Klavierabend Anton Gerzenberg

Performers:

Anton Gerzenberg, piano

Key pianistic experiences
For some, legendary recordings are key experiences on the path to their own career. Anton Gerzenberg had the privilege of hearing one of the best pianists as a child, and not from a loudspeaker, but from the next room. His mother, Lilya Zilberstein, was a regular guest of Martha Argerich. Both he and his brother Daniel became pianists and founded the Gerzenberg Duo. All four performed together at the Wiener Konzerthaus in 2024.

Weightless piano music
Anton Gerzenberg became interested in contemporary piano music early on, which is why he studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard. He is enthusiastic about pieces that you first have to work your way through and that free themselves from anything physical.

From Debussy to Boulez
He is now giving a piano recital with a sophisticated programme that ranges from Debussy to Stravinsky and Szymanowski to Boulez. The programme begins with a piece that was premiered in the Vienna Konzerthaus a good hundred years ago: Schönberg's Suite for Piano op. 25, an epochal composition that went down in history as the first completely twelve-tone work. The second half of the concert is also dominated by weightless works, with Debussy's »Six épigraphes antiques« and Stravinsky's homage to the impressionist composer. The furious second piano sonata by Boulez, whose 100th birthday is in 2025 and who is in the tradition of the other composers of the evening, will be heard at the end.

program

Arnold Schönberg
Suite op. 25 (1921)
Pierre Boulez
Incises (1993–2001)
Karol Szymanowski
Maski »Masken«. Drei Stücke op. 34 für Klavier (1916)

Claude Debussy
Six épigraphes antiques (Fassung für Klavier zu zwei Händen) (1915)
Igor Strawinski
Fragment des Symphonies pour instruments à vent à la mémoire de C. A. Debussy (1920)
Pierre Boulez
Sonate Nr. 2 für Klavier (1946–1948)

Place

The Konzerthaus in Vienna (German: Wiener Konzerthaus) was opened 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both tradition and innovative musical styles.

In 1890, the first ideas for a Haus für Musikfeste (House for music festivals) came about. The idea of the new multi-purpose building was to be more interesting to the broader public than the traditional Vienna Musikverein. In addition to the concert hall, the first drawings by Ludwig Baumann for the Olympion included an ice-skating area and a bicycle club. In an attached open air area, 40,000 visitors would be able to attend events. The drawings were not accepted. However, today an ice skating area is situated right next to the building.

The Konzerthaus was finally built between 1911 and 1913. The architects were Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer; the work was done in cooperation with Ludwig Baumann.