Le Singe receives CHF 80,000 per year, PlusQ'île CHF 35,000, the Chessu CHF 40,000 and the Bourgkonzerte CHF 10,000. In addition, the municipal council has agreed to extend the contracts of 18 institutions already receiving support and granted seven of them an increase in contributions, including the Ear we are festival, the Société philharmonique and the Theater und Orchester Biel Solothurn TOBS.

The loans for the latter are subject to a mandatory referendum. In total, contracts with 22 local institutions and a total contribution of CHF 848,200 (previous period: CHF 671,100) will be concluded for the period 2020 to 2023.

For exactly three weeks, Berthold Schneider, Artistic Director of Wuppertal Opera, and Uwe Schneidewind, President of the Wuppertal Institute, are swapping roles. The role swap is not a job shadowing arrangement, where the two heads simply sit in each other's chair and observe how opera and institute operations are run. By swapping roles, the heads of both institutions want to take a fresh look at their understanding of leadership, their own work processes and even their work objectives on the basis of their experiences.

The exchange of offices is intended to motivate both institutions to reflect on their organizational culture and organizational processes, and the opera director and institute president hope that the Wechsel/Wirkung project will set a precedent and inspire imitation. Both are open to further changes of office with other institutions and companies.

The Wuppertal Institute researches and develops "models, strategies and instruments for transitions to sustainable development at regional, national and international level". According to the institution's own characterization, the focus is on resource, climate and energy challenges in their interactions with the economy and society. The analysis and induction of innovations to decouple the consumption of natural resources from the development of prosperity is a focal point of research.

ETH Zurich has launched the Alfred Escher Prize to mark the 200th anniversary of Alfred Escher's birth. In two categories, it honors imaginative pupils and high school students (category 1, 17 to 20 years) and students (category 2 to 25 years). The ETH announced that 5 projects each were selected for the final from 55 submissions. In category 2, first prize went to Silvia Lama, a 23-year-old ETH student at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics.

In the three-minute presentation, she said she wanted to use children's enthusiasm for computer games to keep them interested in playing instruments. The Italian-language game "Musa" recognizes the sounds of keyboard instruments and guides the children through the game. It was developed for Android and an Apple version is currently being developed.
 

Today, the canton of Bern has a good CHF 50 million a year at its disposal to support charitable projects in areas such as culture and sport. Hundreds of associations and institutions benefit from this every year for their charitable projects. The new Cantonal Gambling Act is intended to ensure the continued distribution of funds. It introduces certain innovations and clarifications in the areas of funding. In future, funds will also be able to flow to charitable projects in the area of youth and society. The subsidization of state tasks through net profits from lotteries and sports betting remains inadmissible.

The cantonal government has initiated the consultation on the amendment to the law by May 21, 2019. It is planned that the Grand Council will discuss the amendment to the law at first reading in the 2020 spring session. The new law must enter into force on January 1, 2021 at the latest.
 

Sina was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award for her life's work at the Swiss Music Awards at the KKL Lucerne. She also conquered the throne of the Official Swiss Hit Parade with her new album "Emma". Andy Renggli, General Manager Switzerland at GfK Entertainment, presented her with a number 1 award for this success at the event.

"Emma" is Sina's third album after "Wiiblich" (1995) and "Ich schwöru" (2011) to reach the top of the Swiss charts. It is also her eleventh top 10 album. If you add up all the placings, Sina has dominated the rankings for 169 weeks over the course of her career.

Launched by GfK Entertainment and IFPI Switzerland, the Number 1 Award of the Official Swiss Hit Parade honors national artists who are at number one in the weekly music hit list. It was introduced in October 2016.

In addition to the 500-page index of settings of Alexander Pushkin's texts, which Ernst Stöckl compiled for the publishing house VEB Leipzig in 1974, Georg Günther's compendium of Schiller settings is even more comprehensive with over a thousand pages. In contrast, the list of Goethe settings compiled by Willi Schuh more than 60 years ago is more modest. Nevertheless, Schiller was apparently the most frequently set German poet only in the 19th century. Goethe, Heine, Eichendorff and Rückert later "overtook" him. Even during Schiller's lifetime, however, it was said that he was "a dangerous poet for composers", as he took too many liberties with verse and his poetry appealed too much to the intellect rather than the emotions. Nevertheless, 3053 objects by Schiller are listed which have been combined with sounds in some way.

One might think that festive songs, Schiller cantatas, Schiller marches and festive overtures were also popular in Switzerland during the jubilee years, but the William Tell could be musicalized in various ways. However, the reserved attitude of the Swiss composers is striking: Hans Georg Nägeli is represented with 13 numbers, Lothar Kempter with four settings, Heinrich Sutermeister with a cantata (a composition commissioned by the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition), Hans Huber with a Tell Symphony for large orchestra (1881) and a single song for soprano, piano and horn by Paul Huber (1966). Neither Arthur Honegger, Othmar Schoeck, Peter Mieg, Albert Moeschinger nor Rudolf Kelterborn have worked with Schiller.

While searching for Arthur Honegger's name, however, I came across Otto Jägermeier (1879-1933), who is listed on page 605 with a nice work title: Marie Tell et Guillaume Stuart à Reims. Tragédie à la Potpourri en forme d'une Mélodrame après Frédéric Rellisch. Text adaptation by Joe G. Weth. Declamation with piano accompaniment and three obbligato muted cymbals. It is nice that Jägermeier's name has also found its way into this lexical treatment; he, who first appeared in the Riemann music lexicon in 1972 without ever having existed, and yet can be found in almost all relevant lexicons today! The author of the Schiller Compendium is well aware of all this; he therefore adds extensive information to the title of the work, in which even he can contribute new details, thus extending the game that Herbert Rosendorfer set in motion almost 50 years ago by another round. Incidentally, Otto Jägermeier died in Zurich in 1933 and is buried in Fluntern Cemetery, not far from James Joyce.

One of the discoveries in this book is that Jürg Kienberger's Tell incidental music from 2012 has already been mentioned and that Arnold Schönberg wrote a fantasia on The robbers for large orchestra, but the material has been lost. But the detour via Rossini's Guillaume Tell to the seven alternative titles enforced by the censors: Hofer, the Tell of the Tyrol for London 1830, Andreas Hofer German version for Berlin 1830, Le Governatore Gessler e Guglielmo Tell for Lucca 1831, Karl Smily (Karl the Bold)Russian version for St. Petersburg 1836, Guglielmo Vallace for Milan 1836, Rodolfo di Sterlinga for Rome 1840 and Carlo il Temerario for St. Petersburg in 1847. In addition, the processing of the William Tell by Julius Kapp from 1934 shows the changes that had become necessary "due to current events in Germany" in order to satisfy National Socialist ideology: "I deliberately kept the Swiss local color to a minimum and tried to humanize the struggle for freedom of a people and the fate of its leader in general," Kapp wrote about his adaptation. We also learn from him that massive interventions were made in the music.

The extensive material of over 3000 works by 1700 composers is subdivided in a user-friendly way, with an index and all available publisher's details. The only pity is that the e-book does not include a search function for names and titles; only the individual chapters can be accessed directly.

Georg Günther: Friedrich Schiller's musical history - a compendium,
1070 p., e-book Fr. 114.50, hardcover Fr. 134.00,
Published by J. G. Metzler, Stuttgart 2018,
ISBN 978-3-476-04620-8

The literature on the most important Polish composer of the first third of the 20th century, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), is still rather scarce in book form. Now, with a new publication by Danuta Gwizdalanka, a comprehensive publication is available for the first time. It sheds new light on the biography of a musician who hid his homosexuality from his mother until the end of his life. As can be seen from his letters, published by Szymanowski specialist Teresa Chylińska, the 27-year-old composer confessed: "Mama is my first and my last love."

The modestly illustrated biography begins as intimately as it ends with "Life with the family" and detailed information about the widely ramified family. The chapter "The Narcissist and the Mimosa" reveals more unknown facts than, for example, the commentary on the 12 Etudes op. 33, with which Szymanowski revolutionized piano music. "The artist who craved homage", as the author writes, who suffered from "excessive ambition" and neurasthenia, was not only a chain smoker but also an alcoholic. In addition to very informative quotations and detailed insights into the psyche of the neurotic artist, one of the advantages of the book is the description of the inspiration the composer owed to his travels to the South, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and the Orient.

As if the EU country Poland did not belong to Europe, Szymanowski's stays appear separately in the chapters "In Europe" and "In Poland". While "The National Artist" is widely acknowledged, the posthumous reception of his work in the chapter "Afterlife" only takes up two printed pages. The author mentions "a specialized sanatorium in Lausanne" as the place of death, without specifying that it was the Clinique du Signal run by Dr. Dufour. A "Chronicle of life and work", together with a bibliography and index of persons, rounds off the publication, which suffers from many repetitions.

Contrary to what the advertising claims, this is not the "first biography of Szymanowski in German". The book was written in Polish and translated by Peter Oliver Loew, following Polish book publications by Stanisław Golachowski in Leipzig in 1982, in Krakow in 1983 and the anthology About Karol Szymanowski had been published in Warsaw in German translations.

Danuta Gwizdalanka: The Seducer. Karol Szymanowski and his music, translated from Polish by Peter Oliver Loew, 292 p., € 27.10, Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-447-10888-1

If you want to study the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, you have to master the basics of basso continuo playing - a thorny undertaking, because either it doesn't sound good or it contradicts the relevant sources, and in music theory basso continuo is sometimes treated quite differently. No problem for Diez Eichler: he explains it in simple terms and provides countless examples of music (in modern transcription) from the relevant German-language treatises of the early 18th century (Heinichen, Niedt, Mattheson).

In this way, he ensures that you sit down, read and immediately play yourself, i.e. "understand" in a double sense. In a logical sequence, he explains the figuring habits of the time - including that which was not specifically marked - and ensures that the basso continuo is immediately at hand. Eichler rightly restricts himself to the German basso continuo of the high baroque period, but repeatedly provides glimpses of French or Italian practice, even naming the differences to today's use of language in music theory - always without a source-obsessed admonishing finger, because the user wants to put everything into practice as competently and unencumbered as possible. The harpsichordist and basso continuo teacher Diez Eichler thus aims to be the precursor to Jesper Christensen's The basics of basso continuo playing (1992), and he has succeeded in doing so. He also includes an exercise book with unrealized basses, but dispenses with suggested solutions because these can all be easily found in the music examples from the original sources in the main book.

Diez Eichler: Basso continuo. An introduction. Based on historical sources, 82 p., € 19.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-7651-0453-4

The outstanding figure in the history of music for keyboard instruments in the 17th century was undoubtedly Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667). He can be regarded as the main promoter of the suite (partita) in the field of tension between French dance culture and German love of order, and his toccatas and contrapuntal works, which combine Italian and German stylistic elements, form the starting points for Buxtehude's and Bach's organ works. Common knowledge among harpsichordists and organists, Froberger is also occasionally included in piano recitals by pianists such as Grigori Sokolow.

To mark the 400th anniversary of the composer's birth, Leipzig musicologist Peter Wollny has now published a selection of four works, all of which are taken from the meticulous autograph of Froberger's Libro Secondo (A-Wn, Mus. Hs. 18706). All that had to be done was to transfer Froberger's differing staves and clefs into the notation commonly used today. However, Wollny's notation leaves users in the lurch where technical problems arise due to too large a range of hands and where a reader-friendly distribution across the two modern staves would have been necessary.

The publisher's interest in such an edition may be justified, but as a scholarly achievement it falls far short of Siegbert Rampe's edition (Bärenreiter, 1993, BA 8063). Where Rampe makes a fine distinction between different beams, each with a different expressive value in terms of articulation, Wollny simply makes the same distinction. Where Rampe takes into account the genre-typical lack of bar lines, Wollny at least places scale lines. Wollny's preface is extremely short, and the few critical notes are immediately integrated into it. If anyone who wants to get to know more than just four randomly selected pieces by Froberger compares the effort involved in this edition (using a generally accessible digital copy [p. III]) with that of Rampe's research, which has also led to easily readable variants in the main text, he will quickly see that he has to opt for the older edition. The fact that Wollny also based his product on this preliminary work, albeit without making an appropriate note of it, is only clear from the numbering of the pieces according to Rampe's Froberger works index (FbWV).

Johann Jacob Froberger, Selected works for keyboard instrument, edited by Peter Wollny, HN 1361, € 10.00 G. Henle Publishers, Munich 2016

The composer Friedrich Schneider (1786-1853) is probably an unknown quantity to most people. However, his name does appear in connection with Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. He was the soloist at the premiere in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. This was certainly no coincidence: Schneider's pianistic skills were obviously very impressive. It is therefore not surprising that he wrote numerous piano works at a young age, including no less than 42 sonatas. Ulrich Urban has now set about publishing these in four volumes with Breitkopf & Härtel. Volume 2 is already available in a meticulous Urtext edition.

It is worth taking a closer look at the works. As expected, Schneider knows how to produce a piano writing that is easy to play and sounds brilliant. The compositional craftsmanship is also impeccable; the harmony is at least at the height of its time. There are certainly influences from Beethoven or Haydn, but occasionally one even thinks of future masters, especially in the A major Sonata op. 76 from 1806, where it almost sounds like Schubert's great sonata in the same key. Astonishing, because this was only written 22 years later!

So why has this music fallen into oblivion despite its qualities? Well, there are probably several reasons for this. First and foremost: the themes are often not gripping or original enough to lend themselves to a further development of the musical ideas. Instead, the formal sections are simply combined with virtuoso sequences. Although the piano writing sounds pleasant, it too often indulges in stereotypical platitudes. Least affected by such shortcomings is probably the Grande Sonata in F minor op. 27, where economy and concentration of means prevail, especially in the 3rd movement 'Largo' with its impressive play of light and shadow.

Friedrich Schneider may have sensed these shortcomings himself. From 1815 onwards, he rarely composed for the piano, but all the more frequently for orchestra and choir: 23 symphonies, 16 oratorios and countless cantatas flowed from his pen. And as a composer, court conductor, conductor, pianist, organist, pedagogue and festival organizer, he was one of the most respected universal musicians of his time.

Friedrich Schneider: Complete Caviar Sonatas, Volume II (sonatas with opus number), edited by Ulrich Urban, EB 8942, € 44.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2018

In 2012 (Calembredaine) and 2013 (Ganagobie) composed two works that could not be more different. The promising titles for us German speakers conceal worlds apart: Calembredaine means "silly fun", while Ganagobie is the name of a Benedictine monastery in Haute Provence. The music differs accordingly!

First to CalembredaineA truly witty piece, entertaining and lively. It is written in 6/8 time and plays with rhythmic shifts and offbeats. Short pauses create surprises that really lead you by the nose. For the most part, the piece is based on its own mode, which is somewhat reminiscent of Arabic music. This means that there are only a few pedal changes, but it has to be played on a pedal harp. The fun lasts only four pages, has momentum and is gripping. In addition to the usual playing techniques, Andrès' typical "Sons Xylo" and "Sons Pincées" also appear. In terms of difficulty, I would assign the piece to the 5th to 6th level. A printing error should also be pointed out here: At the end of bar 25, the bass clef is missing in the left hand, and at the end of bar 30, it is resolved back into treble clef.

Ganagobie has a completely different effect: it is a suite of five movements. The quarter pulse is clearly perceptible throughout, reminiscent of a monastery resting on pillars. The various movements describe a dignified mood: in the first, Le Monastère sur la CollineThe monastery can be seen on the hill; in the second, Le Portail de pierreYou enter through the portal; you visit the old monk in the third, Le Vieux Moine; the fourth is about cosmic mosaics, Mosaïques cosmologiquesand the fifth plays under green oaks, Sous les chènes vertes. After starting fortissimo, the piece ends very quietly after eleven minutes.

Bernard Andrès makes use of different musical languages. While the beginning is rather impressionistic and reminiscent of Debussy, romantic harmonies and gestures reappear later on to depict the size of the monastery. Filigree semiquaver movements in the right hand often fill out the basic structure of the columns, reminiscent of the ornamentation in the monastery.

The piece is not easy to play, as it is mostly quiet and rarely seeks the tension of contrasts. However, I can imagine that it would come into its own in a church setting.

Bernard Andrès: Calembredaine pour Harpe, HA 09753, ca. € 11.40, Edition Hamelle (Alphonse Leduc), Paris

id.: Ganagobie, Suite pour Harpe, HA 09754, ca. € 17.80

This booklet for two flutes, published in the World Music series, contains a collection of well-known pieces from the klezmer literature, arranged by the editor Michael Lötsch, as well as original compositions. The term klezmer comes from the Hebrew and originally referred to the musicians. Today, klezmer is mainly understood as instrumental music, the repertoire of which consists primarily of pieces to accompany weddings and other celebrations. The melodies, which, as Michael Lötsch describes in the foreword, "convey melancholy and exuberance at the same time", are extremely varied in their style and therefore also allow greater freedom in terms of tempo, phrasing and interpretation.

Klezmeron is a familiar melody in D minor, which then turns to a brighter F major part and returns to the minor. Tish Nigun has a rather calm character and sounds very lyrical. Michael Lötsch's own compositions are hardly inferior to the originals. Revenge is a lively piece in which both voices are in thirds, which gives it a special tonal charm. The imaginative Klezmer Fantasy contains a concise theme, which is taken up again and again after intermediate parts. Seven Steps pulsates through its constant changes between 7/8 and 4/4 time.

The duets, in which the thematic material and the accompaniment are divided between the two parts, are largely in the middle to higher register, are easy to play for advanced flautists and are also suitable for teaching.

Klezmer Flute Duets, 13 pieces for two flutes arranged by Michael Lötsch, UE 33044, € 14.95, Universal Edition, Vienna 2017

Johann Sebastian Bach's Siciliano Sinfonia from the Christmas Oratorio provides the pattern for this complex "broken caress" for violin and piano, which lasts around seven minutes. It is the 18th composition written in 2012/2013 by the composer Fabio Maffei, who lives in French-speaking Switzerland and works all over the world.

The continuous 6/8 time signature is interwoven with complex duets, quartuplets, quintuplets and runs that rise to a passionate forte. The fact that there is an accidental before every note (even with the same notes in the same bar and with a resolution sign before every C major note) makes rehearsal even more difficult. After many atonal frictions, exuberant, tender and nightmarish scenes, the piece ends in a peaceful twilight. The detailed preface by Vincent Arlettaz (translated into German by Verena Monnier) inspires the performers.

Fabio Maffei, Una Carezza infranta, Ninna nanna per violino e pianoforte, Fr. 20.00, Archives musicales de la Bibliothèque cantonale universitaire (BCU) Lausanne, 2017, ISBN 978-2-88888-148-3

Mario Venzago knows Othmar Schoeck's music like no other. He has made integral recordings of his choral works with the MDR Choir and Symphony Orchestra, and the CDs with the operas Venus and Penthesilea were awarded the highest honors. In May last year, the concert performance of the opera Dürande Castle with a new libretto in Bern, an elaborate large-scale production. The live recording has also recently been released (Claves CD 1902-04).

In its concert programs last season, the Musikkollegium Winterthur commemorated the patronage of Werner Reinhart (1884-1951), who also strongly supported Othmar Schoeck. The Dramatic Cantata From the fisherman and his wife was written by Schoeck in close contact with Reinhart, and he even composed part of it at Reinhart's vacation home on the "Fluh" in Maur on Lake Greifensee. The work was premiered on October 3, 1930 at the Saxon State Opera in Dresden.

Venzago puts the first digital recording of this work in which the composer sets the fairy tale of the power-hungry fisherman's wife from the Brothers Grimm collection to music. Venzago sticks to the Low German version by Philipp Otto Runge, which Schoeck had originally chosen. The peculiar spelling of the title refers to this. And indeed, the Low German lends the piece a more folksy, even archaic note.

Schoeck himself thought that his Dramatic Cantata could also be performed well in concert, as it was important to him to present the dramatic escalation of the increasingly greedy woman in the music as "variations and fugue on an 'ancient' theme". Venzago and the Musikkollegium Winterthur succeed in repeatedly breaking up the lyrical orchestral parts with dramatic verve and seductively playing out the charms of the instrumentation.

In the increasingly complex variations, the orchestra illustrates the increasingly brazen wishes that the fisherman makes to the butt in the sea and which are also fulfilled. The result is a colorful, shimmering, internalized intensity that carries the singers atmospherically. Rachel Harnisch as Fru is able to expressively shape the oscillation between lyrical singing and virtuosically exalted intervallic leaps.

Jörg Dürmüller is also very sensitive as the increasingly desperate Fisherman, singing his tenor role with many shades and colors. In contrast, Jordan Shanahan sings Butt's short, mighty bass calls from the depths of the sea with majestic grandeur. All in all, a musically appealing, committed interpretation of Schoeck, à la Venzago.

Nik Bärtsch, a long-time fan, supporter and employer of Nicolas Stocker, quotes the old joke in his cover text that a band consists of a number of musicians, plus a drummer, and turns the disrespectful statement into its opposite: a drummer is actually something other than a mere musician. On the one hand, it is his duty to embody the primal and mystical power of percussion, on the other hand, he must also have a sense of abstraction, space and structure.

The 31-year-old composer, drummer, percussionist and producer Nicolas Stocker is a percussionist in every sense of the word. He has been playing the piano since the age of five and the drums since the age of eleven. He is also equipped with a panoramic musical curiosity. He belongs to Nik Bärtsch's acoustic ensemble Mobile, is part of the excitingly innovative trio Kali with guitarist Urs Müller and pianist Raphael Loher, and also co-founded the trip-hoppy band Marylane. There's no need to start listing his many other appearances.

Solo contains five pieces: a short prelude, titled Bells for Ponythen the quarter-hour Polyrub, two almost ten-minute compositions and finally a postlude reprise of Bells for Pony. Each piece is completely different from the previous one. They all display a subtle approach to the melodic possibilities of percussion. Polyrub begins with short woodblock beats and then, in a brisk succession of loud and less loud, intense and less intense passages, struggles forward into frightening depths of polyrhythmic complexity - without ever causing any fear of losing one's footing on the flying carpet due to such virtuosity. The fascinating Bells for No One combines the rhythm of long, drawn-out gong beats with noises reminiscent of a bag of rattling nails, as well as all kinds of other sporadically struck beats that sound as soft as they are melodic. Burst in turn, is a powerful drum gallop that nonetheless reveals a fascinating melody. Conclusion: a superb album all round.