Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky
Encyclopedia
Aloys and Alfons (9 October 19325 May 2010) Kontarsky were German duo-pianist
brothers who were associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They had an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also performed the standard repertoire and they sometimes played separately. They were occasionally joined by their younger brother Bernhard
in performances of pieces for three pianos.
The Kontarsky brothers were both born in Iserlohn
. Aloys received early tuition from Franz Hanemann. He later studied at Cologne
and Hamburg
with Else Schmitz-Gohr, and with Eduard Erdmann
in Hamburg.
Their first public concert was in 1949, in which they played Stravinsky
's Concerto for Two Pianos. In 1955 they formed their piano duo "Klavierduo Kontarsky" and performed regularly from 1959 until Alfons's death in 2010. In 1955, they won first prize for piano duo at the fourth German Radio International Music Competition.
From 1962, Aloys and Alfons were instructors at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. Aloys was also a member of the Darmstadt International Chamber Ensemble. From 1963, Aloys was an instructor at the Cologne Courses for New Music. Alfons was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council
) and held professorships at Music Universities in Cologne, Munich
and the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1965 Aloys formed a duo with the cellist Siegfried Palm
.
As a duo, they gave first performances of works by Luciano Berio
, Sylvano Bussotti
, Mauricio Kagel
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, Henri Pousseur
, Luis de Pablo
, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann
.
They made frequent tours of Western European countries, the Middle East, and the Americas, and also appeared in Australia. Their recordings are numerous, and include Stockhausen's Mantra
, supervised by the composer, once issued on LP by Deutsche Grammophon and reissued on CD 16 of the Stockhausen Complete Edition. Their more traditional fare includes the Brahms
complete Hungarian Dances
and Schubert
's Fantasy in F minor, D.940. They are heard on the soundtrack of the 1990 film Henry & June
, playing Debussy
's Petite Suite.
In 1974, Alfons made the first recording with the original instruments of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor
, D.821, the arpeggione
played by Klaus Storck and Alfons playing fortepiano
. Aloys appeared in a recording of Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I
playing the tam-tam, and Alfons participated in Mikrophonie II, playing the Hammond organ
.
In 1959 Aloys married the actress Gisela Saur. According to one source, Aloys may have appeared as a conductor, in the 1994 French premiere at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten
, but another report names his younger brother, Bernhard, as conductor for this production. It seems unlikely this was Aloys, who in 1983 suffered two debilitating strokes, which left him paralyzed on one side with visual and speech disorders. His wife, Gisela Saur-Kontarsky, curtailed her artistic career as a singer in order to attend to her husband. In 2008, she was presented with a Medal of Merit from the City of Cologne by Mayor Fritz Schramma for her service to her husband.
Their students include: York Höller
, Steffen Schleiermacher
, Christine Gerwig and Efraín González Ruano, Anna Haas-Niewiedział and Piotr Niewiedział, Douglas Nemish and Dominique Morel, Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez, and many others.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
brothers who were associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They had an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also performed the standard repertoire and they sometimes played separately. They were occasionally joined by their younger brother Bernhard
Bernhard Kontarsky
Bernhard Kontarsky is a German conductor, pianist, and teacher.Kontarsky studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. In 1964 he began his conducting career as Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Stuttgart...
in performances of pieces for three pianos.
The Kontarsky brothers were both born in Iserlohn
Iserlohn
Iserlohn is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region.-Geography:...
. Aloys received early tuition from Franz Hanemann. He later studied at Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
with Else Schmitz-Gohr, and with Eduard Erdmann
Eduard Erdmann
Eduard Erdmann was a Baltic German pianist and composer.Erdmann was born in Wenden in Livonia. He was the great-nephew of the philosopher Johann Eduard Erdmann. His first musical studies were in Riga, where his teachers were Bror Möllersten and Jean du Chastain and Harald Creutzburg...
in Hamburg.
Their first public concert was in 1949, in which they played Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Concerto for Two Pianos. In 1955 they formed their piano duo "Klavierduo Kontarsky" and performed regularly from 1959 until Alfons's death in 2010. In 1955, they won first prize for piano duo at the fourth German Radio International Music Competition.
From 1962, Aloys and Alfons were instructors at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. Aloys was also a member of the Darmstadt International Chamber Ensemble. From 1963, Aloys was an instructor at the Cologne Courses for New Music. Alfons was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council
International Music Council
The International Music Council was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization...
) and held professorships at Music Universities in Cologne, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1965 Aloys formed a duo with the cellist Siegfried Palm
Siegfried Palm
Siegfried Palm was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for him....
.
As a duo, they gave first performances of works by Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Sylvano Bussotti
Sylvano Bussotti
Sylvano Bussotti is an Italian composer of contemporary music whose work is unusually notated and often creates special problems of interpretation.Born in Florence, Bussotti learned to play the violin as a child, becoming a prodigy...
, Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer.-Biography:Pousseur studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris...
, Luis de Pablo
Luís de Pablo
Luis de Pablo is a Spanish composer.He was born in Bilbao, living in Madrid from age six and starting to compose aged 12. Although he received composition lessons from Maurice Ohana and Max Deutsch, he was essentially an autodidact in composition...
, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a post-WWII West German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten which is regarded as one of the most important operas of the 20th century...
.
They made frequent tours of Western European countries, the Middle East, and the Americas, and also appeared in Australia. Their recordings are numerous, and include Stockhausen's Mantra
Mantra (Stockhausen)
Mantra is a composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was composed in 1970 and premiered in autumn of the same year in Donaueschingen...
, supervised by the composer, once issued on LP by Deutsche Grammophon and reissued on CD 16 of the Stockhausen Complete Edition. Their more traditional fare includes the Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
complete Hungarian Dances
Hungarian Dances (Brahms)
The Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms , are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1869.They vary from about a minute to four minutes in length. They are among Brahms' most popular works, and were certainly the most profitable for him. Each dance has been...
and Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Fantasy in F minor, D.940. They are heard on the soundtrack of the 1990 film Henry & June
Henry & June
Henry & June is a 1990 American film directed by Philip Kaufman and stars Fred Ward, Maria de Medeiros, and Uma Thurman. It is loosely based on the book of the same name by the French author Anaïs Nin, and tells the story of Nin's relationship with Henry Miller and his wife, June.-Plot:The story...
, playing Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Petite Suite.
In 1974, Alfons made the first recording with the original instruments of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor
Arpeggione Sonata
The Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D. 821, was written by Franz Schubert in Vienna in November 1824. The sonata is the only substantial composition for the arpeggione which remains extant today...
, D.821, the arpeggione
Arpeggione
The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar, but bowed like a cello, and thus similar to the bass viola da gamba...
played by Klaus Storck and Alfons playing fortepiano
Fortepiano
Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...
. Aloys appeared in a recording of Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I
Mikrophonie (Stockhausen)
Mikrophonie is the title given by Karlheinz Stockhausen to two of his compositions, written in 1964 and 1965, in which “normally inaudible vibrations . ....
playing the tam-tam, and Alfons participated in Mikrophonie II, playing the Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
.
In 1959 Aloys married the actress Gisela Saur. According to one source, Aloys may have appeared as a conductor, in the 1994 French premiere at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten
Die Soldaten
Die Soldaten is a four act opera in German by German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, based on the 1776 play by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. It is dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. Zimmermann himself faithfully adapted the play into the libretto, the only changes to the text being repeats and small cuts...
, but another report names his younger brother, Bernhard, as conductor for this production. It seems unlikely this was Aloys, who in 1983 suffered two debilitating strokes, which left him paralyzed on one side with visual and speech disorders. His wife, Gisela Saur-Kontarsky, curtailed her artistic career as a singer in order to attend to her husband. In 2008, she was presented with a Medal of Merit from the City of Cologne by Mayor Fritz Schramma for her service to her husband.
Their students include: York Höller
York Höller
York Höller is a German composer and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.-Biography:Between 1963 and 1970 Höller studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with Else Schmitz-Gohrand Alfons Kontarsky, and orchestral...
, Steffen Schleiermacher
Steffen Schleiermacher
Steffen Schleiermacher is a German composer, pianist, and conductor.After studying at the Leipzig Music School with Siegfried Thiele, he continued working there as a music theory and ear training assistant...
, Christine Gerwig and Efraín González Ruano, Anna Haas-Niewiedział and Piotr Niewiedział, Douglas Nemish and Dominique Morel, Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez, and many others.
Sources
- Cadieu, Martine. 1994. "Les soldats de Zimmermann". Europe: Revue littéraire mensuelle 72, no. 779 (March): 194–96.
- Campbell, Margaret. 2005. "Siegfried Palm: Cellist and Opera Director". The Independent (2 July).
- Jarry, Hélène. 1994. "L’opéra de Zimmermann enfin montré à Paris". L’Humanité (26 January).
- Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne (eds.) 1996. "Kontarsky, Aloys". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Lück, Rudolf, and Ateş Orga. 2001a. "Kontarsky, Alfons". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
- Lück, Rudolf, and Ateş Orga. 2001b. "Kontarsky, Aloys". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
- Schminke, Clemens. 2008. "Für vorbildlichen Einsatz geehrt" Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (05 November)
- Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1967. "Notes", translated by Hugh Davies. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Complete Piano Music, Aloys Kontarsky, piano. First recording, supervised by the composer. 2-LP set. CBS Masterworks 32 21 0008 (stereo) and 32 21 0007 (mono). Reprinted online, Analog Arts Ensemble.