Karl Muck (22 October 1859 – 3 March 1940) was a German conductor
Born in Darmstadt, Germany, Muck earned a Ph.D. in classical philolology at Heidelberg. An early love for music led him to take piano lessons. After earning his doctorate, Muck entered the Leipzig Conservatory. He began conducting in 1884 and led orchestras in Zurich, Brno, Salzburg, Graz, and Prague. In 1892 he began conducting the Royal Opera in Berlin, where he remained until 1912. Along the way he also conducted at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth and also worked with the Vienna Philharmonic.[1]
He became music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1912. He was considered a modern, adventurous conductor and was responsible for leading the orchestra in historic recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey, in 1917.
In 1918, Muck was accused of sympathizing with the enemy during World War I for conducting performances of German music. After supposedly declining the request of a performance of the Star Spangled Banner during a concert in Providence, Rhode Island, Muck was arrested under the Alien Enemies Act and imprisoned at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia for the duration of the war.[2] After his deportation from the United States, he never returned. Muck is one of two German conductors expelled from the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity in 1919 for sympathizing with the Central powers. He had been elected to national honorary membership in the Fraternity in 1915.[3]
Muck went on to lead the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, made additional recordings, and appeared regularly in Bayreuth.
Muck died in Stuttgart, Germany. Upon is death, Geraldine Farrar wrote a letter to the New York Times recalling that she sang with him and the Boston Symphony on the night when Muck was "bitterly and unjustly assailed" for not playing the National Anthem and adding: "As your editorial correctly reports, he knew nothing of the request." She continued: "The fortunes of war brought Dr. Muck–as well as other aliens–no disgrace in an internment camp. I saw Dr. Muck several times in later years and I know he counted the years with the Boston Symphony Orchestra among the happiest and most fruitful of his career."[4]
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Karl Muck, (his first name is sometimes spelt Carl, his surname rhymes with “book”) ( born Darmstadt, 22 October 1859; died Stuttgart, 4 March 1940 was a German conductor. He was one of the greatest conductors of his day, especially famous for his conducting of operas by Richard Wagner.
Karl Muck’s father was a Bavarian politician and amateur musician. After his school years he studied music at the Conservatory in Würzburg. He also studied classical philology at the University of Heidelberg. In 1877 he continued his music studies in Leipzig, learning the piano with Carl Reinecke. His first public performance was in 1880, the year in which he graduated with a doctorate, playing the piano in the Piano Concerto by Xaver Scharwenka at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Soon he spent all his time conducting operas. He conducted in Zürich, Salzburg, Brno and Graz, and got a conductor’s job in Prague and later in Berlin. He conducted the operas of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with great success as well as many performances of Parsifal. In 1912 he became the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and from 1922 until he retired in 1933 he conducted the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Muck was one of the first conductors to be internationally famous for travelling about conducting orchestras in many parts of the world. He was a strict conductor who thought it was very important that the players should do exactly what the composer asks for in the score.
He was imprisoned in the United States during the war because of his support for Germany and because he refused to conduct the Star Spangled Banner. After the war he was sent away and not allowed to return to America. After his death a square in Hamburg was named after him, although in 1997 it was renamed “Johannes Brahms Square” because Muck had praised Adolf Hitler.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians ed. Stanley Sadie; 1980; ISBN1-56159-174-2
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