Schillings, Max von (1868-1933)

German conductor and composer. His best known work is the opera Mona Lisa in which his wife, the soprano Barbara Kemp, sang the lead.

He studied at Bonn and Munich, where he settled, taking part in performances of Wagner's operas at Bayreuth. In 1908 he went to Stuttgart, where he gradually rose to the post of general music director of the Court Opera. In 1919 he went to Berlin as director of the Staatsoper.

Works Opera and dramatic operas Ingwelde (1894), Der Pfeifertag (1899), Moloch (after Hebbel, 1906), and Mona Lisa (1915); incidental music for two plays, Aeschylus' Orestes and Goethe's Faust; symphonic fantasies Meergruss and Oedipus (after Sophocles) symphonic prologue for orchestra; recitations with orchestra, including Wildenbruch's ‘Hexenlied’.

Orchestral and chamber violin concerto (1910); Zweigespräch for violin, cello, and small orchestra (1896); string quartet in E minor; string quintet in E flat major; improvisation for violin and piano.

Choral and voice with orchestra Hochzeitslied for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra (1910); Dem Verklärten (Schiller) and Glockenlieder for solo voice and orchestra.