Percussion Concertos - Rough Music + Into the Open; Colin Currie, Percussion; BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Juanjo Mena, John Storgards

Youtube-Video Colin Currie on HK Gruber

For no pigeonhole - The musical original HK Gruber
With his highly individual style of composition, HK Gruber has established himself as one of the most popular, but at the same time one of the most unusual personalities in contemporary music. On the one hand, his work reflects the classical and folk Viennese musical tradition, which on the other hand is broken up by stylistic influences of the musical cabaret of the 1920s or 1930s as well as elements of contemporary composing. Not infrequently, the famous black humour of the Viennese comes into play. With his music, Gruber always manages to successfully elude any pigeonholing as quickly as the feuilleton can open it. "Neo-romantic", "neo-tonal", "neo-expressionist", "neo-Viennese": none of these labels really seem to fit him, not least because he never fails to respond to every musical stimulus he encounters, be it demanding or undemanding, twelve- or seven-tone. At all times Gruber remains unmistakable and himself.