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Max Ast

born 1875; died 1964

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Austrian composer and conductor; program director for music at the Austrian Radio (RAVAG) 1924–35.

Max Ast was the first music program director of the Austrian Radio, appointed in 1924, including special broadcasts of contemporary Austrian works as well as other music repertories.

Max Ast and the Schenker Circle

Schenker’s diary reports his and Jeanette’s hearing Max Ast perform on the radio as pianist, singer, and conductor between 1925 and 1928. Ast was involved in a failed application to RAVAG by Moriz Violin in November 1934.

In March–April 1928, Ast appears to have obstructed the scheduling of broadcasting on musical subjects by Otto Erich Deutsch; their working relationship was improved through the intervention of science director Dr. Leopold Richtera.

Contributor

  • Ian Bent

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Correspondence

  • OJ 10/3, [81] Typewritten postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated March 25, 1928

    Deutsch’s plans to give a pre-concert talk on the radio have been messed up by Max Ast at Austrian Radio. -- He asks Schenker to tell him about the authentic copies of Beethoven’s works made for Archduke Rudolph. -- He has been on the track of a German mass for the dead by Schubert (the Deutsche Trauermesse) and would like to show Schenker his work on it.

  • OJ 10/3, [83] Typewritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated April 16, 1928

    Deutsch has had sharp words with Max Ast at Austrian Radio. He wants to give a talk on Schubert’s lost “Gastein” (or “Gmunden”) Symphony and hopes that publicity from the broadcasting company will eventually lead to the rediscovery of the manuscript. Eusebius Mandyczewski is preparing a new edition of the “Unfinished” Symphony for Breitkopf & Härtel; the Philharmonia pocket score, with Schenker’s and Deutsch’s revisions, is now in print. Deutsch has discovered that the first edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 90 exists in two versions.

  • OJ 10/3, [85] Typewritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated May 15, 1928

    Deutsch thanks Schenker for his kind words (about his recent radio broadcast) and describes the difficulties in preparing things for publication in Radio Wien. He informs Schenker that Brahms’s arrangement of a Schubert song has already been published. He has discovered that the Guitar Quartet believed to be by Schubert is an arrangement, and that an early cantata, Die Advokaten, is also based on the work of another composer.

  • OJ 10/3, [97] Typewritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated February 12, 1929

    Deutsch thanks Schenker for his recent postcard, then describes the circumstances of his recent and forthcoming radio programs, which include a series of concerts given by a “Kammerensemble” (chamber group) which includes professors from the Vienna Academy. He has been to a man named Villers, who has been reconstructing orchestral scores from piano reductions.

  • OJ 10/3, [101] Typewritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated May 8, 1929

    Deutsch reports that his series of radio concerts with professors from the Vienna Academy is in jeopardy, because of Max Ast’s lack of enthusiasm for them, and that Leopold Richtera has also let him down.

  • OJ 10/3, [104] Typewritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated July 28, 1929

    In a long letter, Deutsch thanks Schenker for encouraging him to apply for the post of Head Archivist at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde following the death of the previous postholder, Eusebius Mandyczewski, on July 13. He comments on the present state of play at the Archive, above all on its insecure position. — He also expresses his regret that Austrian Radio is no longer interested in his “Chamber Ensemble” broadcasts with professors from the Vienna Academy, and that some of the players are no longer enthusiastic about them; he hopes to start a new initiative of that sort in the autumn. — He is in good standing with Hoboken, but the work on his private library is not bringing him rewards. — He enjoyed his recent trip to Italy, and thinks that he might have become an art historian had he gotten to know the country earlier.

Diaries