Max Kalbeck
Max Kalbeck (4 January 18504 May 1921) was a German music critic, writer and translator. Best known as a biographer of his friend Johannes Brahms, he became one of the most influential critics in Austria. He was bitterly opposed to the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf. • Illustration — Kalbeck before 1902
Max Kalbeck
Aus Spemanns goldenes Buch des Theaters (1902). Scan- Goerdten 22:31, 4. Feb. 2007 (CET) · Public domain
- Born
- 1850. · Wrocław.
- Died
- 1921. · Vienna.
- Nationality
- Germany.
- Occupation
- poet, writer, translator, musicographer, critic and librettist.
- Languages
- German.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q71192 · wikipedia · Max Kalbeck
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Early life
Early life
Kalbeck was born in Breslau and studied music in Munich. In 1875, he became the music-critic for the Schlesische Zeitung and assistant director of the Breslau Museum. He came to Vienna 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
Career
Kalbeck was a close friend and partisan of Johannes Brahms. Kalbeck's principal achievement was his eight-volume biography 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 and Paul Heyse, as well as publishing two collections of his music reviews. Kalbeck wrote new libretti for Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne and La finta giardiniera; and he revised those of Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro for Gustav Mahler's productions at the Vienna Hofoper. 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.
Documentary record
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek records Vienna as a place of activity.
Personal life
Personal life
In 1921, Kalbeck died in Vienna. He was 71.
Documentary record
Max Kalbeck, a music critic, writer on music, theatre critic, editor, librettist and critic, was born on 4 January 1850 in Breslau and died in 1921 in Vienna. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1850
Max Kalbeck born at Wrocław.
1921
Max Kalbeck died at Vienna.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Wrocław.
Birth place
Vienna.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q71192: Max Kalbeck
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Max Kalbeck”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Kalbeck, Max; Ps. Jeremias Deutlich
Scholarly · Crossref registry
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Max Kalbeck, revision 1358628386 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Helge Dvorak: Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft. Band II: Künstler. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5, S. 375–376.
- 2.ANNO, Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, 1881-05-29, Seite 3.
- 3.Karl Kraus: Der Fall Kalbeck. In: Die Fackel, 9, 1904, Nr. 158, S. 1–13.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Kalbeck, Max; Ps. Jeremias DeutlichCrossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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