“Late Night” concert with HK Gruber’s “Frankenstein!!”
This Philharmoniker Late Night concert is a feast for fans of black humour. The main work is the miniature Singspiel Frankenstein!! by the chansonnier and composer HK Gruber. In this jazzy, cabaret-style pandemonium, we encounter bizarre villains who hide their true beings behind a mask of innocence. The performers include members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and, not least, the composer himself.
Settings of nursery rhymes often sound quite harmless: Not, however, if the texts are by H.C. Artmann and the music by the composer, conductor and chansonnier HK Gruber. Gruber, a former member of the Vienna Boys Choir and student of Gottfried von Einem, has composed snappy music from Artmann’s poems, inspired by the song style of Kurt Weill. The version presented in this Late Night concert was premiered in 1978 by, incidentally, Simon Rattle. This night session also includes music by Kurt Weill. His cheeky song Berlin im Licht was written in 1928 for an exhibition of the same name by the Berlin gas and electricity companies. There is also the equally witty and ambiguous Öl-Musik, originally composed as incidental music for the economy-themed stage comedy Konjunktur. And, as in every “Late Night”, there is again a Sequenza by Luciano Berio, this time the tenth, played by principal trumpet player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gábor Tarkövi.
Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker
HK Gruber
HK Gruber
Gábor Tarkövi
© 2012 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
Category
Artists
Our recommendations
- “Late Night”: A Klezmer evening
- “Late Night” concert with Simon Rattle and Barbara Hannigan
- “Late Night” concert with Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kožená
- Simon Rattle conducts a “Late Night” concert à la française
- “Late Night” concert with Simon Rattle and a new masterpiece
- “Late Night” concert with Simon Rattle and Martin Löhr
