"S isch immer e so gsi" - Chris Walton thought he could hear Solothurn's musical motto himself when writing his Richard Flury biography in English, which is well worth reading and based on extensive unpublished material (p. 102/3). His biography of the composer, who was born in Biberist and educated in Basel, Bern and Vienna, which includes a complete list of his extensive oeuvre and a CD with a successful selection of historical recordings and new recordings, also deals fundamentally with his self-prescribed musical anachronisms.

It takes a good 200 entertaining, richly illustrated and strictly chronological pages for Fleisch to get to the romanticisms of the composer, born in 1896, already mentioned in the book title. A pleasantly underlined view of German-speaking Switzerland from the outside (What does flour soup taste like? What do the Table Mountain and the Weissenstein have in common?) leads to an argumentative derivation of the romantic Flury from a complex of provincialism that has never been overcome, and states a spiritual refuge that has been defined here, to which there would certainly have been alternatives. Strong passages are found in the localization of this interesting composer figure in the Swiss education and music training system (Flury worked as an orchestra director and cantonal school teacher in Solothurn), also in comparison with his Swiss professional colleagues, who, in contrast to Flury, all fell almost completely silent in old age (pp. 95, 113).

Walton's authorial perspective, which seeks to pass final judgment on the good and bad of the music, does not fundamentally question this ultimately self-isolationist figure and places the book in a progressive mindset that the composer had just opposed. Thus, the "most modern" and shortest works of the 1920s with tendencies towards atonality and Gebrauchsmusik are described as the best and still worth performing today.

To pursue in depth the romanticisms that are particularly pronounced in his later works would probably also have meant a clearer examination of Flury's - probably not physically consummated (p. 189) - preference for very young girls, which is documented as a source of inspiration in some unpleasant passages in his correspondence with his teacher Ernst Kurth (p. 124) and in the dedications, especially of his songs and chamber music. It would have meant not shying away from a discussion of his religiousness (with excommunication after divorce and readmission after a vow of celibacy) in order to understand his sacred compositions (and a transfiguration of these girls into the role of Madonna). Presumably, all this was not easy to implement in a book that was written in close collaboration with his son from his second marriage and with the support of the family foundation. "S isch immer e so gsi".

Chris Walton: Richard Flury. The life and music of a Swiss romantic. 328 p., £ 25.00, Toccata Press, London 2017, ISBN 978-0-907689-44-7

The book title Profession conductor is unspectacular. And this is exactly how the author presents himself with his language: direct, clear, comprehensible and hard on the subject, therefore with many details that are enlightening for the concertgoer, because in many intermission conversations one can learn how vague the knowledge about what happens "behind the scenes" and about the conditions of the concert business often is. Ralf Weikert, born in St. Florian (Austria) in 1940, who trained in Linz and Vienna (with Hans Swarovsky) and became chief conductor in the then German capital Bonn at the age of twenty-eight, was also chief conductor at the Zurich Opera House for almost ten years (1983-92) and has lived in Switzerland for a long time. He deliberately speaks of a profession, not a vocation - and of course he also means female conductors, as he emphasizes in the foreword - what a relief that the tedious double entendres are dispensed with!

Weikert focuses on the craft and thus the everyday aspects of this demanding and fascinating activity. In his remarks, he is thinking primarily of aspiring conductors and musicians and explains that much of this can be learned and that a convincing repertoire of works can only be kept ready to play with a lifetime of intensive work; however, he also shows that certain prerequisites must be fulfilled in order to be able to meet the requirements.

He then deals with the individual problem areas in a clearly structured manner, first in the music itself and the associated sheet music - this is also clearly documented with inserted score pages -, then he devotes himself to the music business, the acoustics in various rooms and the orchestral set-up; furthermore, he clearly distinguishes between the situation of the opera or concert conductor. He has extensive experience in both areas, having conducted at the Met in New York, in San Francisco, in Korea, in Japan and in many renowned opera houses and concert halls in Europe. He also addresses the current problem of the dominance of opera direction over music, giving numerous, mostly negative examples, but never loses his composure and subsumes them under "imponderables". A few succinct but nicely formulated memories of unexpected events and encounters are also included when he talks about the most beautiful profession he can imagine. However, the "feu sacré" cannot be learned.

Ralf Weikert: Beruf Dirigent, with disco/videography, index of persons, 189 p., hardcover, € 19.99, Böhlau, Vienna and others 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20530-2

It is not every day that an editor critically scrutinizes his own edition and openly admits mistakes. Three years ago, when Christoph Flamm published Mussorgsky's Pictures of an exhibition in a new edition, he had some old readings corrected on the basis of a Soviet facsimile. However, these new variants were difficult to understand and critics reacted skeptically, especially as the facsimile was barely legible in places (see also SMZ 3/2014, page 24).

In his introduction to the work, Christoph Flamm now retracts these new readings. A sympathetic move! And that's not the only thing to praise: On almost 180 pages, the booklet provides just about everything worth knowing about Mussorgsky's unique piano cycle. It starts with Viktor Hartmann, whose paintings at a memorial exhibition were the direct inspiration for the work. They cannot always be clearly assigned to Mussorgsky's subjects. (For example, the portrait of an Italian peasant was long mistaken for the poor Jew "Schmuyle"). It is about the influential art critic Vladimir Stasov, to whom Mussorgsky dedicated his work. And, of course, it is about the music itself.

This leads to interesting cross-comparisons with other Russian compositions from that time. The linguistic ambiguity of some of the headings (e.g. Bydło) is also discussed, and even old metronome markings were tracked down. These apparently come from Stassow and are at least partly astonishing (120 for the quarters in Baba-Jaga?). In addition, there are references to the reception and thus of course also to the numerous transcriptions, of which Ravel's orchestral version still remains the dominant one. Flamm makes all these interesting facts read like a thriller, and the excellent illustrations do the rest.

In short: this paperback is a must for anyone who wants to delve deeper into Mussorgsky's immortal piano cycle!

Christoph Flamm: Modest Mussorgsky. Pictures at an Exhibition - Memories of Viktor Hartmann, Bärenreiter Werkeinführungen, 178 p., € 14.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2016, ISBN 978-3-7618-2221-0

As team players, many choir directors are of course also familiar with the Champions League opening music, which Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) from the Coronation Anthems by George Frideric Handel as the official anthem. In addition to this intense, 6-minute work, Bärenreiter Verlag has now also published The King shall rejoice (HWV 260, duration approx. 12 minutes) in the Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition. Handel wrote the festive, richly orchestrated and magnificent four Coronation Anthems (total duration approx. 40 minutes) on the occasion of George the Second's coronation in London in 1727. The English musicologist and contemporary Charles Burney once described its overwhelming splendor of sound both aptly and flippantly as the "great woof-woof style". It is to be hoped that the other two, less well-known Anthems will also soon be published in such a fantastic new edition (orchestral material, piano reduction and score) to provide oratorio choirs with further alternatives to the well-known Messiah to give.

With the Missa votiva by Bach's contemporary Jan Dismas Zelenka, which is unfortunately performed far too little, has been published by Breitkopf & Härtel in another highly recommended Urtext edition. The performance material is based on the scholarly-critical editions of the series The heritage of German music, from which the informative preface and critical report are also taken. Zelenka's masses are spectacular masterpieces of Baroque choral literature, which in their colorful variety are in no way inferior to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. This 70-minute mass with its slim orchestration (2 oboes, strings and basso continuo) is the ideal find for ambitious chamber choirs looking for something special oratorically.

The famous Great Mass in C minor (KV 427) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart undoubtedly fits into a musical-historical line between Bach's Mass in B minor and Beethoven's Missa solemnis. It was published this year by Carus-Verlag in an exemplary new edition. Unfortunately, as Mozart's most personal and largest-scale mass, the opus remained unfinished and, as a torso, has posed many puzzles ever since. For this reason, there have been numerous attempts to complete, edit and even recompose the fragment in the course of its reception history.

Now the musicologist Uwe Wolf from Carus-Verlag and the well-known conductor Frieder Bernius have joined forces and created a version that sets new standards in a congenial collaboration between scholarship and practice - something that is unfortunately practiced far too rarely. With great respect for the existing sources, this new edition continues the tradition of the versions by Eder, Beyer and Maunder of not adding any new movements to the torso, be it through the so-called parody method or original compositions, as in the versions by Wilby, Levin or Koopman. Particularly refreshing are the newly added trumpets and timpani in the Credo and the reorganization and careful correction of the counterpoint in the Osanna. In addition to the complete performance material, there is also an elegant facsimile booklet for better allocation of the additions/arrangements and an excellent CD recording with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under Bernius (Carus CD 83.284).

George Frideric Handel: Zadok the priest. Coronation Anthem HWV 258, edited by Stephan Blaut; score BA 10258, € 14.95; piano reduction BA 10258-90, € 4.95; Bärenreiter, Kassel 2016

id.: The King shall rejoice; score BA 10259, € 24.95; piano reduction BA 10259-90, € 10.95

Jan Dismas Zelenka: Missa votiva ZWV 18, edited by Reinhold Kubik; score PB 5577, € 89.00; piano reduction EB 8053, € 19.90; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2016

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa in c KV 427, completed and edited by Frieder Bernius and Uwe Wolf, score CV 51.651/00, € 85.00; piano reduction CV 51.651/03, € 16.00; facsimile booklet CV 51.651/02, € 29.80; Carus, Stuttgart 2017

There is very little literature for the transverse flute from the Romantic period, which is why it is extremely commendable that the principal flutist of the Aargau Symphony Orchestra "argovia philharmonic" Miriam Terragni and her duo partner, the pianist Catherine Sarasin, went on a discovery tour through the antiquarian bookshops of Basel and Paris. The result was very pleasing: six pieces on this CD alone are being recorded for the first time worldwide - and they are real gems from the German (late) Romantic period and the French fin de siècle.

It starts with the Fantasy Sonata in A major op. 17 by the Liszt pupil Max Meyer-Olbersleben (1850-1927). Although it has been published several times in print, this large three-movement sonata is as good as forgotten today. A genuine reference recording has been lacking until now. This gap can now be considered closed. The two soloists pull out all the stops right at the beginning and reveal a subtle, balanced interplay. In the demanding Ballad in G sharp minor op. 9 for piano by the same composer, Catherine Sarasin is able to distinguish herself as a competent soloist. We owe the violin part to Richard Wagner's short piano romance WWV 94 to August Wilhelmj, violin virtuoso and concertmaster by Wagner's grace at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which Miriam Terragni in turn transcribed for the flute. Wilhelmj himself wrote the BalladIt combines echoes of Wagnerian chromaticism with an expansive late Romantic harmony. Lili Boulanger's Pièce experiences a dreamy premiere, followed by the better known, delicately played Nocturne. In Dans la forêt enchantée by the French artist Léon Moreau (1870-1946) vividly depicts the tranquillity of the forest and the whirring of sylphs (air spirits). In the Valse Lente Louis Masson gradually varies the leisurely melody in a very delicate way - with catchy tune potential. Deux Morceaux op. 41 by Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (1842-1907), discovered in the famous Rue de Rome in Paris, are no longer listed by any publisher. The Intermezzo, which is similar to the meaningful Lament follows, with its enchantingly light rhythm, brings this all-round successful recording to a close.

According to the study, one in four young people between the ages of 12 and 19 regularly make music (24%). This puts music-making in fourth place among the most popular non-media leisure activities among young people, ahead of attending sporting events (15 percent) or parties (5 percent). Making music is significantly more popular with girls (29%) than with boys (18%).

A long-term comparison of the last ten years (2007 to 2017) shows that making music is one of the few activities that has increased in popularity among young people (plus 5%). Only activities with the family show a higher increase (plus 14%). However, a closer look also shows that young people at lower secondary schools (15 percent) are significantly less active in making music than those at grammar schools (28 percent).

On the award-winning CD, Edoardo Torbianelli, lecturer in fortepiano and historical performance practice at the HKB, plays the piano/wind quintets by Mozart and Beethoven on the fortepiano together with the Ensemble Freitagsakademie Bern. The ensemble performed live on Radio France on the gala evening alongside other famous names in classical music.

Founded in 1993, the Freitagsakademie Bern is under the artistic direction of Katharina Suske. It plays music from the 17th to the early 19th century, each on instruments of the respective era and in various formations. The permanent core of musicians includes Leila Schayegh (violin), Vital Julian Frey (harpsichord), Balasz Maté and Daniel Rosin (violoncello), Jonathan Rubin (lute) and Jan Krigovsky (violone).

The management of the Culture Department and the Culture Secretariat are to comprise a total of 120 full-time equivalents. The City of Aarau is advertising the position of the future head externally. The new head of department will also be responsible for all commissions in the cultural sector, which are also being restructured.

Other tasks include supporting budgeting and ensuring controlling functions, overseeing City Council business in the cultural sector and representing cultural issues within the city administration and vis-à-vis the City Council and third parties.

The city's cultural sector has grown over the last twenty years. Aarau has developed into a city of culture and has made a name for itself with its cultural activities far beyond the borders of the canton and the country, writes the city. With the creation of the new department, "a strengthening of the organizational and management structures, a level-appropriate processing of specialist issues, the uniform processing of cross-sectional functions and increased organizational flexibility can be achieved".

Herren is a graduate of the MA Music Pedagogy. He received the prize for his musical integration project Music without borders. In three workshops for music, rhythm and dance, interested asylum seekers from asylum centers in the Bern area were taught musical content, which was finally performed together with the KMB youth wind orchestra in the packed Kulturcasino Bern.

Manuel Herren has used the "unifying language" of music to build bridges for mutual understanding and to allow all participants to take part in a personal, cultural and musical exchange.

Website of the project: musikohnegrenzen.ch

Born in Aarau in 1988, Cinzia Catania grew up in Lenzburg and discovered her passion for jazz in the Jazzaar project. She studied for a year in Groningen with Dena DeRose, Alex Sipiagin, Don Braden and Mark Gross, among others. When Dena DeRose gave up her teaching position in Groningen, she decided to follow her teacher and mentor to Graz to continue her studies at the Jazz Institute of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

In 2014, she completed her Bachelor's degree in jazz singing with Summa Cum Laude. This was followed by a master's degree in vocal pedagogy at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts with Susanne Abbuehl, among others, which she successfully completed in 2016. She is currently completing her second master's degree in composition, also at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, with Ed Partyka and Dieter Ammann as her main lecturers.
 

The members of the band project Dana receive a sponsorship award for their exceptional musical talent. The lead singer from Biel writes soul-pop songs herself and performs them with her band. The 20-year-old's remarkable voice, together with the energetic music of the four-piece band, wowed the audience, according to the citation.

Dana Burkard has been studying music and singing in London since this fall. However, she regularly returns to Bern and is working with the band on the release of her new CD, which is due to be released in 2018.

Before the actual founding meeting, the members of the Swiss Association of Musicians (STV), the Swiss Music Syndicate (SMS) and the Swiss Musicians' Association (MSS) met. They each individually decided by an overwhelming majority to merge to form "Sonart - Musikschaffende Schweiz" as of January 1, 2018. All formal agenda items and the approval of the founding minutes were passed without opposition, swiftly and with great approval.

The new interdisciplinary association for (primarily) freelance musicians has around 1,600 members and will be led by an interim presidency until the first ordinary general meeting in spring 2018: Käthi Gohl Moser (STV), Christoph Trummer (MSS) and Marianne Doran (SMS). The other Board members are Christian Kobi and Dragos Tara (STV), Salomé Christiani and Jaël Malli (MSS) and Anja Illmaier and Matthias Spillmann (SMS).

Once the new association has been consolidated, one of its main tasks will be to provide profession-specific services for freelance musicians - in line with the requirements of the Federal Office of Culture for the eligibility of cultural organizations to receive support. In addition to other activities such as information, representation and safeguarding interests, three specialist commissions (new music/composition, jazz/impro, pop/rock/electro) will deal in greater depth with the association's previously specific content-related concerns.

A black and a red grand piano stand on the stage of the Lucerne Hall in the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center (KKL). Every seat is already taken an hour before the opening of Piano Off-Stage. The presentation of the eight jazz and blues pianists, who also play in Lucerne hotel bars on the evenings, has been a cult event of the week-long Lucerne Festival Piano since its introduction in 2003. Here you can sit around the pianists free of charge and watch them improvise. You can even take your beer to your seat. Alessandro d'Episcopo is the first pianist to enter the ring. With the quiet jazz number dedicated to his daughter Lunita the evening starts on a contemplative note before the classically trained pianist Ayako Shirasaki from New York develops more swing. The audience did not experience a battle of vanities on stage, but a friendly atmosphere and a wide stylistic range between jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and ragtime. The young Swiss Maurice Imhof presented a grooving James Bond medley, while Lluís Coloma from Barcelona turned the piano into a pounding rhythm machine with virtuoso bass lines and accentuated chords. Things get even more exciting when presenter Andreas Müller-Crepon mixes two pianists together for sessions. It's improvised fun with fascinating musical dialogs before they stroll back to the bar arm in arm after their work is done. At the very end, all eight pianists stand and sit at the two grand pianos and play a blues together. Creative jostling on the keyboards! And the audience marvels and enjoys.

The recital by Güher and Süher Pekinel also features two (black) concert grand pianos on the stage of the large hall. The Turkish twin sisters have been among the top international piano duos since the 1980s. Unlike their colleagues, they do not sit opposite each other when playing, but offset to one side. Without eye contact, they rely solely on their ears when playing together. Güher Pekinel's powerful inhalation on the first piano is enough - then the two sisters start playing Mozart's Sonata for two pianos in D major KV 448 together with millisecond precision. It's fascinating how congruent the unison passages and final chords are. With Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Daniil Trifonov, this year's fall offshoot of the summer festival once again presents exceptional artists from the piano scene. The so-called Keyboard Day, which combines three recitals with a lecture by Martin Meyer on Debussy interpretation, is an attempt to reach a different audience through lower admission prices and shorter concerts. The debut series with Beatrice Rana, Aglaia Graf and Christopher Park in St. Luke's Church, which takes place at midday, is also more casual. There is no champagne here, but "only" good music from young talents. Christopher Park has already played at the Freiburg Tent Music Festival this summer and has just made his debut with the SWR Symphony Orchestra with Mozart's A major concerto KV 488. The German-Korean pianist is a clever designer who always strikes a narrative tone in his playing. The work composed for him Trurl-Tichy-Tinkle (2016) by Olga Neuwirth is a virtuoso play with contrasts, which Park celebrated with relish in the well-filled Lukaskirche. In Stravinsky's Petrushka the daredevil pianist imagines an entire orchestra at the grand piano. Only in Franz Liszt's one-movement Dante Sonata does he pile up the mountains of chords too high. In the many fortissimo passages, the piano sound becomes hard and metallic. There is a lack of nuances and the right balance.

The Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero is a good example of how sensitively one can deal with color nuances and dynamic differentiation. Her Children's scenes by Robert Schumann are bright, authoritative miniatures. Her interpretation of the second Shostakovich sonata combines relentless motor skills with powerful but never brutal outbursts of sound. The pianist has become known for her improvisations. A visitor sings the Swiss folk song from the gallery of the KKL There on the Bärgli, there stands a white ghost. Montero plays the melody twice before turning the theme to a minor key and taking it apart piece by piece. Bachian counterpoint meets the highest art of variation. Montero constantly invents new characters before she charmingly summarizes the whole thing and brings it to a heroic conclusion. The Mexican revolutionary song La Cucaracha treats them in a similar and yet completely different way. In the end, she ends up with ragtime - and could easily keep up with her jazz colleagues. Before the concert, Rossano Sportiello had already demonstrated at the red grand piano in the foyer how to play Beethoven's Ode to joy to a relaxed jazz ballad.

According to the canton's press release, Sonja Kuhn and Katrin Grögel cover the profile for the management of the Culture Department due to their respective professional backgrounds and broad experience. Sonja Kuhn was previously deputy head of the Culture Department and Katrin Grögel was responsible for cultural projects in the Culture Department.

With the top-sharing model, the Department of Presidential Affairs is responding "to socio-political changes and to the demands of highly qualified employees to take on responsibility in management functions as part-time employees". Sonja Kuhn and Katrin Grögel will each work 70 percent of the time. They will be jointly responsible for all management decisions and transactions in the Culture Department. Mutual deputization is also integrated into the model.

For artists who receive a grant from the city or canton of Zurich and can prove that they pay 6 percent of the grant into the tied pension scheme, the funding bodies will make a contribution of the same amount in addition to the grant. This regulation applies to work years, work contributions, work scholarships and open-space contributions. It applies from a support contribution of at least CHF 10,000 per year, funding body and artist.

The City and Canton of Zurich are also working with the cultural institutions they support to ensure that those working in the arts and culture are offered a pension solution from the first day and franc. When renewing decrees, agreements or subsidy contracts, the request to establish a binding pension scheme in their companies and projects is included. Project managers are invited to include contributions to the tied pension scheme under personnel costs in addition to social costs.

However, the contributions for cultural promotion will not be increased overall. This means that there are correspondingly fewer funds available for the direct support of creative artists and cultural projects. At first glance, this is painful, write the city and canton. However, if it is possible to "sensitize cultural workers to the issue and thus prevent them from becoming dependent on welfare in old age", then these investments will pay off in the long term.