Franz Schalk

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Franz Schalk (born 27 May 1863 in Vienna, died 3 September 1931 in Edlach, Austria) was an Austrian conductor.

He 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 of Vienna.

From 1918 to 1929 he was music director of the Vienna State Opera (between 1919 and 1924 this post was shared jointly with Richard Strauss). Later, Schalk was involved in the establishment of the Salzburg Festival.

His 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 Fifth Symphony 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.

Schalk also influenced revisions by Bruckner of his Third, Seventh and Eighth symphonies. In each case the version influenced by Schalk was the first published version.

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 production of the first published edition of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, where he was again accused of tampering with the text.

Some of Schalk's work as a conductor has been preserved and is available on CD.

Schalk gave the premiere of Richard Strauss's opera Die Frau ohne Schatten in 1919.