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Anton Rückauf (1855 – 1903) was born in Prague, the son of a “Cafetier”. At the age of 23 he left for Vienna, where he worked as a composer, teacher and conductor, but above all as a pianist. He toured Europe accompanying different singers, at one time premiering Brahms’ “Vier ernste Gesänge” (Op. 121).
Although his opera “Die Rosenthalerin” wasn’t much of a hit when it was premiered in Dresden in 1897, many of his songs were very popular and he wrote almost a hundred of them. They are “formally perfectly structured and have difficult and free-moving piano parts”. You can tell he knew what was fun to sing for singers as well.
I couldn’t find any pictures of him – they are probably as forgotten as he is. But there are tons of pictures of his grave of honor on the Vienna central cemetery. Very sad in a way.
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