The Kontarskys performed Stockhausen's Mantra at the Shiraz Arts Festival, Iran on 2 September 1972. The composer at the mixing desk, foreground centre.
Aloys (14 May 1931 – 22 August 2017)[1][2] and Alfons (9 October 1932 – 5 May 2010)[3][4]Kontarsky were German duo-pianist brothers who were associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They had an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also performed the standard repertoire and they sometimes played separately. They were occasionally joined by their younger brother Bernhard in performances of pieces for three pianos. After suffering a stroke in 1983, Aloys retired from performing.
Their first public concert was in 1949, in which they played Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos.[5] In 1955 they formed their piano duo "Klavierduo Kontarsky" and performed regularly from 1959 until Aloys became paralyzed in 1983 as the result of two strokes.[5][6] In 1955, they won first prize for piano duo at the fourth German Radio International Music Competition.[5]
From 1962, Aloys and Alfons were instructors at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.[5] Aloys was also a member of the Darmstadt International Chamber Ensemble. From 1963, Aloys was an instructor at the Cologne Courses for New Music.[5] Alfons was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council) and held professorships at Music Universities in Cologne, Munich.[7] In 1965 Aloys formed a duo with the cellist Siegfried Palm.[8][9]
In 1959 Aloys married the actress Gisela Saur.[5] According to one source, Aloys may have appeared as a conductor, in the 1994 French premiere at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten,[14] but another report names his younger brother, Bernhard, as conductor for this production.[15] It seems unlikely this was Aloys, who in 1983 suffered two debilitating strokes, which left him paralyzed on one side with visual and speech disorders. His wife, Gisela Saur-Kontarsky, curtailed her artistic career as a singer in order to attend to her husband. In 2008, she was presented with a Medal of Merit from the City of Cologne by Mayor Fritz Schramma for her service to her husband.[6]
Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne (eds.) 1996. "Kontarsky, Aloys". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lück, Rudolf, and Ateş Orga. 2001a. "Kontarsky, Alfons". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Lück, Rudolf, and Ateş Orga. 2001b. "Kontarsky, Aloys". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Schminke, Clemens. 2008.『Für vorbildlichen Einsatz geehrt』Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (5 November)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1967. "Notes", translated by Hugh Davies. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Complete Piano Music, Aloys Kontarsky, piano. First recording, supervised by the composer. 2-LP set. CBS Masterworks 32 21 0008 (stereo) and 32 21 0007 (mono). Reprinted online, Analog Arts Ensemble.
