Leopoldo Saracino - Ferdinand Rebay: Guitar Works (2020)
FLAC tracks | 01:01:32 | 225 Mb
Genre: Classical / Label: Da Vinci Classics
Only in relatively recent times the figure of Ferdinand Rebay (Vienna, June 11th, 1880 – Vienna, November 6th, 1953) began to resurface from the oblivion in which it had remained for more than half a century. He was born in a very musical family: his father owned a music shop and his mother, a pianist, had studied with no less a musician than Anton Bruckner. Consequently, he received an excellent musical education: once he had learned to play the violin and the piano, he was admitted as a chorister in the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, and, later, his cultural interests widened to include the study of visual arts (he obtained a specialist degree at the School of the Austrian Museum in Vienna). However, professional studies in the field of music remained at the core of his interests: in fact, he learnt to play the horn too and he started composing Lieder, choral and operatic music. In 1901 he entered the Conservatory of Vienna in the class of J. Hofmann, and, most importantly, in the class of composition led by the eminent pedagogue Robert Fuchs. Rebay’s work for symphonic orchestra, Erlkönig, which he presented for the completion of his studies in 1904, led Fuchs to affirm that in his twenty-nine years as a Conservatory teacher he had never seen a better work than that. This was not all: by that time, Rebay had already written about a hundred pieces in all the various genres. Strengthened by such an intense preparation, he was appointed at first to the direction of the Wiener Chorverein, and later of the Wiener Schubertbund. In 1920 he obtained the Chair of Piano at the Musikakademie; at the same time, he successfully continued his compositional activity, particularly in the field of vocal music. He wrote about a hundred choral works, at least four hundred Lieder and two operas. When the Nazis came to power in 1938, with the tragic Hitlerian Anschluss, Rebay fell into disgrace. He was removed from his prestigious office and even his pension was withdrawn. He died in 1953 in Vienna, in poverty and entirely forgotten.