Franz Schalk
Franz Schalk (27 May 1863 – 3 September 1931) was an
Austrian
conductor.
From 1918
to 1929 he was director of the Vienna State Opera
, a post he held jointly with Richard Strauss from 1919 to 1924.
Later, Schalk was involved in the establishment of the
Salzburg Festival.
Biography
Schalk was
born in Vienna
, Austria, where he
later studied under composer Anton Bruckner. From 1900 he was first
kapellmeister of the Vienna Court
Opera. Between 1904 and 1921 he was head of the
Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde Vienna. In 1918 he became director of the Vienna
State Opera; however from 1919 he was co-director with Richard
Strauss, and the well-known composer was "blatantly (though
unofficially) the 'greater equal' of the pair". Tensions resulting
from unclear division of responsibility between the two men
eventually led to Strauss's resignation.
Schalk's most famous quote is
"Every theatre is an insane
asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the
incurables."
Today Schalk is most famous for his work popularizing and revising
the symphonies of his teacher Bruckner. He gave the premiere of
Bruckner's
Symphony
No. 5 in
1894, but in a version much affected by cuts and changes, most of
which are thought to have been made without Bruckner's approval.
The ailing composer was too sick to attend the premiere. Schalk's
version of the Fifth Symphony was the one chosen for first
publication and was the only version heard by audiences for almost
forty years.While many critics have attacked Schalk for his
alterations to the original versions of Bruckner's works, others
have pointed out that without his popularizing work Bruckner's
music might have remained unknown. The conductor
Leon Botstein is a prominent advocate of
Schalk's versions of Bruckner's music. Schalk was also involved in
the early publication of
Mahler's
Symphony No.
10.
Schalk gave the premiere of
Richard
Strauss's opera
Die Frau
ohne Schatten in 1919. Some of his work as a conductor has
been preserved and is available on CD. Schalk's elder brother
Joseph was also a prominent conductor
and musician.
References
External links
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