Max Kalbeck (he also wrote under the pseudonym "Jeremias Deutlich") became a choirboy in Breslau under Leopold Damrosch in 1861 and a church singer in 1867. From 1860 until graduating from high school in 1869, he attended the ''Gymnasium zu St. Maria Magdalena'' in his hometown. At his father's request, he then studied law in Breslau. During his studies he became a member of the fraternity ''Arminia Breslau'' in 1869.[1] In 1872, he transferred to the University of Munich, where he took philology and philosophy and studied at the Royal Bavarian School of Music under Joseph Rheinberger (composition), Franz Wüllner (choral singing, orchestral playing score reading) and Josef Walter (violin). Back in Breslau, from 1874 he was an art and music critic at the ''Schlesische Zeitung'', ''Breslauer Zeitung'', and then assistant director at the ''Schlesisches Museum der Bildenden Künste'' in Breslau. In 1880, Kalbeck came to Vienna on the recommendation of Eduard Hanslick, first as a critic at the ''Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung'', ''die Presse'' (1883-1890), and from 1886 until his death at the ''Neues Wiener Tagblatt''. He became one of the most influential critics in Austria and like Hanslick, was a fierce opponent of the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner, and Hugo Wolf, whose works were then classified as belonging to the New German School.
On the other hand, Kalbeck, again like Hanslick, became a close friend and partisan of Brahms, whom he had met in 1874. His most important achievement is considered to be his extensive biography of this composer, published from 1904 to 1914. It remains an essential music-historical source to this day, notwithstanding some time-bound errors and the sometimes very subjectively colored accounts. Kalbeck also published several volumes of Brahms's correspondence, in addition to the correspondence between the poets Gottfried Keller and Paul Heyse in 1918, and two collections of his own reviews.
In addition to translating opera libretti, especially by Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Puccini, and Smetana, Kalbeck wrote new libretti for Mozart's ''Bastien und Bastienne'' and ''La Finta Giardiniera'', among others. Furthermore, he revised those of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro for Gustav Mahler's productions at the Vienna Court Opera. Kalbeck also contributed poems for the songs in the operetta ''Jabuka'' by Johann Strauss (son).
