Beer, Max Josef:

By: Isidore Singer , Joseph Sohn

Austrian pianist and composer; born at Vienna Aug. 25, 1851. He studied with Dessoff, and was still very young when, on the recommendation of Hanslick, Dessoff, and Herbeck, he on three different occasions received emolument from the Austrian government for the compositions "Ariadne auf Naxos," "Die Auferweckung des Lazarus," and a number of songs. Beer, who in 1901 was living at Vienna, is the composer of the following operas: "Otto der Schütz"; "Der Pfeiferkönig"; "Friedel mit der Leeren Tasche," performed at Prague, 1892; "Der Streik der Schmiede," oneact opera, first performed at Augsburg, 1897. He also wrote the operetta, "Das Stelldichein auf der Pfahlbrücke"; the cantata, "Der Wilde Jäger"; the lyrical pieces, "Abendfeier," "Eichendorffiana," "Haidebilder," "Spielmannsweisen," "Was sich der Wald Erzählt"; a pianoforte-suite; and several books of songs. Of these works, "Der Streik der Schmiede" is generally considered the best. In this little opera, which was also successfully performed at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, Beer displays a fine mastery of vocalization. The prize operetta, "Das Stelldichein auf der Pfahlbrücke," has likewise met with favorable recognition. Among the literary productions of Beer may be mentioned a contribution to Wagnerian literature entitled "Eva Pogner."