The Composer

1878 – 23rd March: born in Monaco, son of Isaak (Ignaz) Schrecker from Miskolcz (Hungary), photographer at the imperial court of the Austrian–Hungarian monarchy, mother Eleonore, née 'von Clossmann aus Dobrowna'.

1888 – 22rd January: his father dies (lung disease), economic plight of the family, move from Linz to Vienna (Döbling).

1892 – Gives lessons in reading, artithmetic, writing; takes violin, piano and organ lessons at the Böhmischen Musikschule. Organist at the Döblinger Pfarrkirche.

1893 – Preparatory class for violin at the Conservatory, from 1897 at the composers’ school of Professor Robert Fuchs.

1895 – Founds the association of the Musikfreunde (Friends [...]

About the Music

Christopher Hailey on Franz Schreker
Discovering a Distant Sound

Watch our interview with Ingo Metzmacher on the music of Franz Schreker

Der Ferne Klang (The Distant Sound), the title of Schreker’s best known opera, is the central metaphor of his entire oeuvre, a world of beguiling sonorities of such unprecedented originality that one can well believe the composer when he said that the themes, plots, and characters of his operas sprang from a musical vision.

There can be no more compelling argument for his assertion than the opening bars of the overture to Die Gezeichneten (The Stigmatised, 1918), that mesmerising bi-tonal shimmer of violins, harps, celesta and piano hovering over [...]