Niki Goldschmidt: A Life in Canadian Music
Description
Contains Photos, Bibliography, Index
$50.00
ISBN 0-8020-4807-2
DDC 782.1'092
Author
Publisher
Year
Contributor
W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.
Review
Nicholas Goldschmidt—conductor, pianist, singer, and above all
impresario—has probably done more for the flowering of Canadian music
than any other person. This biography, published only a few months
before his death, is a highly readable, even joyous celebration of a
remarkable musician and an even more remarkable human being. (The
diminutive in the title, Niki rather than Nicholas, is not an example of
trendy familiarity but a recognition of the informal friendliness
induced by the man in everyone who knew him.)
It is an extraordinary story, beginning in the aristocratic privilege
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908, and culminating in Canada from
the end of World War II to the opening of the new millennium. Niki, who
had a finger in just about every Canadian musical pie of any substance,
helped to found the Canadian Opera Company; organized festivals of
international calibre in Vancouver, Guelph, and elsewhere; brought the
Peking Opera to Canada as early as 1960; planned the musical
celebrations in Canada’s centennial year; and produced numerous choral
festivals in Toronto in his later years, continuing well into his
nineties.
Gwenlyn Setterfield tells her story well, providing an engaging mixture
of solid information and amusing anecdotes, revealing the man’s
humour, charm, persuasiveness as an organizer and fundraiser,
unparalleled energy, and genuinely serious artistry combined with
passionate commitment to all aspects of good music.
My one complaint about this almost-perfect book relates to the
wretchedly inadequate index, which completely omits a number of people
of note and even misses references to several others who are only
spottily listed. The volume’s usefulness as a work of reference will
suffer in consequence.
But that is, ultimately, a minor matter. The book itself does justice
to a man who provided the leadership in making Canada, musically
speaking, a civilized place. Forget the small-minded critics who speak
sneeringly of “Eurocentrism.” Niki brought the best of the European
musical tradition, its discipline and high standards, with him when he
came to the New World. We are all of us deeply in his debt.