Wolf, Hugo 1860-1903
Austrian composer

Born in Windischgr�z, Styria, he studied without satisfaction at the Vienna Conservatory, then earned a meagre living by teaching and conducting. From 1884 to 1888 he was music critic of the Wiener Salonblatt, disparaging Brahms and praising Richard Wagner. His best compositions came after 1888 and include the M�rike set of 53 songs (1888), settings of poems by Goethe (1888-89), the Italienisches Liederbuch ('Italian Songbook') of Heyse and Emanuel von Geibel (1889-90), and three sonnets of Michelangelo (1897). He also wrote an opera, Der Corregidor (1895, 'The Mayor'), and other works. He was at his best in his treatment of short lyrical poems, giving many of them a new significance by the sensitive commentary of his settings. In 1897 he became insane, and was confined from 1898 in the asylum at Steinhof, near Vienna, where he died.