H.K. Gruber

Synopsis

In Austrian culture there is a theatrical tradition that pokes fun at anything somber and serious. Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute taps into this in the person of Papageno, and in the 19th century the Austrian actor Johann Nestroy deflated pomposity in his satirical plays, including one wicked sendup of Wagner’s opera Tannhauser.

In our own time, this tradition is alive and well — and even Mozart is not immune. How else do you explain the 1991 Austrian film, Bring Me the Head of Amadeus! — a work ostensibly released in honor of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death?

That film’s soundtrack was written by a musical jack-of-all-trades named H.K. Gruber, who was born in Vienna on today’s date in 1943. Gruber has composed what might be called “normal” concertos and such but is best known for “abnormal” works, including Frankenstein!!, a piece he describes as a “pandemonium” for voice and chamber ensemble.

Frankenstein!! is a musical setting of some very macabre poems by a fellow Austrian named H.C. Artmann. Oddly enough, its bizarre Viennese humor translates well with audiences worldwide. As Gruber put it: “The poems evokes in each culture a unique set of metaphors and associations. The gloomy Russian temperament, for example, seems to find our Frankenstein!! particularly amusing!”

Music Played in Today's Program

H.K. Gruber (b. 1943): Three Mob Pieces; London Mob Ensemble; H.K. Gruber EMI 56441

H.K. Gruber (b. 1943) Frankenstein!! H.K. Gruber, vocals; Salzburg Camerata; Franz Welser-Most, conductor; EMI 56441

On This Day

Births

• 1909 - Danish pianist and musical humorist Victor Borge, in Copenhagen

• 1943 - Austrian composer, singer (?), and double bass player H.K. Gruber, in Vienna

Deaths

• 1785 - Italian composer Baldassare Galuppi, 68, in Venice

• 1942 - Russian composer and violinist Julius Conus, 72, in Malenski (USSR)

Premieres

• 1738 - Handel: opera Faramondo in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket. This was the opening production of Handel’s opera season that year, and featured the London debut of Gaetano Majorano (called Caffarelli), a male soprano castrato (Gregorian date: Jan. 14).

• 1843 - Donizetti: opera Don Pasquale, in Paris

• 1890 - Tchaikovsky: ballet, Sleeping Beauty (Gregorian date: Jan. 15)

• 1897 - Dukas: Symphony in C, in Paris

• 1903 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 7, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Dec. 21, 1902)

• 1941 - Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting

Others

• 1925 - German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler makes his American debut, conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall