The Kontarsky brothers 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. In 1955, they won first prize for piano duo at the fourth German Radio International Music Competition. In 1965 Aloys formed a duo with the cellist
Siegfried Palm. As a piano duo, the brothers gave first performances of works by
Luciano Berio,
Sylvano Bussotti,
Mauricio Kagel,
Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Henri Pousseur,
Luis de Pablo, They made frequent tours of Western European countries, the Middle East, and the Americas, and also appeared in Australia and on two tours in Southern Africa. Their recordings are numerous, and include Bartók's
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Stockhausen's
Mantra, supervised by the composer, once issued on LP by Deutsche Grammophon and reissued on CD 16 of the Stockhausen Complete Edition, and
Structures for two pianos by Pierre Boulez. They also performed the standard repertoire. Their more traditional fare includes the complete
Brahms Hungarian Dances and Schubert's
Fantasia 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. In 1959 Aloys married the actress Gisela Saur. but another report names his younger brother, Bernhard, as conductor for this production. 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. Anna Haas-Niewiedział and Piotr Niewiedział, Douglas Nemish and Dominique Morel, and many others. Alfons Kontarsky was awarded the
Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class in 1999. ==References==