Reinhold Kubik

Reinhold Kubik (March 22 1942 – May 25 2024, Vienna) was an Austrian musicologist, pianist and conductor.

Biography From 1966 to 1974, Kubik worked as a repetiteur, coach, and Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. From 1974 to 1980, Kubik did research for a PhD on Handel's Rinaldo at Erlangen. He was also a pianist, composer, choir director and lecturer. Kubik was editor-in-chief of Hänssler Verlag and has worked at Universal Edition Wien. He taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, in Nuremberg, Karlsruhe, London, and at Yale University.

Kubik was married to the Baroque scholar, singer and dance pedagogue Margit Legler. Legler and Kubik jointly wrote about and presented productions related to Baroque music, dance, and theatre.

IGMG tenure From 1993 to 2012, Kubik was editor-in-chief of the Critical Complete Edition of the Works of Gustav Mahler and vice president of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft (IGMG; International Gustav Mahler Society). Several controversial episodes ensued over editions of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 6 issued during his tenure.

Symphony No. 1 In the IGMG edition of the Symphony No. 1 edited by Sander Wilkens (1992, revised 1995), Wilkens had stated that the 3rd-movement double bass solo was instead meant for the full unison double bass section of the orchestra to perform, rather than by a solo double bass player, in contraindication to past published manuscripts and performance traditions. This statement occasioned criticism for Wilkens' inaccurate reading of the manuscripts, to the point where Kubik later repudiated Wilkens' misreading of the double bass solo:

"However, assigning the new edition of the First Symphony to Sander Wilkens unfortunately proved to be a mistake. His confused arguments in support of the claim that the famous double bass solo at the beginning of the third movement was a solo for the whole group rather than for a single player contradicted the sources and surviving reports of performances under Mahler’s direction, and exposed the Critical Edition to ridicule from all Mahler researchers"

Symphony No. 6 With respect to the Symphony No. 6, Kubik presided over the 2010 edition published by the IGMG, which featured the inner movements in the order Andante-Scherzo. Kubik had earlier declared in print in 2004:

"As the current Chief Editor of the Complete Critical Edition, I declare the official position of the institution I represent is that the correct order of the middle movements of Mahler's Sixth Symphony is Andante-Scherzo."

This statement has received criticism for multiple reasons, which include: (a) its blanket dismissal of the original score with the Scherzo/Andante order, (b) its expression of a personal preference without documentary evidence and based on subjective animus related to the Alma Problem,

Mahler scholar Herta Blaukopf rebutted this judgment without personal criticism of Kubik:

Mahler scholar and biographer Henry-Louis de la Grange has written about Kubik's general judgment, without personal criticism: Residenz-Verlag, St. Pölten/Salzburg/Wien 2014. Händels Rinaldo. Geschichte, Werk, Wirkung. Hänssler, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1982.