First performances
In 2007 Thai composer Narongrit Dhamabutra composed a violin concerto, named “Sankitamankala”, on the occasion of the 80th birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. This was premiered in a celebratory concert on July 16th, 2007, at the Thailand Cultural Centre in Bangkok by Karin-Regina Florey as soloist with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.
In 2015 she participated in the premiere performance of “Elements of Despair” for tenor, piano and string quartet by South African singer and composer Musa Nkuna in the entrance hall of the State Theatre, Kassel (Germany).
In 2017 she premiered the string quartet „To the Lighthouse“ by Greek composer Zesses Seglias at the opening of the Bregenz Festival, which was broadcast live on TV.
Since the compositions by her father, Hans Florey, are not (yet) available in print, she has premiered all of his manuscript works for violin, or involving a violin. It is quite likely, that some privately owned manuscripts by Josef Matthias Hauer had never been heard in public until their performance by Gerhard Zeller and K.R. Florey.
Josef-Matthias Hauer
“What could be sensed between the notes, between the intervals, however, quasi beyond space, beyond matter and sensuality, that is pure movement, [..] intuition, the essence of musical experience.”
“The primal source of all things, their momentum, can actually only be spiritually grasped in the Melos.”
J.M. Hauer, Interpretation of Melos, Fortissimo Publishing Company, Vienna, 1923
By her father, Hans Florey, and the pianist Gerhard Zeller, Karin-Regina Florey was introduced to the twelve-tone music of Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer (1883-1959) at a young age.
Gradually she studied Hauer’s entire oevre for violin and piano and for violin solo, the scores of which being available in print or, more often, in manuscript only. Since 1979 she has regularly performed in concerts presenting J.M. Hauer’s music. Finally, in 2000, a documentary CD was released on the Viennese label Extraplatte, featuring the most comprehensive survey of J.M. Hauer’s violin music to date, most of it as a premiere recording. At the conference of the ESTA (European String Teachers Association) in Feldkirch 2019, G. Zeller and K.R. Florey presented a hitherto unknown “Twelve-tone game” for violin and piano by J.M. Hauer found on a newly discovered manuscript.
Hans Florey
“My works illustrate the polar structure of cyclical-serial canon forms by means of number, colour and sound, [..]
H. Florey, Series of Writings, Volume 4, NOMOS G.-Zeller-Institute, Graz, 2001
Hans Florey (Salzburg, 1931-2013) – Karin-Regina Florey’s father, having completed studies both in music and visual art, was a comprehensively artistic personality.
His holistic thinking was influenced by European spirit (J. W. Goethe, I. Kant, A. Schopenhauer), as well as by Far Eastern philosophy (I Ging, Dao De Jing); his mind-set being strictly non-denominational.
He studied in detail the Colour Theories of Ph. O. Runge and J. W. v. Goethe, and J. M. Hauer’s Twelve-Tone Theory. He re-organized Hauer’s system of the “Tropes”, and applied its orderly structure to the realm of colours. In the „Magic Square“ und the „Platonic Solids“ he found the basis for the projection of holistic-harmonic structures onto two- and into three-dimensionality. Using numbers as common denominator in the comparison, Hans Florey also translated his complex colour orders into music, and dedicated many of his compositions to the artist-couple Gerhard und Annemarie Zeller (piano and voice) and to his daughter (violin solo, violin and piano, violin duo).
Since 1979, these compositions were presented in various concert programs, often in combination with works by J.M. Hauer, featuring K.R. Florey as violinist. On the occasion of Hans Florey’s 80th anniversary on March 21st, 2011, K. R. Florey organized, programmed and participated in a celebratory concert at the Schubert Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus. At this event, a majority of his compositions was performed and a video presentation of his visual art works was shown.
In 2002, em.O. Univ. Prof. Gerhard Zeller founded the NOMOS. Gerhard-Zeller-Institute for holistic-harmonic structure forms in Graz, Austria, dedicated to „Number-Colour-Sound in the Oeuvre of Hans Florey“. This venue periodically hosts lectures and concert events featuring works by J.M. Hauer and H. Florey.
