According to the newspaper, the change in strategy can be traced back to Patrizia Crivelli, the head of the Burgergemeinde's Culture and Society department, who has been in office for a year. The office was created as the "civic counterpart to the municipal cultural secretary" (Berner Zeitung). The two incumbents from the Burgergemeinde and the city, Crivelli and Franziska Burkhardt, know each other. They both used to work for the Federal Office of Culture.

The Culture Prize of the Burgergemeinde Bern, endowed with CHF 100,000, was awarded for the 30th and final time in June 2018 and went to the cabaret theater "La Cappella", a renowned Bernese stage for cabaret, chanson and cabaret. Previous winners have included the Camerata Bern, the Brienz Violin Making School, the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and the Mühle Hunziken concert venue.

The numbers were once again impressive: not only around 1000 representatives of the music industry, but also around 6000 fans attended the 22nd edition of the three-day pop music festival m4music in Lausanne and Zurich. While the Zurich folk band Black Sea Dahu and the Winterthur duo, who operate between rock, rap, pop and noise Ikan Hyu were responsible for the musical highlights, the thirty or so events in the conference section discussed topics as diverse as performance opportunities in Europe, the (survival) life of a songwriter and the current sales figures in the music business.

In the panel "The music market 2018, 2019 and beyond", the conclusion was that the situation is improving. Growth is no longer driven by CD sales or downloads, but by the streaming business. Last year, the Swiss recorded music market generated sales of around 170 million Swiss francs - 3.7% more than in the previous year. According to Ivo Sacchi, Managing Director of Universal Music Switzerland, there are music genres that generate up to 95 percent of their recorded music revenue from streaming. "This is particularly true for urban, German rap and hip hop." Marc Lynn, bassist of the rock band Gotthard, painted a slightly different picture: "Rock fans still want to be able to hold the physical product in their hands." He estimated that around 70 percent of fans would still buy Gotthard's music on vinyl or CD. However, this differs from continent to continent. "In South America, it's almost all streaming." Universal representative Sacchi has no doubt that the trend towards streaming will continue, even in Switzerland: "The potential is far from exhausted." The fact that 15,000 songs are uploaded to streaming portals such as Spotify every week speaks for itself.

The situation in music journalism, on the other hand, was less pleasing. During the panel on the topic, a certain helplessness emerged. Linus Volkmann, who until last year worked for the now defunct music magazine Intro explained: "Music journalism has lost its gatekeeper function. Accordingly, today's young target groups can do without print products." Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely for this reason, Ane Hebeisen, pop editor at the daily newspaper The Confederationis convinced that music journalism is still necessary - and more so than ever. "We need writers who create depth and open the door to other worlds of music." The fact is, however, that the Tages-Anzeiger has had no budget for freelance music journalists since last year. Volkmann, who is also a book author, was able to take some positives from the decline of music journalism, however: "Anyone who wants to publish about music can now simply do it." For example, by means of a YouTube channel or a blog.

In his keynote speech "Monopoly in the global concert business", independent concert agent Berthold Seliger from Berlin discussed his industry, which was praised as a goldmine just a few years ago. Since 2012, however, large corporations have been steadily gaining influence in this area. While small club operators are trying to build up artists sustainably, giant players such as Live Nation are only interested in business. And with good reason: "One percent of all artists generate 60 percent of all concert revenue," Seliger knew. A fact that led him to call for a state-imposed solidarity levy for independent clubs and promoters. "For every ticket that costs more than 50 euros." This is actually unavoidable because local clubs and event organizers are increasingly becoming a dying breed. Seliger did not believe that the situation would improve on its own.

And how did festival director Philipp Schnyder von Wartensee rate the 22nd edition of this Migros Culture Percentage event? "It was three lively, intensive days with great discoveries of Swiss talent," he said. He was particularly struck by how openly many of the 1000 or so representatives of the national and international music industry approached each other. "The longer you meet each other, the more you don't see each other as competitors, but first and foremost see a wide range of opportunities for collaboration." However, he was more critical of another development: although there is no longer a rift between musicians from German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland, the exchange between artists from the city and those from the countryside seems to be increasingly stagnating. However, Schnyder drew a positive overall balance: "It has always been the philosophy of m4music to bring younger and older musicians together at our festival. And it works."

Around 300 children from 58 nations are currently learning in Kriens' four central school buildings. They differ in terms of culture, language, family background and social class. In this environment, the teaching team launched the "Culture in the Center" project, or KiZ for short, in autumn 2016. In summer 2017, 18 classes (from kindergarten to year 6) started the first year of the project.

While the first and second graders carried out cross-class cultural projects with music, dance and games, the third and fourth graders had the opportunity to attend workshops in dance, theater, choir and music. In years 5 and 6, pupils learned to play an instrument of their choice and rehearsed in a joint orchestra.

The jury praised the way in which culture becomes an element of social integration and diversity in the project and how the school and the music school move closer together through the collaboration.

It is hard to imagine that an opera that is said to be the major work of one of the most important Swiss composers of the 20th century would disappear from the repertoire for 76 years after its premiere at the Berlin State Opera and a Zurich fiasco. Only those who take a closer look, remember the circumstances and carefully read the original libretto will quickly gain an impression of what happened and why it happened. Despite numerous, often futile interventions, Othmar Schoeck as composer was all too careless with a libretto created by Hermann Burte: with the possibility of an exposed production in mind and presumably also without any contemporary assessment of reality. The entire Castle-Dürande-Burte's völkisch sentiments permeate the text (sometimes clearly, sometimes subcutaneously), but it is even poorer in quality. Even Hermann Göring sent a telegram expressing his astonishment as to how the opera, which premiered on April 1, 1943, and the libretto on which it was based, which was described as "laid-on bullshit", could be accepted by the artistic directors.

However, the opera was banned after the Second World War when it was performed in the brown Berlin, although it was already clear after the first performance that it was musically an important score. However, it was not possible to denazify the work; the facts stood in the way of the work just as much as the clumsy attempts to blame the composer's good faith for his criminal lack of scruples. It is therefore all the more astonishing that Schoeck's Dürande Castle is scathingly reviewed in the popular literature, but there is always a certain curiosity about the music. And rightly so, as could now be heard at the Meininger Staatstheater. A score with a text newly arranged by Francesco Micieli and carefully worked into the vocal lines by Mario Venzago lay on the desks. Academically reappraised and accompanied by two publications supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the problem opera has thus become a historically belated grand opéra: At the center is the fate of Renald Dubois (initially still a count's hunter concerned about his sister, later a fervent revolutionary in his own right), who determines the tragic end of all. Four different acts can be heard, from film music adaptations and astonishingly retrospective moments to Wagnerian travails and the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. Schoeck thus summarizes a truly "long" 19th century and goes beyond it - without eclecticism, but with the idea of the widest possible availability.

What is initially surprising, however, gains coherence and independent, even idiosyncratic consistency. But questions remain unanswered. For example, Micieli's new version of the libretto, which is based on a novella by Eichendorff, has been a splendid rescue. Admittedly, he was unable to correct where the text was already retarded in the original and Schoeck follows it for (too) long in the score. This time, however, nobody wanted to cut back on the musical-dramatic substance. For example, a slight shadow remained on the finale when Renald learns the truth about his sister from the dying servant Nicolas. In future productions, the director will have to find solutions here (possibly using multimedia?). Speaking of the future: the Dürande Castle has earned a chance to prove itself on other stages in this neutralized, occasionally still overly rhyming form. Brahms had already chosen the small but beautiful Meiningen for the premiere of his 4th Symphony in order to test it carefully. However, Schoeck's last opera will probably not become a repertoire piece. The choice of subject alone makes it too retrospective, especially at a time when the world was in flames. The premiere success of the production (directed by artistic director Ansgar Haag, musical director: GMD Philippe Bach) was in any case fully justified with a solidly accompanying, but hardly interpretative staging, a respectable ensemble performance and an outstandingly well-disposed court orchestra.

Further performances
March 29, April 28, May 8 and 17, June 27 and 30, July 6, 2019
meininger-staatstheater.de

The SMR is of the opinion that "a good result has been achieved with the present draft, which is suitable for safeguarding Switzerland's interests while taking our direct democracy into account". This agreement would create the all-important legal certainty for both sides and secure access to the European market.

The growth of the creative and music sector will gain significant momentum in the coming years, the SMR continues. For this reason, the music sector believes that every effort should be made to ensure that the advantages of the free movement of persons for Switzerland are maintained - in this case by signing the agreement. In addition to the free movement of persons, access to EU funding and research programs such as Creative Europe and Horizon 2020 (or their successor programs) is fundamental for the music sector, as they are tantamount to market access for the sector.

More info: www.musikrat.ch

René Karlen is retiring early at his own request at the end of March 2019. His successor, Diana Lehnert, studied music education and orchestral music at the Detmold University of Music and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and has worked as a freelance flautist and dramaturge, among other things. Most recently, she has been head of music education at the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since 2008. In addition to artistic direction, she has experience in public relations and cultural journalism. Diana Lehnert lives in the city of Zurich.

The Classical Music Division of the Department of Culture in the Presidential Department is responsible for classical music and promotes concert life in the city of Zurich in this area. In addition to supporting performances with grants, it organizes three concert series of its own.

The evening starts from zero to one hundred. While Lucas Niggli drums a continuous beat with intricate accents on the drums, the homophonic choir of Theater Basel (conductor: Michael Clark) sings rhythmically concise lines. Hammond organ (Dominik Blum), bass (Marino Pliakas) and electric guitar (Yaron Deutsch) throw in chords that act like wildfires and further fuel the boundary-breaking music. Michael Wertmüller has already written many pieces for the Swiss trio Steamboat Switzerland, blurring the boundaries between new music, jazz and rock. In his Opera Diodati. Unendlich (libretto: Dea Loher), which was commissioned by Theater Basel, he adds an electric guitar to the formation and places it in the orchestra pit so that, together with the extremely agile Basel Symphony Orchestra, they send this rhythmic energy onto the stage and into the auditorium. The music almost always has a high pulse. It is constantly excited, works with the layering of different meters and rhythms and takes the musicians involved to the limits of what is technically possible. This makes it all the more astonishing how confidently conductor Titus Engel, who has already conducted Karlheinz Stockhausen's Thursday from Light and the unflustered way in which the conductor moves through this highly complex score. And the precision with which all the players bring these wild, rhythmically interlaced eruptions to life.

Dea Loher's libretto recounts the legendary visit of English literary figures to the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in 1816. The illustrious circle around Lord Byron becomes intoxicated with opium and conversation. Due to the bad weather, they stay indoors, debating artificial life and telling each other horror stories. In this idyllic Swiss setting, Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus and the short story The Vampyrwritten by Byron's personal physician John Polidori. In her text, Loher intertwines this historical setting with Cern in the canton of Geneva, where basic research in physics is carried out in the 27-kilometer-long particle accelerator. In her production, director Lydia Steier makes both levels visible. Flurin Borg Madsen brings a laboratory to the stage at Theater Basel, in the middle of which a room from the historic Villa Diodati has been recreated. Here, scientists in protective suits drive the lifeless literati in on handcarts to the first drumbeats and reanimate them (costumes: Ursula Kudrna).

However, the characters are actually brought to life by Wertmüller's music. The composer works with fast cuts that are often sharpened by the percussion. The pauses are short, the stimulus density is high, everything happens at the same time! However, the Swiss composer does not build up a larger arc of suspense. He relies on individual building blocks, which stand on their own and are designed quite differently. Kristina Stanek sings of her deceased child as the still unmarried Mary Godwin in operatically drawn lines; Claire Clairmont, pregnant by Lord Byron (crystal clear up to stratospheric heights: Sara Hershkowitz) licks his crotch to the high-pitched music before Byron has a flashing device strapped around his waist by the scientists to give him additional stimulation. At times, Michael Wertmüller uses loops to add density, at other times he slows down the tempo for a moment, only to create a new musical mix shortly afterwards. Scene follows scene at breathtaking speed. Rolf Romei as Mary Godwin's friend Percy Bysshe-Shelley with a middle parting and nickel glasses sings brilliant top notes. With his powerful bass-baritone, Seth Carico is a striking personal physician Polidori, who declares his love for Lord Byron in fishnet stockings and high heels in the second part.

Holger Falk is the powerhouse of the exquisite ensemble of soloists as the anarchistic bon vivant George Gordon Noel Lord Byron. "The great aim of life is to feel. To feel that we exist," he formulates his credo in chanting in the second part, in one of the few quieter scenes. This Byron celebrates his sexual relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh (coloratura sharpened: Samantha Gaul) just as naturally as he rubs oranges on his naked chest and in his crotch. Intoxication and ecstasy as the core of life? Individual pieces of the puzzle unfold great theatricality in this ultra-hot Basel performance, for example when drummer Lucas Niggli and Sara Hershkowitz as the heavily pregnant Claire Clairmont, twitching in labor, engage in a spectacular percussion coloratura battle or when the resuscitated child rises from Mary Godwin's operating table with great pathos as an angel with dark wings. A connection between all the elements that shoot around as if in a particle accelerator does not succeed on this evening. But perhaps that is too conservative an idea for this challenging, at times even overwhelming evening of musical theater.

"Owners of hotels and vacation apartments would no longer pay copyright royalties in future," writes Swisscopyright in today's press release. It continues: "The Council of States will decide on this idea of dropping compensation owed to hoteliers next Tuesday. Musicians, filmmakers, actors and other creative artists would be the ones to suffer. They would then be subsidizing the hotel industry in Switzerland with their work instead of being fairly compensated for the commercial use of their works.

The proposal is based on a parliamentary initiative by Philippe Nantermod, FDP National Councillor VS. The small chamber would thus create a precedent: In December 2017, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that remuneration must continue to be paid for the distribution of radio and television programs in hotel rooms or vacation apartments if the necessary equipment such as televisions or radios are provided by the hotelier or landlord. Contrary to what the initiators claim, this is not a matter of private use.
 

A report by the University of Lausanne on behalf of Swisscopyright, the association of the five Swiss collecting societies, states that the new article created in the CopA would contradict the Berne Convention, an international treaty on the protection of literary and artistic works; for this reason, it could only apply to Swiss creators if Switzerland wants to comply with its international obligations. Swiss creative artists would therefore be discriminated against. A paradoxical situation would arise: Swiss artists would no longer receive remuneration, but hotels would have to pay for works by foreign cultural professionals. The regulation would also disregard other international agreements: the World Copyright Treaty WCT and the WTO free trade agreement TRIPS. This could result in economic sanctions against Switzerland."

Swisscopyright also states: "According to the proposal, the new article in the CopA should also exempt hospitals and prisons from copyright remuneration," and notes that neither cantonal prison institutions nor hospitals have demanded this and that none of the institutions have declared that they no longer wish to pay remuneration to creative artists: "Once again, an exception would be created here solely at the instigation of the hotel industry. This unjustified measure would cause great damage to the cultural sector. Swisscopyright is calling on the members of the Council of States to play fair. This preferential treatment of hoteliers is neither necessary nor appropriate.

The proposal ultimately violates the hard-negotiated and fragile compromise of the working group on copyright (AGUR 12). The demand to (suddenly) exempt hoteliers was included in the bill at a very late stage in the National Council. However, authors and rights holders made many concessions beforehand to make the compromise possible."

As far as the media release from Swisscopyrightthe association of ProLitteris, SSA, Suisa, Suissimage and Swissperform.
 

The musicians are also fighting back in one of Sonart - Musicians Switzerland orchestrated campaign expressly against this proposal: "We are not subsidizing the tourism industry!" They are calling on the Council of States to reject the Nantermod motion. Sonart is calling on people to take part in the campaign on social networks and to meet up with the filmmakers on Monday, March 11, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the Bundesplatz in Bern for a flyer distribution campaign.
 

Further information:

https://www.sonart.swiss/de/projekte-kampagnen/alle-0/urg-revision-12/

The Council of States has decided to postpone the debate. As the SDA writes, it wants to "await developments in the EU before deciding on the revision of copyright law". And further: "The reason for the decision is a controversial addition that the Commission had made: it wanted to charge internet platforms such as Google and Facebook for the benefit of media publishers when they publish text outlines and references to articles. The Council of States found that the proposal was not well thought out."

Jaquemet and Méndez will be able to use a studio run by the Residency Unlimited organization in Brooklyn for five months in the second half of 2019. The musician from Bern is looking for material for a third album in New York. The scholarship is endowed with CHF 15,000 each to cover travel and accommodation costs. 

The City of Bern offers two scholarships in New York each year. Two selected artists can each use an apartment and a separate studio in New York free of charge from August 1 to December 31. The Canton of Bern offers the New York scholarships under the same conditions in the other half of the year.

After generations of Bernese artists have been guests in Manhattan for their New York residencies, Jaquemet and Méndez will be working in Brooklyn for the first time. The apartment and studio will be rented through the local organization Residency Unlimited RU in consultation with the selected artists. The Brooklyn-based organization is also the local contact. The next call for applications is planned for fall 2019, for a residency in New York from August 1 to December 31, 2020.
 

Now I understand why I was advised to sit on a chair without a backrest. I'm in the middle of the turbulent second act of the Figaro and have to constantly turn on my own axis. Around me, Susanna, the Countess and the jealous Count Almaviva are negotiating the irritating fact that it is apparently Susanna and not Cherubino who is hiding in the Countess's dressing room.

But stop! Of course I'm not sitting on stage. It's an illusion, and I owe it to the VR glasses that Jan Schmidt-Garre put on me. They catapulted me into a virtual reality. That with 360° Figaro The experienced film author and opera director realized this experiment at the intersection of art and technology as an in-house production; partners in the 200,000 euro project were the Leipzig Opera and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, which developed the 360-degree camera.

The end product is overwhelming - total immersion. But it's also exhausting: when you take the glasses off after 25 minutes and the trip is over, you feel slightly dizzy. From a sober point of view, it is also not for a mass audience, if only because you would have to buy these VR glasses first. What's more, you are completely thrown back on yourself when enjoying this kind of art. Schmidt-Garre knows this. He is a realist and sees the production as a unique experiment in the field of media communication of opera. Perhaps in ten years' time people will look back on it as a pioneering achievement.

That was one of the many interesting experiences to be had at this year's Avant Première in Berlin could make. Organized by the International Music and Media Center Vienna (IMZ), the preview of new music films in the fields of classical music, ballet and jazz brings together producers, distributors and TV broadcasters from all over the world to view, show, buy and sell new releases. The majority of the more than six hundred participants come from Europe, but increasingly also from America and the Far East. Public broadcasters are facing increasing competition from private broadcasters, and for the first time, two powerful state-affiliated players of a completely different kind were also present: the China Intercontinental Communication Center and the Moscow Philharmonic Society.

Digital media have turned European classical music into a global export. Beyond the minority who have access to exclusive live performances, a new consumer class is growing up, estimated at four to five hundred million worldwide. Rob Overman, program manager at the media group Stingray. The Canadian company is now one of the big players in the international classical music market. Among other things, it has acquired the rights to the recordings of Unitel, the classical music treasure trove initiated by Leo Kirch, and purchased the associated music channel Classica.

Through its own apps and global providers such as Amazon and Comcast, Stingray now has access to half of all pay-TV households worldwide and not only provides them with Aida, Nutcracker and Beethoven's Ninth, but also with interesting minority programs. Thanks to new technologies, the business has been standardized and works according to the Netflix video-on-demand principle. Whether in Beijing, Paris or Ottawa, you can take out a subscription directly on the screen. Unnoticed by the concertgoers in the Tonhalle and Elbphilharmonie, Europe's musical high culture has thus become a premium object in a globalized media landscape. This is not without consequences for our traditional concept of music.

The material for this global market consists first and foremost of the constantly renewed large number of opera and concert recordings: the crowd-pleasing spectacle of conductors and, more recently, female conductors - dozens of times you get to see the grandiose ruler gesture when striking a fortissimo final chord - and the sharply observed love scenes on the opera stage. Juan Diego Flórez and Anna Netrebko are big hits. But there are also auteur films with a strong message. For example, the magnificent visualization of Edgar Allan Poe's story A Descent into the Maelstrom (Down into the Maelström) by the Norwegian film author Jan Vardøen to the suggestive music of Philip Glass.

The global mainstream offering is also counterpointed by the regional perspectives of smaller broadcasters such as Slovenian Television, which can draw on an astonishing wealth of its own cultural traditions. RSI television in Ticino also offers an individual touch. Instead of pure classical recordings, today they want to focus more on contemporary phenomena, which is also reflected in an original television documentary such as Un Barbiere a Lugano in which Rossini's legendary hairdresser makes an excursion into everyday life. RSI has also produced a documentary about Cecilia Bartoli, the first since 1993 about the prima donna, who is rather reserved off the stage. It came about through the conductor Diego Fasolis and is an international sales success. The Ticinesi show that it is possible to work successfully with a small budget. You just have to have the right ideas.

Music education activities such as instrument presentations, chamber music performances and workshops in schools have increased by around 20 percent in Germany over the past two years, with over 6,000 events. In the same period, the number of children's, youth, family and school concerts rose by more than 25 percent to 2863. In contrast, the number of normal symphony concerts fell.

Overall, the situation of many orchestras has consolidated after some difficult years. At the end of 2019, the orchestras are awaiting UNESCO's decision on the inclusion of the German orchestral and theater landscape on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Bern's municipal council wants to build an urban development with a significant residential component on the Gaswerk site. The industrial wasteland is to be turned into "a vibrant district with residential areas, commercial and cultural spaces and public open spaces". The existing natural values on the site will be replaced by ecological compensation areas.

The Gaskessel is a center for young people and young artists from the city and region of Bern. In addition to the involvement of young people, it offers platforms for young cultural professionals and local artists. At the same time, international artists are also addressed.

According to the organizers, Switzerland not only has a very active and creative music scene, but also a high density of clubs and festivals, internationally networked radio stations and "an extremely lively independent label scene". "Extremely creative and original music in all genres" is currently being created in Switzerland, which would like to be presented in Groningen. Acts wishing to perform at ESNS 2020 can submit their application online from May 1 to September 1, 2019. 

ESNS attracts more than 4000 professionals from all sectors of the entertainment industry, including over 400 European festivals. Each year, ESNS hosts more than 350 concerts in the city of Groningen and offers a comprehensive and focused conference program with around 150 panels and keynotes as well as a wide range of networking opportunities.

ESNS's track record includes the acts Alice Merton, Alma, BOY, Dua Lipa, Mario Batkovic, Sigrid, Sophie Hunger and Zeal & Ardor. In addition to Swiss acts such as Crimer, Flèche Love, Long Tall Jefferson and Danitsa, the following artists were also successful in this year's line-up (January 2019): Black Midi, Flohio, Fontaines D.C., girl in red, L'impératice, Manon Meurt, Mavi Phoenix, Pip Blom, Reykjavíkurdætur, SONS and Tamino.

More info:
https://swiss-music-export.com/2019/03/01/esns-to-focus-on-switzerland-in-2020

According to common clichés, background music is supposed to increase creativity. The team tested this theory in three experiments that focused on the influence on solving creative tasks. They confronted test subjects with songs with unfamiliar lyrics, with familiar lyrics and with pure instrumental music. All impaired performance compared with a control group that was not exposed to background music. 

It was also shown that the negative effect is completely independent of whether the music arouses good feelings or whether the test subjects are used to solving tasks while listening to music in the background.

Original article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.3532

From the outside, the competition has become smaller, but the move from the foyer of Basel's Stadttheater to the comparatively small "Oekolampad" had no impact on the importance of the event. Although the space was a little cramped, especially for the musicians, the proximity to the action was more beneficial for the audience. Thirteen competition entries were to be performed in five concerts from February 20 to 24 - after one competitor withdrew his entry, twelve remained.

With his BCC, organizer Christoph Müller has developed an open format with no age or origin restrictions. A well-functioning sponsorship, or rather a typically Basel, quiet patronage, allows him to charge modest registration fees, to offer high prize money (1st place: 60,000 francs; 2nd place: 25,000; 3rd place: 15,000) and to engage all three Basel professional orchestras. The chamber orchestra, Sinfonietta and symphony orchestra will present the pieces selected for the final, the rehearsal of which - as world premieres - involves some effort. Clear rules apply with regard to the length of the compositions and instruments. A competition entry may not last longer than 20 minutes and the instrumentation depends on the orchestra's resources.

As with the first event in 2017, a youth music education program was attached to the event. A music teacher from Bäumlihof-Gymnasium invited individual composers to the school during the competition week and involved his pupils in the competition activities.

The attractive constellation of the competition attracted a large number of entries: 450 from 59 countries, with the oldest applicant born in 1929. 250 scores were ultimately submitted, from which the jury members had to select 13. The aim was to make a stylistically broad selection that would be noticeable right through to the final. The jury reflected the high standards of this competition: Michael Jarrell (jury president), Wolfgang Rihm (absent due to illness), Helmut Lachenmann, Magnus Lindberg, Andrea Scartazzini - all internationally renowned composers. In addition, one orchestra representative was present. Felix Meyer represented the Paul Sacher Foundation, which acts as an advisory partner but does not support the event financially. The spirit of Sacher resonates strongly in this project. Christoph Müller makes direct reference to this patron and enabler of contemporary music: "In the spirit of Sacher, the most exciting composers of the 21st century are to be brought to Basel today with the aim of providing inspiration for compositions. In this way, the BCC wants to help build up a repertoire of orchestral works that will still be relevant years from now".

Hosted by Patricia Moreno from SRF 2 Kultur, the final concert was conducted in a relaxed and, in terms of execution, highly concentrated manner. Five works made it to the final. The Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Franck Ollu began with Manuel Martínez Burgos' composition Daivāta Sanskrit word that the composer translated as "time beyond the mind". The audience was treated to a fast, small-scale, expressive piece with martyred brass and a menacing mood. The more accessible work by the Japanese composer Takuya Imahori was quite different Con mille fiori che sbocciano così belliThe Basel Sinfonietta under Baldur Brönnimann musically depicted the blossoming and fading of eleven flowers in sun, wind and weather. Late-romantic moods alternated with spherical, poetic, colorful soundscapes, sometimes leading to a powerful forte: a great success with the audience.

Program items 3 to 5 were all performed by the Basel Symphony Orchestra under Francesc Prat. The program began with the German Benjamin Scheuer, whose piece versed knew how to combine contemporary sounds with wit and humor. He created a highly innovative piece from alienated scraps of music that had been stored in his memory for many years. Grotesquely rippling glissandi lose themselves breathlessly in the void, only to rise up again at breakneck speed. Hissing, chirping and penetrating whistling tones were part of the rich sound material and sometimes mingled threateningly with the listener's tinnitus. In the second part, a somewhat more coherent sound continuum emerged in the dialog between piano and strings.

The Swiss Thomas Mattenberger succeeded with his reductionist Labyrinth rightly until the final five - a real respite between all these intense and richly tonal works: meditative with a small range of intervals, horizontal wind sounds around which orchestral clusters were grouped, signaling tubular bells, hardly any dynamics.

The young Argentinian Alex Nante amazed with a short (one would have liked to listen a little longer) piece with a romantic-impressionistic style called Bright pictureinspired by the painting of the same name by Wassily Kandinsky. The dominant yellow of the painting could be associated with the bright forte passages. They alternated with delicate violin and harp sounds, garnished with clarinets and celesta. At the end, a large sixth stood prominently in the room like a question mark.

The jury's verdict: 1st place Scheuer, 2nd place Nante, 3rd place Imahori.

Photo: Niklaus Rüegg
From left: Takuya Imahori (3rd), Alex Nante (2nd) Benjamin Scheuer (1st)