Ilse Aichinger Gerhard Gruber interview Ilse Aichinger:
The following article by Ilse Aichinger about the silent-film pianist Gerhard Gruber appeared in October 2006 in her book "subtexts" (Publisher correspondence) as well as in the book "Cinema without land" (No place for a cinema) by Almut Rink and Ruth Kaaserer (Czernin Verlag):
EDUCATOR OF FILM Neither he wears a Viennese Order, nor shall the Town Hall for excitement and speculations such as Michael Jackson. Gerhard Gruber, composer and musician (the piano player, "his name for me) comes from the barren landscape of the Mühlviertel. He improvises on the piano to silent movies, in the triangle, which also I move often: between metro cinema, Breitenseer light shows and film museum - not Bermuda, but the safest place to disappear. He makes every movie possible, and it also unnecessarily. Who sees his hands on the illuminated buttons, you can risk it, forget even Chaplin to aufzuhelfen his memory of him. Should we ask for self-forgotten, how much you have to forget them? Gerhard Gruber is not relevant. Composing is an intellectual act, he explains, improvisation, an act of love. "It would not surprise me if my game changed the film." Whether he knows how much the pictures is lost as the movie dialogue to sign a "Petition against the talkies" would? "Gruber is a form of modesty at the same time its size," says Alexander Horwath (Austrian Film Museum). "The special fact that dead in the silent music of the one part, '(ie old and stored on celluloid) and the other part, alive' (That live there and act) is required, paradoxically, by a musician who is now using that fact (ie the own advantage ") are not satisfied that the 'dead' part would have just as alive as he himself is . to "I'm the air out, but I do not know what to do with it," EM Cioran. But who Gerhard Gruber hear piano notes, is once again ready to trust his breath. "We through the fields and look forward, "Adalbert Stifter wrote (how long before the night in which he cut with a razor to his throat, would certainly find out)." The man can be very happy, " says the founder of Urban Monograph Riedl - and that leads back to the donor-Fan Gerhard Gruber. The question of the "subtext" of a person moving in Stifter and Gruber, yet contrary to each other. Gerhard Gruber is lucky to be himself and if he wants to share this happiness for a long time. He knows that destroying the primitive, if it drags into the light, that you kill what is demystified. If the "Skwaraismus" (as Erich Wolfgang Skwara Martin Walser on) "is the passion that makes their unsatisfiability of the program," said Gerhard Gruber is the incarnate antithesis to this definition. Too hard to bear for the soft conditions, for example, after the movie "The Avalanche", a by Gerhard Gruber "maladjusted movie, go home or go somewhere else. (Wear some movies, of course, he said, others must be "pulled". But it is for the educator and the like, which he does not like.) "On the night continue to run the silent movies. I dream in silent film, blue tinted. " And "The guy next door from the grave" (now at 18 clock in the cine-film)? He should get out there and put together quickly with other Scheintodgefährdeten Breitensee according to Gerhard Gruber. (courtesy of the author)
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ENGLISH VERSION: Blue-Toned Silent Film Dreams
He doesn’t wear a Viennese medal of honor, nor does he create a commotion in the parliament and cause guessing games like Michael Jackson. Gerhard Gruber, composer and musician (“the piano player” as I know him), comes from the barren landscape of
the Muehlviertel. He improvises on the piano to the silent films in the triangle that I often move in: between the Metro-Kino, the Breitenseer Lichtspiele, and the Filmmuseum—not Bermuda, but still a place where you can safely disappear.
He is the one who first makes each film possible and, at the same time, unnecessary. Those who have seen his hands move on the illuminated keys might even risk forgetting Chaplin to boost their memory of him. In letting yourself go, should you ask how much you have to let go? For Gerhard Gruber that isn’t relevant. Composing is an intellectual act. As he explains, improvisation is an act of love. “It wouldn’t surprise me if my playing changed the film.” And would this man—someone who knows how much the pictures have lost through dialogue cinema—sign a “petition against the talkies”?
“Gruber’s form of modesty is likewise his greatness,” said Alexander Horwath (of the Austrian Filmmuseum). “The particular situation of silent film music, in which one part is ‘dead’ (which means old and stored on celluloid) and the other part ‘living’ (alive and capable of acting), paradoxically demands a musician who is not satisfied with this situation (with his or her own ‘advantage’), who wants to make the ‘dead’ part just as much alive as he or she is.”
“I am still breathing the air, but I don’t know what I should do with it,” stated E. M. Cioran. Those who listen to Gerhard Gruber play the piano can once again trust their own breath.
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And Der Typ vom Grab nebenan (The guy in the next grave) (today at 6 p.m. in Cine-Kino)? You should help him out of there and quickly bring him, together with the others in danger of apparent death, to Breitensee, to Gerhard Gruber.
First published in: Die Presse, 12 March 2005, as “Der Filmerzieher.”
Translated by Lisa Rosenblatt.
The audience was dumb struck by Gruber's dynamic and delicate performance of his magic piano which blended so perfectly with Sawato's masterful benshi-narration. Six film critics and editors have stayed after the presentation to chat with G.Gruber and Midori Sawato. They unanimously praised the duo's high quality performance and the sponsorship of the austrian embassy for this unique cultural project. 
