Max Kalbeck (January 4, 1850May 4, 1921) was a German writer, critic and translator. He became one of the most influential critics in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and was bitterly opposed to the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf.

Early life

Kalbeck was born in Breslau and studied music in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. In 1875, he became the music-critic for the ''Schlesische Zeitung'' and assistant director of the Breslau Museum. He came to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1880 on the invitation of Eduard Hanslick, first as critic of the ''Allgemeine Zeitung'' and then, from 1886 till his death, of the ''Neue Wiener Tagblatt''.

Career

Kalbeck was a close friend and partisan of Johannes Brahms. Kalbeck's principal achievement was his eight-volume

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

of that composer, published from 1904 to 1914, which has never been translated into English. Kalbeck also edited several volumes of Brahms's correspondence and in 1918, the letters of the poets

Gottfried Keller Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 – 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel '' Green Henry'' (German: ''Der grüne Heinrich'') and his cycle of novellas called ''The People from Seldwyla'' (''Die Leu ...

and

Paul Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the '' Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and ''Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote n ...

, as well as publishing two collections of his own music reviews. Kalbeck wrote new

libretti A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...

for Mozart's ''

Bastien und Bastienne ' (''Bastien and Bastienne''), K. 50 (revised in 1964 to K. 46b) is a one-act singspiel, a comic opera, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ' was one of Mozart's earliest operas, written in 1768 when he was only twelve years old. It was allegedly commi ...

'' and ''

La finta giardiniera ' ("The Pretend Garden-Girl"), K. 196, is an Italian-language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on 13 January at the in Munich. There is deb ...

''; and he revised those of '' Don Giovanni'' and '' The Marriage of Figaro'' for Gustav Mahler's productions at the

Vienna Hofoper The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August S ...

. In addition, he supplied lyrics for the songs in the operetta ''Jabuka'' by Johann Strauss II, the dialogue and plot being the work of Gustav Davis. Kalbeck also wrote poetry and Brahms set a few of his verses to music as songs.

Personal life

In 1921, Kalbeck died in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He was 71.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalbeck, Max 1850 births 1921 deaths German music critics German male non-fiction writers Austrian music critics Austrian male writers Austrian people of Prussian descent Austrian people of German descent People from the Province of Silesia Writers from Wrocław Brahms scholars 19th-century musicologists