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.

The trio Puerta Sur consists of Marcela Arroyo (vocals), Andreas Engler (violin) and Daniel Schläppi (bass). Thomas Schläppi is also co-owner of the Catwalk label, on which the ensemble releases its recordings. The most recent is "Tres Mil Uno", which reduces orchestral world music from Argentina to chamber music format.

The BMW Welt Jazz Award has been presented in Munich since 2009. The first prize is endowed with 10,000 euros, the second with 5,000 euros. An audience prize is also awarded. Six ensembles perform in competition concerts between January and March. In 2014, the Swiss ensemble Hildegard lernt fliegen won first prize.

"The Bern symposium from September 13 to 16, 2017, was all about Beethoven, with not only the established research focus on interpretation at Bern University of the Arts (HKB), but in particular three current projects supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation providing the occasion and framework for the four-day forum: While the project "From Lecture to Interpretation" examines the transformation of interpretation practice using the example of Beethoven's solo piano works, "Annotated Scores" focuses on the conducting scores and orchestral materials with notes of those works that were important to Richard Wagner in his perspective on the conductor. A third research project, "Embodied Traditions of Romantic Musical Practice", deals with instructive 19th-century music editions in their description of practical musical details and attempts to transfer these to the present day using the "embodiment" method. Based on this thematically wide-ranging field, Beethoven's works and their interpretative realization were always the focus, but at the same time fundamental concepts and methods were clarified and aspects of arrangement as interpretation, organological questions and, last but not least, music-theatrical elements were considered. A total of forty-five lectures thus formed an informative whole - supplemented by concert lectures and film documentaries, which fitted perfectly into the program and at the same time pointed beyond it.

"The true reproduction is the X-ray photography of the work. Its task is to make visible all relations, moments of context, contrast, construction, which lie hidden beneath the surface of the sensual sound - by means of the articulation of the sensual appearance." - With these words by Theodor W. Adorno, Thomas Gartmann, Head of the Research Department at the HKB and the Bern Graduate School of the Arts, welcomed the musicologists, musicians and audience to the university's concert hall.
 

The first five lectures then focused entirely on 19th century piano music - together with the question: "What does interpretation mean, what can interpretation achieve?" John Rink (Cambridge) showed that interpretation is not only a field of tension between musical text and performance, but that "creative" performance of music should also be differentiated from pure interpretation, among other things by means of notation-specific peculiarities in Chopin's piano works. Despite this highly specific, sometimes idiosyncratic notation, the Chopin interpreter should, according to Rink, not neglect his own ingenuity - this is the only way to create interesting, but also questionable and therefore debatable interpretations. The two following presentations by Carolina Estrada Bascunana (Tokyo) and Manuel Bärtsch (Bern) were also dedicated to musical expression beyond the musical text. Both in the case of Enrique Granados' pupils and in various interpretations of Beethoven's op. 111, source-critical work with various editions, pedagogical handbooks and recording systems such as the Welte piano rolls proved to be indispensable in order to get close to the individual interpreter and to be able to place his or her playing style in a possible tradition. Common to both lectures was the critical perspective on the "sacred interpreter who moves in an auratic, metaphysical context" (Bärtsch) - a view that should be revised. While Georges Starobinski (Basel) also devoted himself to the last sonata op. 111, among other things, and dealt with the performance designation "semplice" in Beethoven in a fine and detailed presentation, Kai Köpp (Bern) focused on methodological approaches to interpretation research. The diverse genres of sources (user interfaces from organology, instructions, sound documents and moving images) examined in the various research projects at the HKB provided rich illustrative material for locating historical interpretation research between historical and systematic musicology.

László Stachó (Budapest) ventured into the 20th century by comparing recordings by pianists in the Liszt tradition such as Eugen d'Albert, Béla Bartók and Ernő Dohnányi with those of Igor Stravinsky and positioning their interpretations between a language-bound and a more metrical-structuralist approach. It was clear from the audio documents that Igor Stravinsky corresponded most closely to this objective approach to music-making, which was particularly characteristic of the period between the wars. However, Stachó did not stop at merely analyzing the interpretations; he also made the connection between the observed modernist aesthetics and "music as a spatially extended object": it was up to the interpreter to mediate between time and space and to decide whether to play with a broad or narrow structure. After a further contribution, which examined Anton Webern's music from the perspective of tempo and intonation, the audience was able to attend Robert Levin's (Boston) concert lecture, one of the highlights of the symposium. Under the title "Wende zur Moderne. Beethoven as the executor of C. Ph. E. Bach", the world-famous pianist and musicologist gave an eloquent, intense and direct musical and linguistic presentation. Starting with a performance of some of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's piano fantasies, he demonstrated their influence on composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Levin's synthesis of practice and reflection alone was highly impressive. However, the artist took the "turn to modernity" quite literally when he explicitly addressed the young participants and listeners, advocating a commitment to new music. After all, being involved as a performer in the performance of new repertoire means taking part in the writing of musical history.

Approaching the complex relationships between work, composer and performer, especially when the work was created decades ago, naturally requires conscientious methodological work. The second day of the symposium therefore focused on the diversity of these methods. Clive Brown (Leeds) addressed the gap between practice-oriented research and professional music-making: Many of today's commercial sound recordings would testify to little understanding of the relationship between notation and performance as this was seen by composer and performer in the 18th and 19th centuries. Based on one of his specialist areas, interpretation research in the field of string instruments, Brown showed how he envisioned bridging this gap by means of historically informed editions and the teaching of historical playing techniques. Neal Peres da Costa (Sydney) also demonstrated how informative a comparison between a surviving recording and the edition of the recorded work can be - extensively - at the piano during his lecture. His method of imitating historical sound documents was able to highlight improvisational elements and rhythmic freedoms that were part of Carl Reinecke's or Jan Ladislav Dussek's playing - admittedly without any of this being evident in the musical text at the time. The presentation by Sebastian Bausch (Bern) once again dealt with the scientific and aesthetic significance of piano rolls, albeit from the special perspective of oral history, the questioning of specialists in the field of reproduction pianos and their appropriate regulation. This large chapter was rounded off by a lecture by Olivier Senn, who presented a new method of computer-aided measurement of agogics - and thus dealt with a fine interpretative detail that was and is relevant across epochs and styles. He demonstrated how a tempo curve can be derived from musically expressive timing using the example of Debussy's recording of the Danseuses de Delphes from the year 1912.

"I have transformed a single sonata of mine into a quartet for violin instruments [...], and I know for certain that no one else will be able to imitate me so easily." The block "Arrangement as interpretation" was introduced with Beethoven's own words. Thomas Gartmann dedicated a detailed analysis of voice leading, dynamics and articulation to Beethoven's own quartet arrangement of his Piano Sonata op. 14 No. 1 and pointed out the scientific value of this arrangement. Michael Lehner (Bern) drew attention to a central but hitherto little-researched medium of dissemination from the 18th to 20th centuries. The cultural technique of score playing was examined as an "interpretation through reduction", in particular on the basis of the recordings that Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss made of their own orchestral works. What conclusions can be drawn from phrasing, tempo and rhythm with regard to the orchestral version?

This was perfectly followed by the concert lecture by Ivo Haag and Adrienne Soós (Lucerne): Like the piano reductions, the four-hand arrangements of orchestral works were also a tried and tested means of publicizing their own compositions. On this afternoon, the piano duo placed the arrangements of Brahms' symphonies at the center of practical performance questions. After the forum was opened up to young people interested in research that evening in small presentations on a wide variety of topics, a small master class was even held: the specialists in interpretation research took on cellist David Eggert (Bern) and pianist Gili Loftus (Montréal), who - naturally at a Beethoven symposium - played works by the composer, but in the context of the period around Clara Schumann and the performance practice prevailing at the time.

The third day of the symposium was thematically peripheral and yet much closer to our time. The speakers led by Leo Dick (Bern) presented the results of their research in the fields of music theater, choreography, dance and literary studies. The resulting change of perspective on Beethoven's work and person proved to be just as exciting and informative as the overarching concept of "mise en scène as interpretation" in its various and transdisciplinary forms.
 

Various experts in the field of organology, the study of instruments, took the participants back to Beethoven's time and the achievements of piano making at the time. Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano (Amsterdam) provided an overview of the building traditions in the centers of Vienna, Paris and London. An instrument not directly associated with Beethoven, the organ, was brought into play by Stefano Molardi (Lugano). He traced the composer's early years of organistic training by analyzing later works - the pianistic imitation of the Fauxbourdon or the Imitatio Tremula Organi, for example, are important clues, according to Molardi. Martin Skamletz (Bern) pointed out an instrumental and musical detail: In the years after 1800, the original five-octave range of pianos expanded, which naturally had an effect on the disposition of the composed works. Skamletz illustrated this reciprocal relationship with a large number of musical examples and placed them in the context of contemporary events. Patrick Jüdt (Bern) also carried out differentiated source work in the context of the String Quartet op. 18/6. In a vivid lecture, in which the four young musicians of the Quatuor Ernest were taken by the hand just as much as the audience, he worked out the dynamics and intensity of Beethoven's sforzati in the Scherzo from op. 18/6. Music theorists of the 18th and 19th centuries were given a "say" in their statements on metric and melodic accent.

Writing processes and the results of transcription were discussed on the last day, September 16. Federica Rovelli (Bonn) reported on the obstacles that can influence the edition of Beethoven's sketchbooks: In addition to the mostly fragmentary state of the sketches, it is primarily the temporality of the writing, the chronology of the writing process, which cannot be represented in a simple transcription; what has been written can be represented, but not the writing itself. In addressing this problem, Rovelli presented software used in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn that reveals the different layers of writing in a facsimile. Thanks to its transparency and visual comprehensibility, this graphic program can be used by an international circle of scholars.
 

For once, Johannes Gebauer (Bern) did not focus on textual criticism, but on tracing the history of the development of performance practice. In detailed work, he compared different editions of, among others, the Caprices by Pierre Rode, whose peculiarities, additions and changes not only provide clues to certain playing traditions, but can also bring us closer to the editors of the respective editions.

The Bern research project "Annotated Scores", Richard Wagner's perspective on peculiarities in works of his time, determined the last presentations of the symposium. Chris Walton (Bern) shed light on Wagner's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1846 and the numerous suggestions for changes that he made. The fact that, as the latest research in Bern shows, Wagner himself did not fully implement these changes did not prevent many later conductors from seeing Wagner's indications as a benchmark. Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer (Basel) dealt with a very similar phenomenon in the reception of Beethoven: in 1904 Gustav Mahler FidelioBeethoven's only completed opera - in a version he redesigned, which was still regarded by Viennese audiences as the true version even after Felix Weingartner succeeded Mahler and advocated greater fidelity to the original. Fidelio used.

The four-day symposium was rounded off by Roger Allen (Oxford), who spoke about Wagner's interpretation of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 101. Wagner characterized the first movement of this sonata as a perfect example of the expression he coined "infinite melody", also with regard to the lack of strongly cadential sections. Allen drew highly speculative connections between Beethoven's work and Wagner's prelude to Tristan and Isolde and revealed possible compositional influences from the piano sonata by way of comparison. Allen also drew a bow to days gone by when he quoted Wagner on Beethoven: in this sonata, the latter had traced "the very essence of music". In Allen's own words, the Bern symposium was also about "music as expression", about music's ability to express itself and leave an impression.
 

"I must confess that I'm in a bad mood because of this concert. I'm trembling before it. I have anxiety dreams. Liver problems. Can't even drink wine. Terrible. This concert will surely be my last." So wrote the Solothurn composer Hermann Meier (1906-2002) on January 31, 1984 to the pianist Urs Peter Schneider, who was one of the first to repeatedly champion his oeuvre.

How would Meier have fared if he had known that people would be crowding into the entrance hall of an art museum to view his scores, sketches, drawings and plans at the vernissage? And that the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra under Kaspar Zehnder would perform his Orchestral Piece No. 6 from 1957 in a subsequent concert in Solothurn's Franciscan Church, inserted between the movements of Beethoven's Fourth? How would he have felt, describing himself - in a greeting to his teacher Wladimir Vogel that was probably never sent - as "little Hans"?

Hermann Meier may serve as proof to all those who have always known that true art is created far away from the centers and their hustle and bustle. Switzerland has a few of this species, just think of Alfred Wälchli from Zofingen or the artists of Art brut. Meier is still virtually unknown, this "Schönberg from the Schwarzbubenland", although Schönberg is a bit of a misnomer. He certainly discovered atonality for himself early on, and he certainly familiarized himself with the twelve-tone technique with Vogel, but he obviously didn't like to use it so strictly, and when you hear his compositions, you understand why. This music is more geared towards tonal masses that juxtapose themselves harshly, with many pauses, very unique and uncompromising. He is more of a Helvetic Ustwolski, an erratic block, whose main profession is primary school teacher in Zullwil.

A black boy, at least in music, often gruff and edgy, with many abysses - and probably not suited to compromise. He worked on his pieces for a long time, as his sketches and plans suggest. They form the centerpiece of the Solothurn exhibition Mondrian musicwhich contains comparatively little music, but emphasizes this exhibitable aspect. And rightly so. For these "graphic worlds of the composer Hermann Meier", as the subtitle reads, point in quite different directions beyond music. Similar to Robert Strübin (1897-1965) from Basel, another outsider figure, they are eye-music or ear-graphics - and somehow typically Swiss in their unconventionality and constructive rigor: visual serialism, related to the Zurich Concretists, Max Bill and Richard Paul Lohse. Bill first spoke of "Concrete Art" in 1936, and Meier became aware of it at the end of the 1940s. Piet Mondrian's paintings were also a profound inspiration. And so he created graphic scores in the provinces at a time when the famous scores by Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis, for example, were also being created, which have long since found their place in music history. The Paul Sacher Foundation, where the Meier estate is located, has contributed some of these scores for comparison. One find: Brown used a score for his epochal December 1952 just like Meier Millimeterpapier.

Above all, these graphics - "floor plans", as Meier called them - served him as templates for electronic music, which he worked on intensively from 1973 to 1983. Like Benno Ammann or Oscar Wiggli, he was also a lone pioneer in Switzerland in this field. In fact, you could now study all of this down to the millimetre, at least in the graphics, because unfortunately, apart from the sound layers, all projects remained unrealized: It is music in imaginary space. It is only today that the recordings are gradually being brought to sound. On "concert day" (December 2), some versions can be heard.

But it is precisely this imagination that the exhibition promotes. The overall visual impression alone is representative and extremely worthwhile. The comprehensive catalog is based on lectures given at the Meier symposium The Eye Composes last January at the Bern University of the Arts (see report by Azra Ramić at musikzeitung.ch/en/reports/conferences). Together with musicologists Roman Brotbeck (HKB) and Heidy Zimmermann (Sacher Foundation), curator Michelle Ziegler has created a Meier compendium that will hopefully help to make this music better known.

Ziegler is currently working on a dissertation on Meier's piano works; other projects are in progress. A new recording of his piano music with Dominik Blum is due to be released soon, and perhaps Hermann Meier will occasionally appear in a major concert. I wonder what he would say?

The Diapason d'Or is awarded monthly and is one of the most prestigious prizes in the industry alongside the German Record Critics' Prize and the English Gramophone Awards. Meret Lüthi, the artistic director of Les Passions de l'Ame, was also recently awarded the Music Prize of the Canton of Bern for her "outstanding and long-standing musical activity".

The ensemble's CD "Spicy" (2013) has already been awarded the Diapason d'Or, while "Bewitched" (2014) received the Supersonic Award. The three CDs have been released on the Sony Music Switzerland label. The name of the orchestra refers to an essay by René Descartes from 1649, in which the philosopher speaks of the passion that mediates between body and soul.

The previous Foundation Board members Anne-Catherine Sutermeister (Department of Art and Cultural Studies) and Felix Uhlmann (Department of Law) are reaching the end of their term of office. Françoise Simone König Gerny will represent the Department of Law from January 1, 2018. She is Co-Head of the Legal Service in the General Secretariat of the Department of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs, Basel-Stadt. Marie-Thérèse Bonadonna, Cultural Delegate of Club 44 in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, will also take over the Arts and Cultural Studies department on January 1, 2018.

The current term of office lasts until 2019. The other members of the Board of Trustees are Susanna Fanzun, Marco Franciolli, Guillaume Juppin de Fondaumière, Johannes Schmid-Kunz, Nicole Seiler and Peter Siegenthaler.

The nine-member Board of Trustees of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia is the foundation's strategic body. It represents the various specialist areas of cultural life and the four language regions of Switzerland. Former Geneva State Councillor Charles Beer was confirmed in his position as President of the Foundation by the Federal Council and will take up his second term of office on January 1, 2018.

Without the many lecturers at the state music academies in Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg, it would not be possible to maintain their rich educational program, writes the DKV. The lecturers are a cornerstone of academic music education in Bavaria. Like their full-time colleagues, they often do the same work. However, they are only paid a fraction of what permanent staff receive.

Like this, the lecturers give individual lessons, seminars and lectures in almost all departments and subjects. Many composers also teach music theory, aural training and composition in particular. Some of them have been doing this for decades and, according to DKV, they still have to worry every semester about the extension of their teaching contract and, unlike their permanent colleagues, have to take out their own health insurance and provide for their own meagre pension, without continued payment of fees in the event of illness.

The lecturers have therefore gone on strike for two weeks. Among other things, they are demanding appropriate remuneration, a "dignified retirement pension", a sufficient number of hours per week to earn a living so that they do not fall into financial hardship, the right to participate in university committees and continued payment of fees in the event of illness.

More info:
www.nmz.de/kiz/nachrichten/deutscher-komponistenverband-landesverband-bayern-solidarisiert-sich-mit-lehrbeauftr
 

Born in 1977 in the Seetal valley of Lucerne, Christov Rolla studied choral conducting and music education at the Lucerne Academy of School and Church Music after gaining his primary school teaching diploma at the Hitzkirch Teachers' College. Rolla works full-time as a freelance theater musician.

Rolla also works as a choirmaster with the Johanneschor Kriens and the a cappella ensemble Integral. He is also the pianist and co-lyricist of the chanson formation Canaille du jour, a permanent member of the reading stage The Beauties and the Beast (Loge Luzern), and he regularly writes columns for 041 - The culture magazine as well as the Werklehrmagazin Traces of work. Rolla lives in Lucerne.

The Lucerne City Council is honoring the work of artist Peter Roesch with the 2017 Lucerne Art and Culture Prize. This is endowed with 25,000 francs. The recognition prizes for the translator Ute Birgi-Knellessen and Christov Rolla are endowed with CHF 10,000 each.

​
 

In 1714, the 22-year-old Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini discovered that a third note ("terzo suono") could be heard when playing two notes on his violin. From 1728, he made this phenomenon a fundamental rule for the students of his school when tuning, which became known throughout Europe. He published his research in 1754 and 1767 and discussed it with Leonhard Euler, among others. Tartini reported that Plato had already known about it and interpreted it as a sign of the soul of the world: "(...) the harmony of the universe is the whole tree; music is a branch of it, but necessarily of the same nature and root, which the innate music of the human species obviously proves, since it alone is capable of the science of number. In this sense there is knowledge and nature in number, (...) and in this sense there is the possibility of discovering the tree through the branch, the whole from the part (...)"

This harmonic view of Tartini is receiving increasing attention in today's research, especially since neurological findings on the connections between the ear and brain have increased. The integer order of overtones, which is intrinsic to all sounds, is physiologically regarded as fundamental to everyday sound recognition. Over the last 300 years, researchers have continually found new ways to track down the combination, difference and summation tones.

In her dissertation, the Swiss Angela Lohri expands on the complexity and multi-layered nature of the phenomenon using primary sources with a focus on the 18th and 19th centuries and explains the differences. She returns to Tartini's holistic view: the third tone is the bass of the two tones and their common overtones, i.e. the unity in the multiplicity; the overtones in turn represent the multiplicity in the unity. To illustrate this, he composed 26 two-part Piccolo Sonata for violin without writing the bass: it would emerge by itself. Tartini defended himself against the one-sidedness of contemporary scholars and musicians and emphasized that his theory was valid for the violin. physical (the combination tones are created in the air), harmonic (see quote above) and musical-practical as a unit.

Lohri makes a significant contribution to the musical aspect: On stringed instruments without frets such as the violin, you can play two syntonic tones (with integer ratios) and control them precisely with the combination tones, as these react very clearly to even the smallest changes of the finger on the string. With the tritone, for example, you can clarify the harmonic context (is the lower or the upper tone the leading tone?), as you have two different combination tones to choose from with a subtle setting! Lohri reports on her listening experiments with various violins and strings, similar to those previously carried out by Pierre Baillot and Michelangelo Abbado. These studies also took her to Stockholm, where she was able to work even more precisely with a string machine. The problem of tempered tuning is approached philosophically by Hans Kayser and Dieter Kolk: Tolerance between idea and reality seeks a way through "all our considerations of nature and spirit" with limited scope.

I underpin my recommendation to study this book for musicians, instrument makers and as an occasion for further research with a quote from Angela Lohri: "The importance of combination tones lies ... in their effect and suitability as a method for sensitizing the perception of tone ... Their mathematical-harmonic properties tell us more about the deeper essence of music." And from Gerhard Mantel: "String players at music academies spend 70-90 percent of their practicing time on improving intonation." The printed book is very helpful for studying, which requires a lot of leafing back and forth. The missing index is advantageously replaced by a perfect search function in the electronic version.

Angela Lohri, Combination tones and Tartini's "terzo suono", 316 p., 94 illustrations and sheet music, free download, paperback € 49.99, hardcover € 55.99 Schott, Mainz 2016, ISBN 978-3-95983-079-9

Edition Breitkopf has set out to reorganize the opera singer repertoire - what a laudable undertaking! The special feature: The arias have been selected according to vocal criteria, range, tessitura and role type, and this closes a major gap. Until now, when you bought an aria album, you usually had to deal with works across all disciplines, with perhaps five or six arias fitting your own profile ...

The aim of this collection of repertoire is to compile good sheet music, organize it clearly and present it in a user-friendly way. This is achieved by organizing it according to vocal subjects. This is interesting for university students and lecturers on the one hand, but also for singers who are already in professional life and want to expand their repertoire, are considering a change of subject or are preparing for theater auditions. The collection contains both popular audition arias for the respective vocal subject, but also integrates less well-known and less accessible material, for example from classical modernism.

The first two of four volumes for soprano have been published: Volume 1: Lyric coloratura and Volume 2: Lyric - subdivided into lyrically easy and lyrically difficult. According to the publisher, the volumes Dramatic Coloratura and Dramatic Soprano will follow at the end of 2017.

In this first volume for coloratura soprano we find a pleasingly broad and varied selection, ranging from Handel's Alcina to Mozart's Blondchen, via Lakmé, Juliette and Olympia to more modern roles such as Strauss's Zerbinetta and Cunegonde from Candide by Leonard Bernstein. This volume contains 27 arias and is supplemented by a CD-ROM with aria texts in the original language as well as German and English translations of the texts.

An appendix also contains individual comments on the arias: Range and playing time, their positioning in the context of the opera as well as their content, characterization of the figure and as icing on the cake, so to speak: methodical notes from the singer's point of view, singing technique and stylistic tips (in these commentaries you virtually "hear" an experienced singing teacher, as each of us has certainly had at one time or another - and even bilingually ...).

The series, which began with the two soprano volumes and three baritone volumes, is to be continued for alto, bass, mezzo and tenor and will conclude in 2019.

OperAria. Repertoire collection edited by Peter Anton Ling and Marina Sandel, € 29.80 each, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2017

Published so far:

Soprano:
lyrical - coloratura EB 8867
lyrical EB 8868

Baritone:
lyrical EB 8877
lyrical-dramatic EB 8878
dramatic 8879;

An overview of the 57 volumes in the series Studies on valuation research, one is amazed at the diversity of the subject areas, but is often also surprised that many of the findings hardly reach beyond the boundaries of science to the musicians and concertgoers, who could be regarded as their "consumers". However, since in most cases these are the collected lecture manuscripts from symposia, whose language sometimes corresponds to specialist jargon, they would have to be "translated" for laypeople. And so it is a long way to the performers and then to the concert introductions.

In this volume on the chamber music of the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967), however, all the texts are written in a pleasingly readable style. In addition, extensive score examples are included so that "reading along" with the music makes it easier to access the aspects discussed. Hartmut Schick examines the Cello Sonata op. 4 from the perspective of the fourth, the treatment of which forms the threshold to New Music. Roswitha Schlötterer-Traimer shows folk music elements in the first and second string quartets, László Vikárius in the solo cello sonata op. 8. Michael Kube focuses on the string quartet op. 2 with its reception and printed editions, Anna Dalos on the string quartet op. 10, whereby the period of the First World War plays a role here.

It is commendable that the space belongs to Zoltán Kodály alone (without the usual reference to Bartók) and that the socio-political side of the period before the First World War - Kodály's Budapest around 1900 - is presented in detail by Ilona Sármány-Parsons. Thomas Kabisch and Klaus Aringer deal with the two unusually scored works Opus 7 (Duo for violin and cello) and Opus 12 (Serenade for 2 violins and viola). Thus, some compositions are presented that rarely find their way into today's chamber music programs. Such a publication could remind musicians of Zoltán Kodály's name and remedy this shortcoming. German-language literature is so rare that even the small book with the five conversations that Lutz Besch had with Kodály is mentioned several times (Verlag Arche, Zurich 1966).

Zoltán Kodály's chamber music, Studien zur Wertungsforschung 57, edited by Klaus Aringer, 239 p., paperback, € 28.50, Universal Edition, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7024-7283-2

Composed in 1917 Hungarian Rondo is one of Zoltán Kodály's most catchy compositions: four Hungarian folk songs and an instrumental dance melody are effectively combined in rondo form.

The well-known version for small orchestra was premiered in Vienna in 1918. However, Kodály also prepared a version for cello and piano, which was first performed in Budapest in 1927 but has not yet been published.

The first edition now published by Editio Musica Budapest is a welcome addition to the cello literature. The level of difficulty of the piece is high, roughly comparable with the Three pieces for cello and piano by Nadia Boulanger. The composer is not stingy with effective effects such as pizzicati in the left hand, virtuoso runs in the high register, double stops and sonorous cantilenas in the low register. The treatment of the cello part is sometimes reminiscent of David Popper's compositions; Kodály, who plays the cello himself, must have been familiar with his cello works, as Popper taught at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.

The edition was prepared by the Hungarian cellist Miklós Perényi, who recorded the work with Dénes Várjon at the piano for Hungaroton in 2003.

Zoltán Kodály: Hungarian Rondo for cello and piano, edited by Miklós Perényi, first edition, Z. 14990, Fr. 14.70, Editio Musica Budapest 2016

The catchy tunes by famous composers and many pieces created by the author himself guide the learner through all keys in an entertaining way and provide countless important theoretical and technical foundations for solid violin playing. I can well imagine this booklet as a teaching aid for adult beginners or those returning to the violin. For bright children, the Circle be useful as a supplement to another course.

Two thirds of the 136 numbers are attractive songs and compositions, the majority of which are set as excellent violin duets. Thanks to a clear presentation with keywords next to the page numbers, technical details highlighted in blue and an alphabetical table of contents, the selection process is made easier. Explanations could be formulated more simply and introductory exercises could be more graphically attractive. The playing of positions plays a secondary role; in some pieces, alternative fingerings would be an asset. The treatment of chromatic, whole, blues and gypsy scales is valuable, as are the suggestions for improvising, transposing and composing.

Markus Joho: Violin Circle, An enjoyable booklet for playing and practicing the keys and techniques of the violin, PE 1003, Fr. 29.80, Edition Pelikan/Hug Musikverlage, Zurich 2016

In the tone and technique book for transverse flute Back to basics the transverse flutist Anja Thomann has compiled specific exercises on articulation, finger technique, intonation and tone shaping. Most of the exercises are based on historical sources, each of which is preceded by a facsimile of the original. The author has used methodical works by Michel Corette, Charles de Lusse and Johann Joachim Quantz as sources. Excerpts from these are expanded into complete methodical exercises so that the book can be used to practise basic tonal and technical exercises "historically informed".

Chapter one begins with short preludes in all keys, followed in the second chapter by introductory exercises which are extended from the duole to triplets and groups of four. The articulations common in the Baroque period, such as tidi and diri, are included right from the start. Scales and arpeggios follow in chapters three and four. In chapter five, typical baroque figures such as alternating notes are practiced in a sequential manner and chains of thirds and fourths are also taken into account. This is followed in the sixth chapter by exercises for developing the tone, which include intervals, chromaticism and exercises for shaping long tones using swells. The author devotes the entire seventh chapter to the articulation did'll and expands it with her own practice ideas through singing and playing. In the eighth chapter, ornaments and trills based on a scale are sequenced. The book ends with a detailed fingering chart and a trill chart, which are supplemented with helpful tips on intonation.

When studying these valuable and advanced exercises by Quantz, de Lusse and Corette, some will realize that their structure anticipates what Marcel Moyse or Paul Taffanael later produced in their methodical booklets for the Boehm flute. This clearly laid out publication is a great enrichment for a basic structure of tone, technique and articulation on the transverse flute, as the essential aspects are summarized in one booklet.

Anja Thomann: Back to basics. A technique book for the transverse flute, EW 982, € 19.80, Edition Walhall, Magdeburg 2016