Composer
Biography:
Roberto Gerhard was born in 1896 to a Swiss father and an Alsatian mother in Valls, Catalonia, and received his education in nearby Barcelona. He took piano lessons from Enrique Granados and studied with the composer and ethnomusicologist Felipe Pedrell, who sparked his interest in Catalan folk music. In 1924, when he had already published a number of works in Spain and a leading Paris publishing house had taken on his piano trio, Roberto Gerhard became Arnold Schönberg's first (and only) Spanish pupil. He studied with him for four years, after which he returned to Barcelona and committed himself to contemporary music.
Known as a Republican supporter in the Spanish Civil War, Gerhard left Spain before Barcelona fell to the Nationalists. After a brief stay in Paris, he settled in Cambridge on a research grant. Gerhard's work of the 1940s explicitly dealt with Spanish and especially Catalan culture. The BBC broadcast of the opera The owner and the staging of the ballet Don Quixote at Covent Garden in 1950 brought the composer increasing recognition in Britain.
After his death in Cambridge in 1970, his music was initially forgotten. On the occasion of his 100th birthday in 1996, a number of new recordings and publications appeared and revived interest in Roberto Gerhard's music - even more so in Spain, where his music had been officially ignored during the Franco regime.
Albums:
Leo - Gemini - Libra - Concerto for 8:
