HK Gruber

HK Gruber and Kirill Gerstein join forces to present a programme that hearks back to 1920s Berlin, when the lights were low, the Great War was over, and cabaret music was the rage. Berlin in Lights!

Weill: Berlin im Licht (Berlin in Lights)
Eisler: Ballade von der Krüppelgarde (Ballad of the Cripple Brigade)
Eisler: Bei der Kanone dort (At the Cannon)
Eisler: Rückkehr zur Natur (Return to nature)
Weill: Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen (In Potsdam under the Oak Trees)
Weill: Bankenlied (Banking Song)
Eisler: Wohltätigkeit (Benevolence)
Eisler: Zeitungsausschnitte op. 11 (Newspaper clippings)
Eisler: Ballade von den Säckeschmeissern (Ballad of the Sack-Throwers)
Weill: Morgenchoral des Peachum (from Der Dreigroschenoper)
Weill: Lied des Lotterieagenten (Lotterieagents Song) (from Der Silbersee)
Weill: Die Muschel von Margate (Mussels from Margate)
Weill: Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens (from Der Dreigroschenoper) (Song of the futility of human endeavour)
Weill: Bilbao Song (from Happy End) 
Weill: Matrosen Song (from Happy End)
Weill: Song von Mandelay (from Happy End)
Weill: Ballade von der Höllen-Lili (from Happy End)

This programme lasts around 65 minutes - a longer programme with interval is also possible. 

'A rewarding portrait of Weill - pianist Kirill Gerstein, the festival’s artist in residence, performed songs by Weill and Hanns Eisler with HK Gruber, the composer, conductor and arguably greatest living interpreter of this style. Their “Threepenny” selections in particular demonstrated how best to balance the piece’s infectious melodies and bitter texts: Gerstein’s playing buoyant and dancing, Gruber’s semi-Sprechstimme snarling, with wickedly rolling R’s on phrases like “Beefsteak Tartar.”'
New York Times, July 2023

Gruber has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, New World Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchester, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and was Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra 2009-2015.

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Anne Sofie von Otter
Weill Kleine Dreigroschenmusik
Weill Songs
Weill Seven Deadly Sins

Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Antheil A Jazz Symphony
Gruber Rough Music
Bernstein On the Waterfront: Suite
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919)

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Antheil A Jazz Symphony
Cerha Five pieces from Wiener Kaleidoskop
Stravinsky Violin Concerto in D Major
Gruber Frankenstein!!
Bernstein Prelude, Fugue & Riffs

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Stravinsky Feu d'artifice, op.4
Hindemith Ragtime (wohltemperiert)
Antheil A Jazz Symphony
Stravinsky Tango
Bernstein Prelude, Fugue & Riffs
Strauss, J. II Perpetuum Mobile
Gruber Charivari
Stravinsky Scherzo à la Russe
Weill Filmscene from 'Royal Palace'
Weill Overture to 'Silbersee'
Weill Berlin im Licht; Live, Love and Laughter; Lied der Jenny; Speak Low

Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Watch the Live Stream of this programme
Weill Der Silbersee: I.1a: Overture
Weill Symphony No.1 'Berliner Sinfonie'
Weill Symphony No.2
Weill Der Silbersee: I.3: "Der Bäkker bäckt ums Morgenrot"
Weill Der Silbersee: Lied des Lotterieverkäufers

BBC Philharmonic
HK Gruber Northwind Pictures
Schwertsik Nachtmusiken Op.104
Stravinsky Oedipus Rex (soloists: Ian Bostridge, Angelika Kirchschlager)

BBC Philharmonic
MacMillan The Sacrifice: Three Interludes
Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
HK Gruber Dancing in the Dark
Bernstein Overture and Dances from On the Town

Strasbourg Philharmonic
Gruber Charivari
Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Adams Slonimsky's Earbox
Stravinsky Le Chant du rossignol

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Stravinsky Feu d’artifice, Op.4
Weill Schlaraffenland-Song
Weill Lied des Lotterieverkäufers
Weill Overture to Der Silbersee
Weill Der Bäkker bäckt ums Morgenrot
Weill The Pimp’s Ballad
Weill Speak Low
Gershwin Cuban Overture
Debussy Feux d’artifice
Gershwin I Got Rhythm
Gershwin Shall We Dance
Bernstein Somewhere from West Side Story
Bernstein Overture to Candide

Essen Philharmonic
HK Gruber Charivari
J. Strauss II Perpetuum mobile
Milhaud Le Boeuf sur le Toit
Antheil A Jazz Symphony
Shostakovich Suite for Jazz Orchestra No.2
Gershwin Piano Concerto in F major

Gruber has been commissioned at the highest level, including recent projects for the Vienna Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival, BBC Proms, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta. In summer 2014 Gruber’s opera Tales from the Vienna Woods (Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald) was premiered to great acclaim at the Bregenzer Festspiele, with performances following at Theater an der Wien in Spring 2015 and Komische Oper in May 2016. Also in October 2016 the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perform trumpet concerto Aerial and into the open... receives its US premiere in December 2016 with the New World Symphony conducted by Gruber; elsewhere in recent seasons Gruber’s music has been performed by orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and many more.

Piano Concerto (2015-2017) 20'
Concerto for piano and symphony orchestra, soloist Emanuel Ax 

Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (2011-2014) 140'
Opera in three acts

Northwind Pictures (2011) 25’
symphonic poem for orchestra

into the open...(2010) 24’
symphony for solo percussion and orchestra, soloist Colin Currie

Busking (2007) 30’
Trumpet concerto with strings, accordion and banjo (soloist Hakan Hardenberger)

Dancing in the Dark (2002) 24’ 
Concert piece for large orchestra

Aerial (1999) 25’
Trumpet concerto (soloist Hakan Hardenberger)

Frankenstein!! (1977) 28’
With HK Gruber as Chansonnier (baritone) with symphony orchestra or ensemble

The works of HK Gruber are published by Boosey & Hawkes

Frankenstein!! is Gruber’s best-known work, a “pan-demonium for chansonnier and orchestra after children’s rhymes by H.C. Artmann”. Premiered in 1978 by Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and HK Gruber as chansonnier, Frankenstein!! is Gruber’s most “naughtily notorious” work and has been performed by major orchestras around the world including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and many more. It is a concert piece, music theatre, witty, fun and ironic with an irrepressible strain of Viennese black humour.

Frankenstein!! can be performed in two ways, with Gruber taking on the dual role of conductor and chansonnier, or the work can be directed by another conductor, with Gruber as soloist (German or English).

“With its extremes of gentleness and savagery, its delirious tangos and bossa novas, and Mr. Gruber’s surprisingly bitter toy-saxophone riffs, the surreal 30-minute work captures the energy of a Weimar cabaret gone terribly weird and wrong, which is one way of looking at the story of the 20th century.”
New York Times, December 2011

Frankenstein!! (1977) 28’
For Chansonnier & symphony orchestra or ensemble
Published by Boosey & Hawkes 

Orchestral version
Ensemble version