After the Federal Labor Court ruled that state and municipal orchestras no longer have an enforceable legal claim to public sector wage increases (Schweizer Musikzeitung reported), the tone between the social partners is becoming more heated.

According to a press release from the German Orchestra Association (DOV), the orchestras are "simultaneously demanding the preservation of Germany's unique orchestral culture". This is the largest such protest action in Germany since the 1950s, in which the Berlin Philharmonic and other renowned top orchestras are also involved.

On October 1, 2013, collective bargaining talks will begin in Berlin between the DOV and the German Stage Association on how the wage settlements in the public sector will be applied retroactively to state and municipal orchestras since 2010.

There is hardly any other genre that has achieved classical significance with so few relevant pieces as the oboe quartet. Until 20 years ago, there were just three really well-known works, namely those by Johann Christian Bach, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Benjamin Britten. Fortunately, the situation has improved in recent years, and thanks to new compositions by Isang Yun, Elliott Carter, Rudolf Kelterborn and Harrison Birtwistle (all composed at Heinz Holliger's instigation and premiered by him), more diverse programming is now possible.

Xavier Dayer's "Mémoire, Cercles" now joins this illustrious series of successful compositions. He describes his work as a meditation on the question of what would happen if total oblivion made all memory completely impossible. Using a sophisticated variation technique, he changes and disguises a basic melodic idea (which never appears in its basic form) and traces the shape of a human brain in a rondo-like circular form. This sounds magical, at times enigmatic, yet very varied and multifaceted and extremely virtuosic. The rhythmic and dynamic design is consistently expressive and repeatedly creates interesting relief structures, especially when the melodic lines between the individual instruments intertwine and cross over.

Those who wish to take up the rewarding challenge can look forward to a clean and well-considered edition. Turnarounds that work and generous engraver's notes (often on a separate staff) aid understanding of the music and make it easier to rehearse what is certainly not an easy work.

Xavier Dayer: Mémoire, Cercles, for oboe, violin, viola and violoncello, MCX87, Fr. 35.00, Editions Bim, Vuarmarens 2012

Solo pieces for piano are as rare in classical literature as they are in jazz, but they are quite a rarity in folk music. Hans Frey (1913-1973) from Lachen was once celebrated as an undisputed master in this genre by niche enthusiasts and was also fêted by Radio Beromünster. Without any musical training or knowledge of music himself, but equipped with plenty of talent and an absolute ear, the piano tuner from Ausserschwyz left behind 43 dances for solo piano. To mark the centenary of his birth and fortieth anniversary of his death, Wollerau music dealer Mathias Knobel has now published these polkas, ländler, mazurkas, marches and schottisches, some of them virtuoso, as a complete collection of sheet music.

As is well known, country music has only given the piano a secondary role as a rhythmic and harmonic accompanying instrument, and in some places it is even frowned upon completely. Frey, who obviously also heard ragtime and stride pianists, was not content with such a sideman function. Even in his youth, he occasionally invited fellow pupils to "Concert & Syrup" in the Bären, where he was also allowed to practise due to the lack of his own piano. At his first and only piano lesson, the exasperated teacher is said to have sent him away immediately because he played everything straight away. Soon the village notables took him out of the schoolroom to show off the child prodigy to their guests.

Fredy Reichmuth, Knobel's long-time collaborator on accordion and piano, has meticulously transcribed the notes from Frey's own recordings in the original keys. His penchant for the black keys is already reflected in the first two numbers in D flat major. Whilst the left hand can play quarter notes between octave basses and three-part chords, the right hand can indulge in quaver runs in thirds or sixths. So this is not exactly literature for beginners, especially not when Frey allows himself a septuplet to accommodate a chromatic passage between two bar lines.

This beautiful volume of sheet music, which also contains a compact biography with photos, is probably technically out of reach for amateur ländler pianists. It is therefore all the more suitable for curious outsiders who want to check their possible prejudices about "simple" country music. The 43 dances should appeal primarily to pianists looking for a native, down-to-earth complement to Chopin waltzes or Fats Waller. As the majority of the Ländler repertoire is only available in simplified notation (melody, possibly second part and chord ciphers), the detailed Frey sheet music could also be of interest as study objects for analysis and stylistic arrangement. In addition, Frey's recordings are available on two CDs - with regard to phrasing, dynamics and ornamentation practice: Memories of Hans Frey, Vol. 1 + 2

Volume of sheet music: Hans Frey (1913-1973), pianist and composer of Swiss folk music, transcription: Fredy Reichmuth, editor: Mathias Knobel, all 43 compositions in original version, A4 format, 136 pages, paperback cover, Fr. 56.00, Knobel music store, Wollerau 2013

VIT are "Very Important Things" that have become an integral part of our daily lives, such as the Tweezersthat Roach or the Port authority. They all receive an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek portrait here in an advanced musical language that is not too difficult to understand. The seven short pieces for saxophone and piano are dedicated to saxophonist Jean-Michel Goury on the one hand and Erik Satie on the other. Alongside titles such as Gymnasticswhich at best refers to the Gymnopédies or the obituary of the Dodo as a possible parallel to the Embryons desséchés it is above all the fact that each piece is preceded by a descriptive, sober text that is reminiscent of Satie in its distance from the musical-poetic event that follows.

Each of the seven pieces has a clear form, is derived from a simple basic material and is imaginatively crafted. An often recurring motif is the handling of disturbances. Unison parts are suddenly interrupted, either because the saxophonist is pondering a note or the pianist wants to demonstrate his virtuosity. Or the saxophonist experiments with microtonal changes in unison, which must drive the pianist, who is incapable of doing so, mad. In return, the saxophonist has to follow the common playing instruction of "pure intonation", which at best elicits a tired smile from the pianist. Another frequently recurring motif is mirroring, whether within the sequence of the twelve-tone rows or in the formal structure. The lively first piece (the Watering can), for example, is perfectly symmetrical.

The pieces can be played as a suite, but can also be inserted individually between other works. The wit, the conciseness and the loose connection with each other make it possible.

Rico Gubler, VIT Very important things, for alto saxophone and piano, FH 3446, € 17.80, Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig 2012

The first international baglama symposium in Germany, organized by the Berlin State Music Council, ended on 15 September 2013 at the Berlin University of the Arts. Following the symposium, which dealt intensively with the theory and history of the instrument, talks were held between the Faculty of Music at the UdK Berlin and the director of the Istanbul State Conservatory of Turkish Music, Cihangir Terzi, to discuss possible collaborations between the two universities.

The Udk Berlin has announced that the baglama is to be included in the curriculum of the Berlin University of the Arts. The aim is to get more people with a migration background interested in studying music as a teacher and to make a significant contribution to the integration of pupils with a migration background by integrating this traditional instrument into lessons, particularly in elementary school.

Similar to the guitar in Germany, the baglama plays an important role in the social life of migrants of Turkish origin, as well as in Turkey itself. Within a very short space of time, it has developed into an instrument with increasingly virtuoso playing techniques and high artistic standards. In the meantime, the baglama has also become an integral part of commercially successful music and - especially through its use in pop music - has gained a firm place in the everyday lives of young people, regardless of their cultural background.
 

It comes as no surprise that Richard Wagner's extensive family also has a branch in Switzerland. But that this was unknown even to close family members until some time ago is more surprising. In their new monograph, Verena Naegele and Sibylle Ehrismann reveal how this came about and what the Swiss Wagner descendants are all about. The Beidlers. In the shadow of the Wagner clan is more than just a companion volume to the exhibition that the two music journalists conceived on this topic and presented at the Zurich City Archives in summer 2013. It is an independent examination of the complex events that led to the break between the Beidler and Wagner families - and at times reads like a thriller that you will be reluctant to put down.

In a sophisticated overture, the authors begin with the explosive paternity trial and evaluate unknown sources for the first time: Isolde, Richard Wagner's first-born daughter, married to the Swiss conductor Franz Beidler, fought for her right to bear the name Wagner. However, as she (like her siblings Eva and Siegfried) was born at a time when her mother Cosima was still married to Hans von Bülow, she was legally a born von Bülow. The authors describe the consequences of the lost trial for the Beidler family, in particular for the first Wagner grandson Franz Wilhelm Beidler, in detail, but not with great attention to detail. In a matter-of-fact tone, but with a focus on their subject, they cover a broad arc from Lucerne via Bayreuth and Berlin in the 1920s to Zurich, where Franz Wilhelm Beidler helped shape Swiss cultural life for many years as secretary of the Swiss Writers' Association.

"Beidler - the name was unknown to us," says Nike Wagner in the foreword to this meticulously researched volume, which now closes a gap in the Wagner genealogy.

Verena Naegele and Sibylle Ehrismann: The Beidlers. Im Schatten des Wagner-Clans, 336 p., Fr 38.00, Rüffer & Rub, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-907625-66-8

While Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836), who died in the same year, has been in the Monuments of Rhenish music is in good hands with a complete edition of his four string quartets, Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich (1803-1836) from Aargau still has a hard time in this respect. Of the five contributions to the genre, which are among his main instrumental works, only the Quartet in E major, written in Berlin in 1827/28, is available in print. It was edited from the autograph and provided with a preface by Carola Gloor, a Bruges music student and cellist. Her Matura thesis dedicated to Fröhlich earned her the special prize with the rating "outstanding" Swiss Youth in Science: Culture of the 47th National Competition after revising the text with string quartet expert Antonio Baldassare.

The first edition (score and parts), published in only 280 copies, is based on Carola Gloor's transcription of Fröhlich's manuscript using the Sibelius music notation program. Published in the well-known engraving quality of Amadeus Verlag, run by violist Bernhard Päuler, the four-movement work represents a significant enrichment of the early Romantic quartet repertoire.

If Fröhlich had presented this work to his Berlin teachers Karl Friedrich Zelter and Bernhard Klein, they would hardly have agreed with the many idiosyncrasies. However, they considerably increase the appeal of the formally and tonally unconventional composition. Although it does not contain a development section, the first movement is in sonata form. In the Adagio, complicated rhythms and differently phrased sextuplets complicate the interplay. The particularly imaginative finale, written in free rondo form, quotes from the first movement for long stretches and surprises with recitative-like insertions and an effective fugato.

The editor and her academic advisor apparently missed the fact that the gently swaying main theme of the first movement in six-eighths time is not an invention of Fröhlich's. It comes from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Piano Sonata in E major op. 6, first published in 1826. The same composer, whom Fröhlich appreciated more than he successfully contacted in Berlin, also left his mark on the Scherzo. The combination of long chains of semiquavers with staccato accompaniment quavers in the lower register can already be found in his Capriccio in F sharp minor op. 5 for piano, printed in 1826.

What was long known as Fröhlich's Missa I turned out one day to be an only slightly altered copy of a mass by Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741-1801). Once again, Fröhlich stands out as a cheerful plagiarist, although this in no way diminishes the value of the work as a whole with regard to the short main theme of the string quartet.

Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich: String Quartet in E major, edited by Carola Gloor, BP 1842, Fr.68.00, Amadeus Verlag, Winterthur 2012

Janáček's Glagolitic Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra has a complex genesis. There are major differences between the version before the first performance in 1927 and the final printed version. Jirí Zahrádka, the editor of this new edition, solved the problem by also presenting two scores (the "September 1927" version as BA 6863; and the final version as BA 6862). The later version was taken into account as the version valid for performances. It is instrumentally richer, easier to study and shortened in some important passages.

The piano reduction presented here follows this later version. The Church Slavonic text was arranged by the Slavicist Radoslav Vecerka; the performance material is available on loan from Bärenreiterverlag.

Leoš Janáček: Mša glagolskaja, piano reduction after the Critical Complete Edition, edited by Martin Zehn, BA 6862-90, € 34.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2012

Underestimated among themselves: Joseph Haydn and Dmitri Shostakovich not only share the fate of having stood in the shadow of others, but also reveal astonishing similarities. Their clarity is striking. They also share a sense of humor, which in Shostakovich's case can sometimes turn into bitter sarcasm. This is not yet so strongly expressed in his early work, the Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, composed in 1923. But it is all the more drastic in the second piano trio Opus 67 from 1944, in the last movement of which Shostakovich indulges in the piercing persistence for which he became famous (and infamous).

Nothing escapes the Huh trio. They energetically - "beauty of tone is a minor matter" - take on such rhythmically pounding passages. On the other hand, they formulate the vocabulary of Joseph Haydn in his E flat major Trio No. 29 from 1784 in a finely chiselled manner. Many people don't know what to do with Haydn's chamber music, overdoing the varied play with tempi and timbres. The Huhs are completely different: with the first powerful chord, everything takes its natural and at the same time very flexible course. Rarely have we heard such a fine attacca as in the transition from the andantino to the finale.

Transitions of a cultural nature characterize the biographies of the Huh sisters. They were born in Korea and play an important role in cultural life there, but also often give concerts in Europe. Cellist Yun-Jung and violinist Hee-Jung teach in Seoul, while pianist Seung-Yeun is a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts and director of the Zurich City Conservatory music school.

The CD's sound engineer, Jan Zácek, is interested in transitions of a different kind. The recording also deserves the highest praise because he so congenially designed the path from the instruments to the hard disk. Simply a great pleasure to listen to!

Piano trios by Joseph Haydn and Dmitri Shostakovich. Huh-Trio: Seung-Yeun Huh, piano; Hee-Jung Huh, violin; Yun-Jung Huh, cello. Acustica Records

Jean-François Michel (*1957) enjoys a very good reputation in Switzerland as a brilliant trumpet player and as professor of trumpet at the University of Music (Lausanne, Fribourg, Sion). As a soloist, the former principal trumpeter of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra also performs on the international stage and offers master classes. An equally central and successful field of activity for Michel is composing chamber music pieces in various styles and levels of difficulty.

Lorie is a light, modal composition in three short movements with strong references to the stirring folk music of Ireland with Celtic roots. The first movement is a jig with a lively Dorian melody, which is partly accompanied by percussive elements (rhythms are to be struck on the wood of the piano and on the edge of the mouthpiece), reminiscent of the rhythmic tapping of the dancers' shoes in an Irish reel. The slow middle movement is characterized by a simple melody in a major key and, with its legato character, offers a contrast to the two outer movements. The final movement - like a fiddle tune - with dotted rhythms and a Mixolydian melody with shifts to major and minor, is also full of energy, joy of playing and wit.

The piece, which lasts around five minutes, would be very suitable as a competition piece for the intermediate level.

Jean-François Michel: Lorie, for Bb trumpet and piano, (=Swiss Composers Series), TP332, Fr. 20.00, Edition Bim, Vuarmarens 2011

Underestimated among themselves: Joseph Haydn and Dmitri Shostakovich not only share the fate of having stood in the shadow of others, but also reveal astonishing similarities. Their clarity is striking. They also share a sense of humor, which in Shostakovich's case can sometimes turn into bitter sarcasm. This is not yet so strongly expressed in his early work, the Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, composed in 1923. But it is all the more drastic in the second piano trio Opus 67 from 1944, in the last movement of which Shostakovich indulges in the piercing persistence for which he became famous (and infamous).

Nothing escapes the Huh trio. They energetically - "beauty of tone is a minor matter" - take on such rhythmically pounding passages. On the other hand, they formulate the vocabulary of Joseph Haydn in his E flat major Trio No. 29 from 1784 in a finely chiselled manner. Many people don't know what to do with Haydn's chamber music, overdoing the varied play with tempi and timbres. The Huhs are completely different: with the first powerful chord, everything takes its natural and at the same time very flexible course. Rarely have we heard such a fine attacca as in the transition from the andantino to the finale.

Transitions of a cultural nature characterize the biographies of the Huh sisters. They were born in Korea and play an important role in cultural life there, but also often give concerts in Europe. Cellist Yun-Jung and violinist Hee-Jung teach in Seoul, while pianist Seung-Yeun is a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts and director of the Zurich City Conservatory music school.

The CD's sound engineer, Jan Zácek, is interested in transitions of a different kind. The recording also deserves the highest praise because he so congenially designed the path from the instruments to the hard disk. Simply a great pleasure to listen to!

There is the traditional line of Norma readings, with Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland or Edita Gruberova. And there is Cecilia Bartoli, writes the German Record Critics' Jury.

Bartoli has given Norma back the bel canto part of the originally intended mezzo-soprano fach. She does this with her own art of singing: a singing "with clenched fists, so to speak, full of banging coloratura, explosive fioritura and skillfully overcoming the slightly elderly grandeur that we hear in many recordings of this work, not least because of the conventional orchestras".

This year's prize-winners also include solo motets by Antonio Vivaldi with Julia Lezhneva and Il Giardino Armonico (Decca), Scarlatti's Dove è amore è gelosia with the Schwarzenberg Court Orchestra (Naxos) and an anniversary edition with recordings by Alfred Cortot (EMI)

The German Record Critics' Award was founded in its current form in 1980 by a group of record critics who joined together in December 1988 to form an independent registered association; it continues the tradition of the first German record award of the same name, which was founded in 1963 by the Bielefeld publisher Richard Kaselowsky.
 

The agreement comes into force on September 1, 2013. The agreements enable Swiss composers and authors to also receive revenues for the use of their works on YouTube abroad.

In addition to the agreement with Suisa, YouTube has concluded agreements with over 40 other collecting societies worldwide. These include, for example, PRS for Music in the UK, Sacem in France, SGAE in Spain, SIAE in Italy, Buma Stemra in the Netherlands and, most recently, AKM/austro Mechana in Austria.

The Deutsche Orchestervereinigung e.V. (DOV) was thus unable to prevail against the Arbeitgeberverband Deutscher Bühnenverein (DBV) in the final instance.

Since 2010, the DBV had refused to continue to implement the collective agreement regulation on the transfer of wage percentages to state and municipal orchestras, which has been in force for decades. As a result, collectively agreed orchestra remuneration is currently around 8 percent below that of public sector employees.

DOV Managing Director Gerald Mertens regrets the BAG's decision and "is now calling on the German Stage Association to finally conclude new pay scales for state and municipal orchestras without delay by means of a collective agreement that makes up for all percentage increases by state and local authorities since 2010".

Unfortunately, the DOV writes in an official press release that there is now a risk of massive wage conflicts every year. .

Despite great efforts, it has not been possible to re-establish a sustainable relationship of trust within the management bodies, the canton writes further. Roger Bischofberger considers the cooperation to be so strained that he sees no possibility of successfully mastering the development tasks ahead.

The management bodies of SfG have decided to maintain confidentiality in this matter.

Roger Bischofberger, 55 years old, took over as director from Dorothea Flury in August 2011. He previously worked as a secondary school teacher for visual arts. During his time as director, he succeeded in differentiating existing courses and initiating the development of new courses.

The position of Director of the school is being advertised. Ursula Gysin, Deputy Director, and Christoph Reber, Head of Administration, will take over the co-management until Roger Bischofberger's successor takes up the post. They will be supported by Hans Georg Signer, Head of Education, during the interim period.