Composer/Author:
GRÖSCHKE, H. Arranged/Written for: Quintet Instrumentation: 2ATB and piano Score and parts
HEINZ GRÖSCHKE
was born on April 30, 1914 in Berlin and studied music in his hometown. His original plans to become a concert pianist and conductor failed due to an arm injury from metal splinters he suffered during World War II. At times, he taught music theory at the Berlin Conservatory and at the Municipal Conservatory (formerly Stern'sches Konservatorium), before he finally worked until his retirement in 1982 as an orchestra director at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Gröschke died on 2. June 1996 in Berlin.
As a student, he performed on the piano together with students of his composition teacher Gustav Bumcke (1876-1963), who founded the first saxophone class in Germany in 1927. Gröschke premiered this composition in Berlin in 1936 together with the German Saxophone Quartet (Gustav Bumcke, his daughter Hilde [artist name Ingrid Larssen], Emil Manz and Karl Petzelt). The virtuoso piano part points to Gröschke's remarkable pianistic abilities. Stylistically, the piece stands in the late Romantic tradition. It should not be forgotten that this is the work of a twenty-year-old musician who proves a remarkable certainty in the craft of composition.
More than half a century later, on the occasion of Gröschke's 75th birthday on April 30, 1989 the quintet was re-performed by four Berlin saxophonists under the direction of Detlef Bensmann in close collaboration with the composer. Finally, in 2018, after a performance on July 12 in Zagreb with the Bensmann-Saxophone-Quartet Berlin-Skopje-Beijing (Detlef Bensmann, Tianhong Wu, Pai Liu and Ninoslav Dimov) and Holger Groschopp (piano) at the XXVIII. World Saxophone Congress was the initiative for this print edition.
