Richared Pennycuick wrote:

>An online CD outlet has a link to Top Classical Composers.  I idly
>clicked on it and found a list with the usual suspects, but including
>one Franz Xaver Gruber, who had many CDs to his credit.  H K Gruber I'd
>heard of, if not heard, but who was this new one?  He is, it transpired,
>the composer of Silent Night

F X was a prolific Austrian composer of church music and very popular
in his time He's also the great great grandfather of the irrepressible
H K Gruber!  Two more different personlaities, it's hard to imagine.
H K has written lots of off the wall pieces some of which are quite fun
in performance.!  He's also a raconteur and performer of great charisma.
Much of his inspiration comes from sending up the Viennese "image", and
beneath the humour there's also deeper comment.  One good way to get to
know him is his "Roaring Eisler" CD.  These are songs of social protest
and satire from the 1930's, some to texts by Bertholt Brecht and Gruber
carries them off with a distinctive individualism.

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/SandH/2003/July03/Gruber_preview.htm

Anne
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