Karl Muck was a German conductor who was known for his masterful interpretations of the works of Wagner and Bruckner. His recorded performances of Wagner's Parsifal from the late 1920s are still considered to be the best.

Muck was born in Darmstadt in 1859, and he received his first musical training from his father, who was a knowledgeable amateur musician. Later, he studied piano with Kissner, but he ultimately decided to study linguistics at the University of Heidelberg. Then he began working toward his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig, and he also studied piano with Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1880, he both completed his Ph.D. and made his debut as a pianist in a performance of Scharwenka's Piano Concerto in B flat minor with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Without any actual conducting experience or training, he spent the next six years in short appointments as an orchestral conductor and chorusmaster at several small venues in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

In 1886, Muck was appointed kapellmeister for Angelo Neumann's Deutsches Landestheater in Prague, and he led a traveling ensemble that specialized in Wagner's Ring Cycle, which was also managed by Neumann. Muck quickly gained a reputation for his expertise at conducting Wagner's works. He accepted the position of principal kapellmeister for the Royal Opera House in Berlin in 1892 and was promoted to music director in 1908. In 1894, he also began a 17-year-long annual tradition of conducting at major music festivals in Gorlitz, London, and Bayreuth.

Muck moved to the United States in 1911, where he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1912 to 1918. During this time, he also made a series of recordings that included the works by Beethoven, Wagner, and many others. Due to the turbulent circumstances of World War I, Muck was considered an "enemy alien," and he was arrested and detained in an internment camp until the war ended in 1919. After he returned to Germany in 1920, he conducted the Concert Gebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for five years. He also began directing the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in 1922 and made some of his best recordings during this period. With the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, he recorded Siegfried Idyll, excerpts from Parsifal, and other orchestral works by Wagner. Muck resigned his position with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in 1933 because he didn't agree with the Nazi management of the Opera and Orchestra. He passed away in Stuttgart in 1940. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi