Composer Festival HK Gruber – Frankenstein!

Like none other, HK Gruber has the capacity to imbue music with a humorous dimension while always retaining a spirit of the deepest earnestness. He played double bass in the avant garde ensemble Die Reihe in the early 1960s and in the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1998. He is also a singer and has appeared in both his own and others’ work, including Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and in music by Hanns Eisler and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Gruber has guest conducted many of the major orchestras in the US and Europe, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and both the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics.

Here, HK Gruber appears as soloist in one of his best known pieces, Frankenstein!!, which was his major international breakthrough. This utterly spellbinding and original music has roots in the traditions of cabaret and also amazes with its unique approach to the use of voice.

Musicians from the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra will begin the performance with music by the Satie and Dada-inspired Kurt Schwertsik. Like Gruber, he is Austrian and famous for having coined the term the Third Viennese School, naming a group of composers among which both he and Gruber are counted.