Page 150 - 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

glasbena interpretacija ... | music interpretation ...
After his voice broke, Matačić continued his musical education pri-
vately, with teachers from the Imperial Academy of Music and the Per-
forming Arts. Among the names mentioned are those of the conductor and
composer Oskar Nedbal (1874–1930), who conducted Vienna’s Tonkünstler-
orchester from 1909 to 1918 and was also admired as a conductor of ballets
7
and operas, and the composer, choir director and conductor Ignaz Herbst
(1877–1954), who from 1908 worked in Vienna as a music writer and teach-
8
er of contemporary music theory. The fact that as a young man Matačić
became acquainted with the works of great composers, the development
and influence of the Second Viennese School, and other figures involved in
contemporary music theory is not without significance. He benefited from
excellent and influential teachers who provided him with a broad musi-
cal education and a thorough knowledge of the classical and more mod-
ern repertoire, singing, instruments, music theory, composition and con-
ducting. As a private student he had no formal qualifications, but this never
proved an obstacle to his artistic career. As he himself put it: “Life has giv-
en me a diploma.” Another important factor in Matačić’s education was
9
the general cultural and musical life of Vienna before the First World War,
which was in many ways revolutionary and ground-breaking. This was a
period of great philosophical and sociopolitical changes that began with
the fin-de-siècle period of the end of the nineteenth century and continued
into Expressionism and sociopolitical unrest against the backdrop of the
turbulent end of the Austrian monarchy. Among Matačić’s contemporar-
ies who went on to establish themselves as excellent musicians were Clem-
ens Krauss (1893–1954), Karl Böhm (1894–1981) and Hans Swarowsky (1899-
1975). All three later became great conductors, as did Lovro von Matačić
himself. Common to all of them was the development of a profound form
of interpretation which they achieved with versatile ensembles and excep-
tional soloists.
In 1916, while visiting his father in Munich (the latter was appearing
at the Opera), Matačić would occasionally play the piano in the hotel lob-
by. Among other things, he would play excerpts from Wagner’s operas, and
it was this that attracted the attention of Gustav Brecher (1879–1940), mu-
sic director of the Cologne Opera, who was staying at the hotel and was
7 Ludmila Peřinová, “Oskar Nedbal and Vienna,” https://www.oskarnedbal.cz/doku-
menty/clanky/O.Nedbal%20and%20Vienna.pdf.
8 Christian Fastl, “Herbst, Ignaz,” Österreichisches Musiklexikon Online, https://
www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_H/Herbst_Ignaz.xml.
9 Sedak, ed., Matačić, 33.

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