Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Third Viennese School

Kurt Schwertsik Birthday Celebration

Even if Erik Satie had never claimed the mantle of “Velvet Gentleman,” there would still be Kurt Schwertsik. Schwertsik, impish and dandified on the one occasion I met him (pictured, right), was born in Vienna on this date, 90 years ago.

A pupil of both Joseph Marx – a self-professed romantic of rather conservative bent – and avant-garde icon Karlheinz Stockhausen, Schwertsik was a founding member of the so-called Third Viennese School. He also co-founded the ensembles die reihe (the series), with Friedrich Cerha, the composer who completed Alban Berg’s “Lulu,” and MOB art and Tone ART, with his friend HK Gruber. (All uses of upper and lower case are Schwertsik’s. Clearly, he is rather loose in his application of the shift key!)

In addition, he played horn with the Vienna Symphony, and taught at the Vienna Conservatory and Vienna Musikhochschule.

Schwertsik’s music is frequently characterized by irony and humor, and invariably rooted in melody and tonality.

I had the privilege to interview him during a concert held at Austrian Cultural Forum New York in March 2012. The Aron Quartett performed his “skizzen und entwürfe” (“sketches and drawings”), from 1974, and a Schwertsik world premiere, “Lammersammlung” (“Song Collection”), which had been commissioned for the occasion. Also on the program were works by Erich Zeisl and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Schwertsik, sporting Freudian beard and spectacles, was all smiles, and rather dapper, in cravat and red velvet jacket. He exuded much charm and held the audience in the palm of his hand.

By the time of our meeting, his “Dracula’s House-and-Court Music” had already become a staple of my Halloween programming, just as I try to include his Strauss tribute, “Vienna Chronicles 1848,” in my playlists around New Year’s. Neither piece is posted on YouTube.

Here’s one that’s new to me, “Adieu Satie,” for bandoneon and string quartet:

“Conversation Piece” for guitar and marimba:

“Drei späte Liebeslieder” (“Three Late Love Songs”) for cello and piano:

Happy birthday, Kurt Schwertsik!

June 25, 2025
HK Gruber Turns 80!

The Austrian composer Heinz Karl Gruber (who styles himself professionally as HK Gruber) attains four-score years today.

Gruber is a veteran of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, with which he sang in the 1950s. It was then that he acquired his nickname, Nali, he says, because he snored.

He is perhaps the foremost representative of the so-called Third Viennese School. A graduate of the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, he studied with, among others, Gottfried von Einem. In 1961, he joined the ensemble die reihe (“the row”, or “the series”) as a double-bassist. The group was founded by Kurt Schwertsik and Friedrich Cerha (the composer who would complete Alban Berg’s “Lulu”). Gruber also became principal bass of the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra.

In 1968, with composers Schwertsik and Otto Zykan, and violinist Ernst Kovacic, he established the ensemble MOB art and Tone ART, as a means of performing their own music. His “Bossa nova,” written for the group, became something of a hit tune.

He attained perhaps his greatest notoriety with his cabaret piece for chansonnier and orchestra (or “pan-demonium,” as he describes it) “Frankenstein!!” in 1978. The work, a freewheeling collection of song settings of absurdist poems by his friend H.C. Artmann, about James Bond, Batman and Robin, etc., employs an array of unusual instruments and children’s toys.

Interestingly, Gruber claims descent from Franz Xaver Gruber, composer of “Silent Night.” “Frankenstein!!” is a very long way from “heavenly peace.”

Happy 80th birthday, HK Gruber!

Gruber performs “Herr Superman” from “Frankenstein!!”

Performance of the complete piece with illustrations

“Charivari”

“3 MOB Pieces” for trumpet and orchestra

Yo-Yo Ma introduces Gruber’s Cello Concerto

HK Gruber on HK Gruber

January 3, 2023
Kurt Schwertsik A Velvet Gentleman’s Birthday

Even if Erik Satie had never claimed the mantle of “Velvet Gentleman,” there would still be Kurt Schwertsik. Schwertsik, impish and dandified on the one occasion I met him (pictured, right), was born in Vienna on this date in 1935.

A pupil of both Joseph Marx – a self-professed romantic of rather conservative bent – and avant-garde icon Karlheinz Stockhausen, Schwertsik was a founding member of the so-called Third Viennese School. He also co-founded the ensembles die reihe (the series), with Friedrich Cerha, the composer who completed Alban Berg’s “Lulu,” and MOB art and Tone ART, with his friend HK Gruber. (All uses of upper and lower case are Schwertsik’s. Clearly, he is rather loose in his application of the shift key!)

In addition, he played horn with the Vienna Symphony, and taught at the Vienna Conservatory and Vienna Musikhochschule.

Schwertsik’s music is frequently characterized by irony and humor, and invariably rooted in melody and tonality.

I had the privilege to interview him during a concert held at Austrian Cultural Forum New York in March 2012. The Aron Quartett performed his “skizzen und entwürfe” (“sketches and drawings”), from 1974, and a Schwertsik world premiere, “Lammersammlung” (“Song Collection”), which had been commissioned for the occasion. Also on the program were works by Erich Zeisl and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Schwertsik, sporting Freudian beard and spectacles, was all smiles, and rather dapper, in cravat and red velvet jacket. He exuded much charm and held the audience in the palm of his hand.

By the time of our meeting, his “Dracula’s House-and-Court Music” had already become a staple of my Halloween programming, just as I try to include his Strauss tribute, “Vienna Chronicles 1848,” in my playlists around New Year’s. Neither piece is posted on YouTube.

Here’s one that’s new to me, “Adieu Satie,” for bandoneon and string quartet:

“Conversation Piece” for guitar and marimba:

“Drei späte Liebeslieder” (“Three Late Love Songs”) for cello and piano:

Happy birthday, Kurt Schwertsik!

June 25, 2021

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