Rudolph Réti

Rudolph Réti (Serbian: Рудолф Рети, Rudolf Reti) (November 27, 1885 – February 7, 1957, in Montclair, New Jersey) was a musical analyst, composer and pianist. He was the older brother of the great chess master Richard Réti. Réti was born in Užice in the Kingdom of Serbia and studied music theory, musicology and piano in Vienna. Among his teachers was the pianist Eduard Steuermann, an eminent champion of Schoenberg and a supporter of modern music.... more

Rudolph Réti (Serbian: Рудолф Рети, Rudolf Reti) (November 27, 1885 – February 7, 1957, in Montclair, New Jersey) was a musical analyst, composer and pianist. He was the older brother of the great chess master Richard Réti. Réti was born in Užice in the Kingdom of Serbia and studied music theory, musicology and piano in Vienna. Among his teachers was the pianist Eduard Steuermann, an eminent champion of Schoenberg and a supporter of modern music. Réti was in contact with Schoenberg at the time of that composer's earliest atonal works, and gave the premiere of his Six Little Piano Pieces op 19. Réti's compositions have not remained in the repertoire, but he was an active composer and received a number of high-profile performances. At the end of the first International Festival of Modern Music in Salzburg, in 1922, his 'Six Songs' were performed alongside Schoenberg's Second Quartet; three years later, at the 3rd ISCM Festival in Prague, his Concertino for Piano and Orchestra shared a... less