel’s musical director for two years. In 1967 Goodman returned to teaching at the NSW Conservatorium.
In 1969 he was seriously injured in a car crash, which sidelined him for four years. Goodman made a triumphant return to the concert platform with an all-Chopin recital in Sydney in 1973. Later that year he played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the first series of concerts at the new Sydney Opera House. In February 1974 he appeared in concerts conducted by Arthur Fiedler. In 1975, he played Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 at the "Concert for Darwin", staged to raise funds for the city devastated by Cyclone Tracy.
He appeared in a recital at the new Melbourne Concert Hall (now Hamer Hall) on 31 July 1982. His last recital was at the Sydney Town Hall on 26 September 1982.
Goodman died of cancer on 2 December 1982. Later the same day, his lifelong friend Lindley Evans also died.
Found error in text? Please select it and press CTRL-ENTER
© 2008-2024, JewAge.org
Discussion
Please log in / register, to leave a comment