Max Kästl
Max Kästl was born on 9 February 1862 in Munich (Germany). He showed considerable musical talent at an early age and received a professional training as a violinist. From 1873 to 1876 he studied violin at the Royal Music School in Munich under Joseph Walter. Already as a teenager Kästl appeared in the public concerts of the institution. On 14 January 1876, at the age of thirteen, he performed Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A major, op. 47 ("Kreutzer Sonata"), together with the pianist Ludwig Ritter von Duniecki. He also appeared as soloist in the first movement of a violin concerto by Giovanni Battista Viotti.
According to later biographical accounts, Kästl subsequently continued his musical education in Leipzig. After completing his studies and his military service, he became music director of the Kurkapelle in Bad Kissingen. He later moved to Vienna and travelled through Europe as a violin soloist. At some point he returned to Munich, where he became music director of the orchestra of the Royal Theatre. The precise chronology of these early professional appointments has not yet been established.
In 1892 Kästl emigrated to the United States and joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. He subsequently moved to Baltimore, where he became concertmaster of the orchestra then generally known as the Baltimore Orchestra. He was also active as a violin teacher and became associated with the Peabody Institute; the Preparatory School itself opened in 1894, so his teaching there must have begun in or after that year. Kästl thus established himself in the United States primarily as an orchestral violinist and teacher.
Kästl suffered from chronic kidney disease, which repeatedly affected his ability to perform. Nevertheless, he continued his musical career and during his later years was a member of the Washington orchestra conducted by Reginald de Koven. His declining health eventually forced him to reduce his professional activities. Max Kästl died of Bright's disease on 31 October 1907 in Baltimore (USA), aged only 45.
Kästl also composed, although only a small part of his output appears to have survived or been published. Among the works associated with him are a Concert-Polka, the Pfarrer-Kneipp-Marsch for piano and a violin concerto. The Pfarrer-Kneipp-Marsch was published in Munich by Joseph Aibl already in the early 1890s; an edition is documented in 1891 and the work was also listed in Hofmeister's publications in 1893.
Max Kästl should not be confused with another musician of nearly the same name, Max Kastl, who was born in Munich on 5 May 1885 and later worked in Frankfurt as a pianist, music teacher, writer and music publisher. The younger Kastl's currently known compositions consist mainly of piano pieces dating from 1907 onwards, and no activity as a violinist has so far been documented.
In my possession is a handwritten, most likely autograph manuscript of a Komisches Violinconcert ("Funny Violin Concerto") by Max Kästl. The score is written for violin and piano and is accompanied by a separate violin part; it is unknown whether an orchestral version of the work ever existed. The manuscript is undated. Its paper, musical handwriting, annotations in German Kurrent script and general appearance suggest a date in the late nineteenth or possibly very early twentieth century. Since Max Kästl permanently emigrated to the United States in 1892 and no later return to Germany is known, while the manuscript itself remained in Germany, it seems most likely that the concerto was composed before his emigration and was either given to another musician or left behind in Germany. A composition date in the 1880s or early 1890s therefore appears plausible, although this cannot presently be proven.
The manuscript bears a simple blue ownership stamp reading "Jos. Greif". The identity of this former owner has not yet been established. No other copy, publication or documented performance of the Komisches Violinconcert has so far been traced.
The score of the Violin concerto by Max Kästl can be downloaded below:
