Page 149 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2025. Glasbena interpretacija: med umetniškim in znanstvenim┊Music Interpretation: Between the Artistic and the Scientific. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 8

an attempt at an analysis of the factors influencing a conductor’s interpretation ...
Elsa, a good pianist, soon noticed Lovro’s interest in music. He enjoyed lis-
tening to the piano and singing. He followed her playing with great interest,
particularly when she told him fairy tales while playing Beethoven’s sona-
tas. This had such an effect on him that for the rest of his life he would un-
derstand music through pictures or images. Of his youthful experience he
said: “Although I could not yet read music, by listening and following the pic-
ture painted by the notes, I knew exactly which page the dragon was on and
2
when the knight would arrive.” On another occasion he wrote: “With every
piece of music, I have visions that develop, from chord to chord, into a story,
which I am strongly aware of when conducting.” 3
When Lovro was eight years old, the family – father, children and
grandmother (Constanța and Koloman were no longer living together) –
moved to Vienna and he began his intense musical training. During the
first year he sang in the choir of the Peterskirche in preparation for an au-
dition with the Vienna Boys’ Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben). He passed the
audition and joined the choir in 1908. At the same time he attended the Pi-
arist Gymnasium, where he studied piano, organ and music theory along
with Latin and Greek. Singing in the Vienna Boys’ Choir provided him
with a broad musical education and taught him discipline and persever-
ance, qualities that remained with him throughout his life. No less impor-
tant was the choice of repertoire performed by the choir. This covered a
broad spectrum of composers from Palestrina to Bruckner and beyond. A
glance at Matačić’s own core repertoire confirms just how influential this
period was on him, and he conducted both Palestrina and Bruckner at his
first major concerts. The famous boys’ choir was directed at the time by
4
Franz Schalk (1863–1931), a former student of Bruckner’s and one of the
leading conductors in Vienna. Bruckner’s Mass in D minor made such an
impression on the young Matačić that he would later attribute his decision
to pursue a career in music to Bruckner’s works. Matačić is still regarded as
5
one of the most successful interpreters of Bruckner’s symphonies. The Bish-
op of Dubrovnik allegedly once said to him: “I know, Lovro, that you are a
believer, even if you don’t go to church. But when you conduct Bruckner, it is
like fifty Masses.” 6
2 Ibid., 26.
3 Jelka Kušar, “Lovro Matačić,” Stop, June 26, 1984, quoted in: Marko Košir, Primož
Kuret, Peter Bedjanič, Lovro Matačić v Sloveniji (Maribor: Pro Andy, 2014), 245–6.
4 Sedak, ed., Matačić, 41.
5 Ibid., 27.
6 Ibid., 29.

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