The Piano Man

As a child,pianist Gerhard Grubers first influences were silent movies featuring Buster Keaton,Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy.

For Austrian pianist Gerhard Gruber,playing music for silent films is akin to being the narrator of a story

As a child,pianist Gerhard Grubers first influences were silent movies featuring Buster Keaton,Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. I think this was my first love for silent films, he says. On Februrary 27,when he performed at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune,he received a standing ovation from the audience. An Austrian composer and piano player,Gruber has carved a niche for himself in the field of silent cinema music. Gruber talks about his inspiration and the need to improvise in his work. I had started to play for silent films in 1988 by chance after one of my students asked me to. And that was the start of a long-lasting love, he says.

Gruber has played for about 450 different films. Each of his performance is different as he improvises on the spot. If I would think about what to play,I could not go with the movie. Everything happens in the moment. So I do not prepare by playing music to a film before a performance,I just prepare by watching the movie or not even that.

His next performance in Pune will be on the 1928 German film,Cafe Elektric,directed by Gustav Ucicky. Set in a cafe in Vienna,the film depicts Erni Göttlinger,the rich daughter of a construction entrepreneur,who gets attracted to a pickpocket,Herr Fredl. Ask him about his inspiration and the pianist says,Music is hanging in the air,I just take it like fruits from a tree. So I only have to be concentrated and relaxed and listen to the world. I am using all the possibilities which music has,like rhythm and fast tempo for hunting or fights,or some light music for good feeling,or increasing loudness or tempo for some tension and suspension. But first of all,I need to be a narrator. It happens through music, he says.

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