VIENNESE WORLD MUSIC
The well travelled and critically acclaimed "Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln" excel at playing "Schrammel-Musik", a unique form of Viennese music. With their brandnew CD they explore Vienna in the 19th and in the 21st Century
The "Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln" have been charging Viennese music with a fresh wind. The four musicians succeed impressively in joining elegance and Viennese charm to make the sensitive interpretations of original Schrammel music a real pleasure. The marked musical understanding and the virtuosity of each musician allows the ensemble to make every facette of concert Schrammel music come alive, which earns it a placewithin the genre of chamber music.
After numerous performances in radio and TV in and outside of Austria, the "Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln" have been able to realize 9 CD productions and tours in the USA, Canada, Chile, Argentinia, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Japan, China and many other countries in recent years.
They worked with the actors and singers Wolfram Berger, Karl Ferdinand Kratzl, Robert Meyer, Karl Markovic, Willi Resetartits, André Heller, Traude Holzer, Karlheinz Hackl, Wolfgang Böck, Hermann Scheidleder, Elfriede Ott, Claudia Rhonefeld, Ernst Stankovsky, Otto Brusatti, Christopher Just, Rupert Huber, Wolf Bachofner, Magic Sax Quartet de Santiago de Cuba and many others.
The "Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln" 2005-2013 played with Robert Meyer "Tannhäuser in 80 Minutes" at the Burgtheater and the Volksoper Vienna. They appear since 2007 Key on the Schrammelmusic sound festival in Litschau performing "Herzfleisch" A Play about the Schrammel brothers.
"Some of the best that this city of music has to offer"
Wiener Zeitung
"They have avoided the sweetish tradition of Viennese music with a refreshing modern approach."
Kurier
"Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln as vitamin injection for the Viennese song."
Kronen Zeitung
"Well dressed as in the good old days, and they also play so well, as people must have played in former times, when everything was better."
Die Presse
"I was particularly impressed with the Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln. Most Schrammel groups I’ve heard can perhaps best be described as quaint. These guys are real virtuosos. The recording quality on this and their other CDs (I have almost all of them now) is spectacular. You can hear the kontragitarre clearly throughout. Peter’s bass lines are far more developed than I’ve heard from other players in Schrammel groups. My favorites, of their CDs, are Zamona, Tanz, and Kronjuwelen. Zamona and Tanz are readily available at Amazon in the US. Downloads of 5 of their albums are also available from Amazon and probably other download sources. I highly recommend Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln to anyone interested in the best representation of the kontragitarre’s use in the Schrammel tradition and anyone interested in passionately played music in folk/classical styles!"
Frank Doucette - harpguitars.com
WHAT IS SCHRAMMEL MUSIC?
Like the Tango, Fado, or Rembetiko "Schrammel music" developed in a city and contains elements of both folk music and composed music.
That a whole musical style has been named for two brothers, the violinists Johann and Josef Schrammel, demonstrates the uniqueness of "Schrammel music" within the creative Viennese music scene at the end of the 19th century.
According to the illustrated "Wiener Extrablatt" of 7 October 1883:
...A fiddle bow is tapped three times on the sounding-board of a violin. Three magic strokes. In no time the din turns to silence: a holy stillness reigns over the hall, which seems to have been suddenly turned into a church. And all eyes are turned towards the podium, on which three men are seated. Two draw their bows across the strings, and the third has placed his fingers on the thick body of his guitar. Those are the Schrammeln. There is no claque, no paid applause-manufacturers, no friends who are there to generate excitement. There are only admirers and fanatics, who can become truly angry if anyone scrapes his chair or talks loudly during a performance...
In 1878 the violinist Josef Schrammel convinced his older brother Johann to form a trio with Anton Strohmayer, who played a contraguitar, a normal six-stringed guitar with seven additional bass strings. The trio soon expanded into a quartet with the addition of the clarinettist Georg Dänzer, who played a very high clarinet, called the Picksiaßes Hölzl. Later the Schrammeln also played with the accordionist Anton Ernst.
During the short time of their productivity (the brothers died in 1893 and 1895, respectively), the Schrammels were nevertheless able to complete many world-renowned compositions. Schrammel quartets today, of course, don't restrict themselves exclusively to works by the Brothers Schrammel. Works ranging from those by contemporaries of the Schrammels and great musicians from the time between the First and Second World Wars (for example, the virtuoso Mikulas brothers to contemporary Viennese dances, marches, waltzes, character studies, songs, and the like, make up their repertoire.
Peter Havlicek
Translation: Edita Nosowa