Josef Roeger

Josef Roeger was born on 13 September 1890 in Limbach (Germany) and was the only child of the famous violinist Marie Soldat-Roeger (1863-1955). He went to school in Melk and later studied classical philology in Tübingen and piano with Angelo Kessissoglu in Stuttgart. He then worked for the Styrian provincial government. In the 1920s Josef Roeger studied composition with Leopold Suchsland and Robert Fuchs in Vienna. Josef Roeger died around 1970.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the String quartet op.22 which was composed in 1931. The manuscript bears a dedication to a "quartet in Wales" at the end of the score.

The second movement "Allegretto" was broadcasted in 1933 through "Radio Wien" in a program called "Steirische Komponistenstunde". The program was exclusively dedicated to Josef Roeger and contained excerpts from his "Sonata for cello and piano op.21", "Gesänge aus Faust II. Teil, for tenor and piano op.33" and the - aforementioned - "Allegretto" from the String quartet op.22. The performers were the Urania Quartet of Graz which consisted at that time of Rudolf Wagner (1. violin), Gerhart Ilming (2. violin), Rudolf Glinschek (viola) and Hans Kortschak (cello.)