Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky are German duo-pianist brothers who have been associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They have an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also perform the standard repertoire and they sometimes play separately. They have occasionally been joined by their younger brother Bernhard in performances of pieces for three pianos. Aloys was born on 14 May 1931, and Alfons on 9 October 1932.

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  • Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky are German duo-pianist brothers who have been associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They have an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also perform the standard repertoire and they sometimes play separately. They have occasionally been joined by their younger brother Bernhard in performances of pieces for three pianos. Aloys was born on 14 May 1931, and Alfons on 9 October 1932. They were both born in Iserlohn. Aloys received early tuition from Franz Hanemann. He later studied at Cologne and Hamburg with Else Schmitz-Gohr, and with Eduard Erdmann in Hamburg. Their first public concert was in 1949, in which they played Stravinsky's Concerto for two pianos. In 1955 they formed their piano duo "Klavierduo Kontarsky" and have been performing regularly since 1959. In 1955, they won first prize for piano duo at the fourth German Radio International Music Competition. Since 1962, Aloys and Alfons have been instructors at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. Aloys is also a member of the Darmstadt International Chamber Ensemble. Since 1963, Aloys has been an instructor at the Cologne Courses for New Music. Alfons is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and of the "German Musikrats" and holds professorships at Music Universities in Cologne, Munich and the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1965 Aloys formed a duo with the cellist Siegfried Palm. They have given first performances of works by Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti, Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, Luis de Pablo and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. They have made frequent tours of Western European countries, the Middle East, and the Americas, and have also appeared in Australia. Their recordings are numerous, and include Stockhausen's Mantra, supervised by the composer, as part of the complete Stockhausen edition on 98 CDs. Their more traditional fare includes the Brahms complete Hungarian Dances and Schubert's Fantasy in F minor, D.940. They are heard on the soundtrack of the 1990 film Henry & June, playing Debussy's Petite Suite. In 1974, Alfons made the first recording with the original instruments of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821, the arpeggione played by Klaus Storck and Alfons playing fortepiano. Aloys appeared in a recording of Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I playing the tam-tam, and Alfons participated in Mikrophonie II, playing the Hammond organ. Alfons has also appeared as a conductor, in The Walls (Die Wände) by Adriana Hölszky. Aloys may have also appeared as a conductor, in the 1994 French premiere at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, according to one review, but another names his younger brother, Bernhard, as conductor for this production. Their students include: York Höller, Steffen Schleiermacher, Christine Gerwig and Efraín González Ruano, Anna Haas-Niewiedział and Piotr Niewiedział, Douglas Nemish and Dominique Morel, Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez and many others. In 1959 Aloys married the actress Gisela Saur.
  • Alfons Kontarsky ist ein deutscher Pianist und Hochschullehrer. Schon als Kind spielte er Klavier und Orgel. Ab 1953 studierte er vier Semester in Köln bei Else Schmitz-Gohr (Klavier) und bei Maurits Frank (Kammermusik). Mit seinem älteren Bruder Aloys gewann er 1955 in München den 1. Preis beim Internationalen Musikwettbewerb der ARD. Danach, von 1955 bis 1957, perfektionierte sich das Brüderpaar bei Eduard Erdmann in Hamburg. Anschließend begann eine internationale Karriere der Brüder als Klavierduo, das bis 1983, der schweren Erkrankung von Aloys Kontarsky besteht. Gemeinsam mit dem jüngeren Bruder Bernhard Kontarsky traten sie gelegentlich auch als Trio auf. 1967 wurde Alfons Kontarsky als Professor für Klavier an die Hochschule für Musik Köln berufen, 1979 wechselte er nach München. Von 1983 bis zur Emeritierung 2001 war er dann am Mozarteum in Salzburg als Hochschullehrer tätig. 1970-1975 bildete Alfons Kontarsky mit dem Violinisten Saschko Gawriloff und dem Cellisten Klaus Storck ein Klaviertrio. Schon seit 1951 hatte er engen Kontakt zur Neuen Musik. So interpretierte er Werke von Bernd Alois Zimmermann oder Karlheinz Stockhausen. Viele Werke sind für ihn geschrieben, ihm gewidmet und von ihm uraufgeführt. Er war Mitglied der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste und des Deutschen Musikrats.
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  • Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky are German duo-pianist brothers who have been associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They have an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also perform the standard repertoire and they sometimes play separately. They have occasionally been joined by their younger brother Bernhard in performances of pieces for three pianos. Aloys was born on 14 May 1931, and Alfons on 9 October 1932.
  • Alfons Kontarsky ist ein deutscher Pianist und Hochschullehrer. Schon als Kind spielte er Klavier und Orgel. Ab 1953 studierte er vier Semester in Köln bei Else Schmitz-Gohr (Klavier) und bei Maurits Frank (Kammermusik). Mit seinem älteren Bruder Aloys gewann er 1955 in München den 1. Preis beim Internationalen Musikwettbewerb der ARD. Danach, von 1955 bis 1957, perfektionierte sich das Brüderpaar bei Eduard Erdmann in Hamburg.
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  • Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky
  • Alfons Kontarsky
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