NEW DELHI: Renowned Austrian composer and piano player Gerhard Gruber says his fascination with playing music as accompaniment began in the early 1980s and he has already played music with not merely films of his own country but also other places including Japan.
Gruber told radioandmusic.com in an interview that he prefers to improvise for his work as he feels this is the best way of a direct and always new dialogue between the events on the screen, the music and the audience. Thus, he may play different music at different places for the same film.
Thus he said no performance resembles the others. Gerhard Gruber likes to be enticed by the films and loves to pass on these feelings to the audience. He has become the leading authority on the subject in Austria since 1988
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He said: â€?For me the feeling of being amidst the events of a film story has been undescribable and exciting from the first moment and is unchanged until today. This guarantees the liveliness and vibrancy of each performance. It is always the unity of film, music and audience. And thus each presentation is able to be a special experience’
He said he has also given up the habit of long practice sessions since he feels that this would affect his attempt to be innovative each time he sits on the piano in accompaniment to a silent film
Gruber – who plays the piano – was here in connection with a Festival of silent films from Austria held here on 19 and 20 January. The films are now travelling to Pune, where Gruber hopes to improvise music with an Indian silent film.
The festival had been organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India North Zone in collaboration with the Austrian Culture Forum and the India International Centre
The package consists of early classic silent films like ‘Cafe Electrik’ starring Marlene Deitrich and Willi Forst, ‘Sodom and Gommorah’, ‘Virtue’ and ‘Moon of Israel’, two short films starring Cocl and Seff who inspired later the Laural and Hardy films and three early advertisement shorts
The package was presented by Gruber, who is now an eminent curator of early Austrian cinema. He held discussions with the audiences at the end of the screenings
He has performed for more than 400 different films (Viennale 1999-2004, Tokyo 2006/ 2007/ 2008, Hobart/ Australia, Rotorua/ New Zealand 2008, Padova, Motovun Film Festival, Cineconcerts Bordeaux 2005, Filmfestival Pisek/ CZ, Filmfestival Uherske Hradiste/ CZ, Munich, Hamburg, Diagonale).
