Josef Roeger

Josef Roeger was born on 13 September 1890 in Limbach (Germany), as the only child of the distinguished Austrian violinist Marie Soldat-Roeger. During Josef’s childhood his mother continued her extensive international career as a violinist, and her own mother seems to have assisted in looking after him during her concert tours. Roeger attended school in Melk before studying classical philology at the University of Tübingen. At the same time he maintained a strong interest in music and studied piano with Angelo Kessissoglu in Stuttgart. 
Professionally, Roeger entered the service of the Styrian provincial administration, where he eventually held the rank of Regierungsinspektor. Music, however, continued to occupy him seriously. During the 1920s he pursued composition studies in Vienna with Leopold Suchsland and Robert Fuchs. Alongside his musical interests, Roeger increasingly established himself as a scholar of Styrian history, archaeology, folklore and numismatics. 
Josef Roeger died on 10 April 1978 in Judenburg (Austria).

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.)