Under Gottstein, the festival has opened up further, writes SWR. The number of composers' countries of origin has increased significantly. While women were rarely represented with their works in earlier times, the number of female composers represented has now multiplied. The Donaueschingen Music Days have become more discursive with discussion events and lectures. The research/concert project Donaueschingen Global 2021 addresses issues of post-colonialism in contemporary music.

The Donaueschingen Music Days 2019 will take place from October 17 to 20. The program includes new orchestral works by Saed Haddad, Michael Pelzel, Gérard Pesson, Eva Reiter, Matthew Shlomowitz, Simon Steen-Andersen and Lidia Zielinska. In addition to the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Experimentalstudio and the SWR Vokalensemble, the SWR Big Band will also be performing in 2019. The Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Phace Ensemble and Ensemble Resonanz will also be performing. Mark Andre, Johannes Boris Borowski, Beat Furrer, Herbordt/Mohren, Gordon Kampe, Bernhard Leitner, Nicole Lizée, Alberto Posadas, Kirsten Reese and François Sarhan have been commissioned to compose works.

Björn Gottstein, born in Aachen in 1967, is an editor for new music at SWR in Stuttgart. From 2013 to 2014, he was one of the artistic directors of the Eclat Festival Stuttgart and the SWR concert series Attacca. He has taught at the TU Berlin, the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, the Hochschule für Musik Basel and the Berlin University of the Arts. From 2009 to 2013, he was chairman of the board of the Initiative Neue Musik Berlin.

Oskar Lagger was born in Münster, in the Upper Valais, in 1934, but grew up in Sion. He went to school there, but retained close ties to his place of origin. In his education, he cultivated the influence of the classes he attended in Paris (1956-1961) and Vienna (1961-1962). His professional career is characterized by his loyalty to both French-speaking and German-speaking culture.

As a music teacher at the German-speaking section of the Teachers' College, as Kapellmeister of Sion Cathedral and as a conductor, teacher and director of the conservatory, he left his mark on generations of students.

Since 2003, the Valais Music Library has been building up a music collection with the support of the Loterie Romande. It currently comprises over 18,000 sound recordings, 23,500 scores, 4,500 works and audiovisual media. After Pierre Mariétan (2005), Jean-Luc Darbellay (2010), Jean Daetwyler (2013) and Marie-Christine Raboud-Theurillat (2016), the Oskar Lagger collection, created in 2018, is the fifth of its kind to be donated to the Valais Music Library by a contemporary composer. The four other collections were also the subject of a publication by the Valais Media Library.

Douglas Bostock is leaving the orchestra after 18 years at the end of the 2018/19 season. Bergmann will take up his position on July 1, 2020 for the 2020/21 season, after the argovia philharmonic has moved into its new concert hall, the Alte Reithalle Aarau. His contract as Chief Conductor of the argovia philharmonic is for a period of 3 years, with an option to extend.

According to the orchestra's press release, the decision was based on the Norwegian's two previous guest conducting engagements with the argovia philharmonic in April 2017 and more recently in January 2019, as well as following his successful work in Calgary and Szczecin.

Rune Bergmann has appeared with numerous orchestras in North America and Europe, including the Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony in the USA, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Halle and Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguese in Europe. He was also 1st Kapellmeister at the Theater Augsburg. He is currently chief conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada and the Szczecin Philharmonic in Poland as well as director of the Fjord Cadenza music festival in Norway.
 

Cohesion, unity and mutual development are terms that are used at the eighth edition of the industry get-together Classical:NEXT: Music should be made together, challenges mastered cooperatively and all voices heard in harmony.

As in previous years, Classical:NEXT offers the opportunity to gather and exchange information about developments in the field of classical music at an international level. The exhibition, where organizers and producers present their work, is complemented by a variety of conferences, workshops and concerts.

Together with Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Performers' Association (SIG), the Fondation Suisa is once again organizing the "Swiss Music" joint stand for interested parties from Switzerland. Registration is open until May 10.
Link to registration

At municipal theaters, wages ─ based on the collective wage agreement for the public sector (TVöD) ─ will increase by 3.09% retroactively from April 1, 2019 and by a further 1.06% from March 1, 2020. For artistic employees at state theaters, remuneration will be increased retroactively from January 1, 2019 by 3.17 percent, but at least by 100 euros, with reference to the collective agreement for the public service of the federal states (TV-L), and from January 1, 2020 by a further 3.17 percent, but at least by 90 euros.

The pay increases at state theaters depend on which of the above-mentioned pay scales the respective state theater is assigned to. As Hesse is no longer a member of the Tarifgemeinschaft der Länder (TdL), the collective bargaining parties agreed to apply the TV-L regulations for the Hessian State Theatres, Theater Giessen and Theater Marburg. From February 1, 2020, these theaters will then also be subject to the further increase step of the TV-L pay scale.

"Daring music between genres and away from the mainstream" - this is how the enterprising festival co-founder Fredi Bosshard once defined the focus of Taktlos. This has not changed under the new management. This year, for the second time, the event was organized by the Taktlos Association (President Tapiwa Svosve, Vice President Gregor Frei), after 34 years under the auspices of the Fabrikjazz Association. Part of the new concept is that the programmer changes from year to year. In 2018, drummer Lucas Niggli made the start. This time, the choice fell on guitarist Manuel Troller, who has made a name for himself with the post-avant-rock band Schnellertollermeier, which is known far beyond Switzerland's borders, as well as with unconventional solo works and collaborations with the writer Michael Fehr, among others. Troller says that his selection was based on the "independence and originality of the individual musical concepts": "That they move, convince and inspire me." He also made sure that the artists involved came from different scenes and generations, which he hoped would ensure a corresponding mix of audiences. "Last but not least, clear artistic attitudes were important to me. For me, this is a central requirement that I also place on my own work." 

As befits his status, Troller himself performed in the Kanzlei on Thursday to open the festival. He did so with Andi Schnellmann (bass) and David Meier (drums), who together make up the band Schnellertollermeier. "The sharply contoured grooves and minimalist guitar runs stick in your head like a pop song," you could read in the program booklet. Well, the writer of these lines wouldn't go quite that far. In any case, the intense repetitions and subtle shifts within the pieces have a hypnotic, transportive power. The brute electric volume of the trio is also pleasant. It demands dedication and concentration from the audience, but prevents them from indulging in the annoying, submissive devotion that sometimes characterizes the mood of experimental concerts.
Schnellertollermeier's opening performance was one of the highlights of the festival. He was followed by the French pianist Eve Risser. In her percussive hands, the keyboard of the grand piano is hardly more important than the sonic possibilities that arise when any objects are thrown, clamped and pushed into the sound box. I must confess that I failed to derive any pleasure from the resulting sounds. Joshua Abrams and his Natural Information Society from Chicago made access easier. They too work with repetition, scattering filigree details into the patterns that slowly unfold in flowery beauty. The instrumentation alone - gimbri, Indian harmonium, bass clarinet, percussion - is a guarantee for unusual sound experiences. The performance with all the exotic robes, instruments and beards was also pleasantly reminiscent of the old days, when the word "laptop" had not yet been invented and every sensible person wrapped themselves in patchouli from head to toe.
 

Schnellertollermeier, Eve Risser and Joshua Abrams: the stylistic range of the first Taktlos evening could hardly have been wider, perfectly fulfilling Troller's self-imposed brief. The large audience in attendance - the Kanzlei was practically sold out - also fulfilled the expectations in its age mix. The other evenings were no less varied and exciting. For example, singer Sofia Jernberg was unable to perform her planned duet with saxophonist Mette Rasmussen due to illness - but Rasmussen managed to command the stage solo without any problems. Her sometimes brilliant, sometimes tender, sometimes witty pieces were pleasantly short, focused and playful. The trio of Camille Emaille (drums), Hans Koch (sax, clarinet) and dieb13 (turntables) was billed as "a kind of summit meeting of the art of noise". I was most concerned with the question of how exactly dieb13 was able to get these sounds from his turntables. Manuel Troller set another festival highlight on Saturday at Club Zukunft with a powerful yet meditative solo performance.

Streaming revenues increased by 34% and now account for almost half (47%) of global industry sales. Paid streaming was the driver in this area (up 32.9%); a total of 255 million users of paid subscriptions ensured that audio streaming accounted for 37% of total revenue last year.

Growth in streaming more than compensated for the declines in physical sales (minus 10.1%) and downloads (minus 21.2%). The digital share now stands at 58.9% worldwide.

The figures are taken from the latest edition of the Global Music Report (GMR), which was presented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in London.

Bärtsch is "one of the most important exponents of Swiss jazz", writes the City of Zurich. In recent years, he has continuously and highly reflectively developed his very own musical language, which has attracted a great deal of international attention. Even with this success far beyond the country's borders, Bärtsch continues to be very active in the local scene. He has been playing a concert in the city of Zurich almost every Monday for a good 15 years and is a valued mentor among young Zurich musicians.

The award for special cultural merit - endowed with 20,000 francs - is presented by the City of Zurich to publisher David Basler. As co-founder of the publishing house "Edition Moderne", which now specializes solely in comics, and with the comic magazine "Strapazin", he has put the city of Zurich firmly on the map of international comic creation.
 

With the theme she has outlined, "People of Color", the musician Joan Seiler, born in 1988, "deals with the vibrant melting pot of Chicago", writes the city of Lucerne. Seiler takes up political themes and processes them through play and composition. She plows a broad musical terrain that she constantly expands.

Roland Bucher (born 1976) is the rhythm section of the duo Blind Butcher, which has been active in Switzerland, Germany and France over the past two years. As a roommate in the Künstlerhaus Das Gelbe Haus, the musician "moves in a permeable, creative-artistic context and works in a versatile and interdisciplinary way". The jury was won over by his solo project Noise Table.

Since September 1, 2001, the Lucerne-Chicago City Partnership Association, in collaboration with the City and Canton of Lucerne and with the support of private sponsors, has maintained a studio in Chicago that is made available to Lucerne artists. The occupancy of the studio for the years 2020 and 2021 was put out to tender at the beginning of this year. The call for applications was aimed at artists of all disciplines from the canton of Lucerne.

It is an incredibly clever book, precisely because it is critical of its own cleverness. It is hard to imagine the amount of knowledge Mathias Gredig compiles on the subject of animal music and yet he remains skeptical, methodically supported by the all-doubting, Pyrrhonian skepticism of antiquity: Can we even say whether animals make music? After all, the animals should know. What were the baboons, sacred to the Egyptians, thinking when they greeted the sun with their cries/songs?

At least as interesting, of course, is how people related to the animals and their music. It was clear to everyone that nightingales sing beautifully, but do they make art music? No, says Augustine, because they don't understand numerical relationships and intervals. Strange reasoning, but quite typical of philosophers. "That could be countered in a number of ways," says Gredig meaningfully.

This one example already shows how contradictory and diverse our human relationship to animal sounds is. Not only can the sound systems not be compared with each other, the worlds of expression are completely diverse. This alienation has been reflected throughout the centuries in graphic caricatures of donkeys, dogs, geese and above all monkeys making music, but also in musical imitations. It was not uncommon for an artist to prefer nature music to human noise. And some anecdotes once again demonstrate, unsurprisingly, how cruelly the noble human race treated animals. Athanasius Kircher, for example, tells of a cat organ: the animals enclosed in it had needles stuck into their tails via the keyboard!

The source material that Gredig presents here is highly disparate and plentiful. The young musicologist, who wrote his dissertation on the subject in Basel in 2017, has now produced an overwhelming compendium on "animal music". It covers a wide range of topics, from the oldest antiquity to the 19th century, from Pythagoras to Thoreau and Alkan, from Ptolemaic sculptures to Grandville, and finally to the present day; it is sometimes rambling, but always instructive, invites you to lose yourself, and also casts some certainties into quiet doubt - and yet is generally easy, even amusing, to read.

Mathias Gredig: Animal music. On the history of skeptical zoomusicology; 506 p., € 64.00, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8260-6468-5

The anniversary year of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) has shown this impressively: The fascination for this exceptional musician is unbroken; he is still highly regarded as an eccentric conductor and as a rediscoverer of Gustav Mahler's music. And the composer? The Laaber publishing house has now dedicated a volume of its renowned book series "Great Composers and their Time" to Bernstein and his compositional activity in all its facets. It is an astonishing undertaking to present the "enfant terrible" of the scene in a row with such important exponents as Beethoven, Brahms or Mahler. But this is precisely the appeal of this compendium: its objective, musicological approach. It is not a biography, rather the book consists of specialist essays on selected topics, five of which are dedicated to the composer Bernstein, five others to individual works such as the wonderful Chichester Psalms.

And there really is a lot to discover, especially as Gregor Herzfeld's essay "In Search of an American Music" at the beginning looks at the beginnings of classical music production in the USA. Ulrich Wilker devotes himself to Bernstein's symphonic oeuvre in "Crisis Scenarios and Weltanschauungsmusik", while Nils Grosch explains his "Musical Comedies". Of course, there are also reflections on Bernstein as a conductor and on his "mediation of music in film and television" - long before the education wave. His role in the cultivation of Mahler is also critically reflected upon.

The book is supplemented by a detailed chronology that begins as early as 1892 with the birth of the Orthodox Hasidic father, Shmuel Yosef. This is followed by an extensive 42-page chronology of his life and work, which also includes important political events. Editor Andreas Eichhorn presents an interesting, varied book with a list of works that shows how extensive Bernstein's compositional oeuvre is, alongside the West Side Story is - even if only a selection is listed.

Leonard Bernstein and his time, edited by Andreas Eichhorn, 407 p., € 37.80, Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2017, ISBN 978-3-89007-768-0

Martin Keller's collection of material on layer playing is the result of the author's intensive study of the baroque violin, which is held with the left hand and not with the chin. For this reason, a large part of the book is devoted to slurring and neck positions.

The first impression is characterized by musical and technical inventiveness. A multitude of layer change secrets are developed in a musically stimulating way. This hits two birds with one stone. The booklet contains a lot of good reading material in all keys, different styles and rhythms, beautiful original compositions and stimulating duets. On the other hand, there are no longer pieces that would get you going. Most of the problems concerning changes of position are precisely explained and substantiated with telling examples. However, the naming of certain practices with letters seems somewhat intellectual. They should be replaced by clear technical or figurative names. The detailed explanation and practice of contraction and extension is a plus. However, it is not specified that these techniques are only suitable for slow, expressive music. For fast passages, the fourth fingering suitable for the respective position should not be burdened with contractions and extensions, otherwise the intonation will suffer. The sections on scales and runs through the circle of fifths p. 8 and 114/115 are particularly successful (excellent!), The ski jumper p. 13 and the introduction to the artificial harmonics p. 112 and 113.

However, the booklet lacks a few things to be considered a "school", i.e. to be didactically constructive:

1. The elementary experience of the fingerboard, first in its entire length; arm swing sideways (elbow) and forwards-backwards, wrist bends. Principle "from the big to the small".
2. Awareness of the different contacts of the finger to the string in a separate chapter: a do not touch (empty string) when changing positions freely (also as a preliminary stage to c: changing positions with the empty string suggested in order to learn to release the finger pressure), b glide like "skating mosquito" (flageolet (glissando)), c loose change-of-pitch glissando as audible pitch glide, d firm gripping.
3. Sufficient exercises and pieces with changes of position by measuring the interval between the change of position of the last finger of the old position ("cab") and its auxiliary tone ("cab position") in the new position with finger contact c (see 2.) and only then resolute fingering with the target finger. At the same time, become aware of the anticipation of the target fingering.
4. In this context, the conscious repositioning of the playing finger, e.g. when sliding a major third from steep to flat, and vice versa for a minor third, was also part of this.
5. Use of resonance tones for secure intonation.
6. Why is the booklet limited to the first four positions? In my opinion, for example, transposing a melody on the same string(s) an octave higher is a useful and clear experience of the narrowing of the fourth fingering (actually belongs under 1.), which takes place with all changes of position. Furthermore, all the important contacts of the hand with the instrument are not mentioned and all three should be made aware of: a 1st and 2nd position free wrist, b 3rd and 4th position wrist leaning against the body, c 5th and higher positions thumb span at the base of the neck.
7. The role of bending the wrist forwards and backwards, e.g. when "fetching" some notes in the half position from the 2nd position and back to it, which leads directly to real Paganini position playing (see Philippe Borer: The twenty-four caprices of Niccolo Paganini, their significance for the history of violin playing and the music of the romantic eraStiftung Zentralstelle der Studentenschaft der Universität Zürich, 1997). There it is shown in many examples that Paganini reaches many positions (about 1st-6th) from the hand position of the 3rd position. This approach has helped me to find simple solutions to many tricky passages. Keller has good, similar, but smaller requirements with so-called pseudo-position changes, but without mentioning the role of the wrist, which allows the arm to be kept stable (and therefore secure) in one position. The wrist is also the motor for playing to the half position and back; the arm remains in the first position.

If the author recommends an individually suitable selection from his material to the teachers, they must be aware that his material is valuable but not comprehensive.

Martin Keller, Lagenspiel auf der Geige Introduction to the 1st (incl. half) to 4th positions and their alternation, movement and intonation problems. Self-published, available from the author for viewing or purchase (copying costs Fr. 22.50),
m.keller-rall@bluewin.ch

With the publication of the best-known organ symphonies by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), Carus-Verlag is making another important contribution to the edition of French organ symphonies following its edition of Louis Vierne's organ works. While the problem with Vierne is the numerous printing errors, partly due to the composer's poor eyesight, with Widor it is the question of the authoritative version that an editor must decide on. The composer revised his organ symphonies several times in the course of his career, repeatedly making major or minor corrections and adjustments or even replacing entire movements, as in the case of the Second Symphony, for example, where a typically Romantic "hunting horn scherzo" was replaced by a Salute Regina in Widor's late style, which seems to fit only with difficulty into the context of the other movements. Due to these differences between the versions, it is important to decide carefully which edition to use, all the more so as early versions that do not correspond to the composer's "last will" are also circulating on the Internet or with American reprint publishers. For example, the inexpensive Dover edition of the complete symphonies in two volumes, which is popular among students, reproduces the 1887 version. Wear and tear on the original printing plates also causes certain difficulties with regard to the legibility of the text.

In the case of the present symphony, Widor's most famous thanks to its rousing final toccata, the Fifth, the first editions appeared in 1879 and 1887, but were revised in 1901, 1902-11, 1920 and 1928/29, with Widor, as always, revising the musical text and making further changes even after the last edition. For example, the second movement (originally an ABA form with an integral reprise of the A section and an internal repeat) was reduced by almost 150 bars for the last edition by omitting the repeat and drastically shortening the A' section; in the Toccata, Widor added articulations and accents and slowed the tempo from crotchet = 118 to 100 - a clear adjustment that can be verified by Widor's own recording from 1932, but which many interpreters still ignore today.

Back in the 1990s, A-R Editions published a critical complete edition of all the symphonies in the USA, which provided meticulous information about the differences in the texts and readings, but received little attention in this country. The present Carus edition by Georg Koch also uses the last revision of the symphony from 1928/29 as its main source, supplemented by later handwritten corrections by Widor; the differences between the two new editions are therefore marginal. The Critical Report provides insight into readings of the earlier versions or additions from Widor's circle of students (in the present case, for example, Albert Schweitzer's hand copy with a suggested shortening), some of which could represent interesting alternatives, for example in certain registrations, which Widor in his late style made less colorful and more "clarified" than two decades earlier. The player thus has a reliable source with an informative preface that provides a clear picture of the work's genesis and, like its American counterpart, is highly recommended.

Charles-Marie Widor: Symphonie No. V pour Orgue op. 42,1, edited by Georg Koch, CV 18.179, € 29.95, Carus, Stuttgart 2018

Wilhelm Klingenbrunner (1782-mid-19th century), who worked full-time as a "landständischer Cassen-Beamter" at the Lower Austrian Landobereinnehmeramt, taught himself to sing, play the flute, clarinet, basset horn and guitar, as was customary in bourgeois circles at the time. However, playing music just to pass the time, as a "dilettante", was not enough for him. He was an excellent flautist, a member of the Society of Friends of Music, founded in 1812, and was active as a composer and - under the pseudonym Wilhelm Blum - also as a popular poet in the artistic circles of his time in Vienna. Almost 70 compositions of an unpretentious but pleasing character for flute or csakan have come down to us from him, as well as arrangements (e.g. of Mozart's Magic flute) and instrumental schools, such as a "flute school in two sections based on his own experience".

The works in this new edition are taken from the "New Theoretical and Practical Csakan School" published around 1815. This enjoyed great popularity within a short time, not least because of its instructions on recorder technique and performance practice. For example, the contemporary understanding of the "staccato repulsion sign" reads as follows: "passages marqued with punctures demand the special attack of each individual note", i.e. not a short note as is usual today, but a particularly emphasized note.

This selection, published in the "Diletto musicale" series, includes an informative preface and 25 short duets of increasing difficulty and varying character in the light-footed style of the Biedermeier period. Song-like movements and common dance forms such as minuet, waltz, alla polacca or angloise alternate.

Not only as a composer of "popular little works for the flute and the csakan" (as Gustav Schilling's Musical lexicon from 1840), Klingenbrunner seems to have shown talent. He always caught the fish for Beethoven and was therefore jokingly referred to by the latter as the fish warden. Once, however, he seems not to have caught any fresh fish, whereupon Beethoven wrote disgruntledly in his conversation book: "I have a spoiled stomach / Klingenbrunner / He is to the flute what Gelinek was to the piano / Nothing but variations on the usual beat."

Wilhelm Klingenbrunner: 25 small duets from op. 40, for two recorders in C (flutes / oboes / violins or other melody instruments), edited by Helmut Schaller and Nikolaj Tarasov, DM 1490, € 17.95, Doblinger, Vienna

The Fantasy pieces op. 43 by Niels Wilhelm Gade, a classic of the clarinet repertoire, has been newly published in the Henle Urtext series. Nicolai Pfeffer has produced the beautiful critical edition in the usual Henle quality. The first edition published by Kistner in Leipzig in 1864 was used as the main source for this edition, with the composer's autograph from 1864 and a new edition from 1878 published by Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen, as additional sources. Between the surviving autograph and the first edition, the composer made changes to the tempo of the first movement (from Larghetto to Larghetto con moto to Andantino con moto) and to the time signature of the second movement (4/4 instead of Alla breve). Otherwise, the changes mainly concern a few minor differences in articulation, phrasing and dynamics. The score of this new edition is clear and tidy. There are almost no editor's notes in the musical text itself, but there is a detailed critical commentary in the appendix.

In contrast to earlier editions, the Henle version does not include a solo part for violin. This was probably only included with the first edition due to the publishing practice of the time, and its authorship is unclear.

Niels Wilhelm Gade: Fantasiestücke op. 43 for clarinet and piano, Urtext edited by Nicolai Pfeffer, HN 1353, € 14.00, G. Henle, Munich 2017