According to Freddy Burger, FBM has specialized in the staging of musicals and stage shows as a long-standing operator of two theaters in Zurich and Basel. As a result, the company has a network of relationships with the largest international rights holders and producers as well as a corresponding marketing organization. The open-air summer season with the Seebühne opens up new opportunities and prospects for the company "to exploit synergies and further expand this area". For example, infrastructure could be optimized through the seasonal addition of theater performances.

The Thunerseespiele is one of the top 10 open-air musical events in Europe according to its own assessment. The program consists of classics from the world stage such as Evita or West Side Story and in-house productions such as Dällebach Kari or Gotthelf. The visit of the old lady was the first major Swiss musical production to be staged internationally. This year, the musical Cats to see, next year Mamma Mia.

Perhaps you should know him a little, this Urs Peter Schneider. He is a composer and pianist, born in 1939, lives in Biel and works tirelessly on orchestral works, musical concepts, texts and text scores. As he says himself, he is sometimes "direct and blunt" in his judgments. He polarizes. There is no "both/and", but mostly - Søren Kirkegård sends his regards - an "either/or".

Well: Writings I to V is the name of schneider's anthology, now published by Bieler Verlag die brotsuppe. There are no page numbers. But these strange, subtle texts, which can hardly be reduced to a common denominator, probably fill around 500 pages. "Few so-called narratives" are included, but there are some wonderfully infantile ones, which the blurb openly declares: "unedited embarrassments". Sometimes there are mere word sequences, an accumulation of adverbs that ring in the head ("chattering", "belching", "howling"), or adjectives that refer to visuals ("unclouded", "sky-blue", "transparent").

Amusingly personal aphorisms, on the other hand, are remotely reminiscent of the Munich institution, the thoughtful comedian Karl Valentin. In 1989, Schneider writes radically small: "I get quite dizzy when I think that music is not what it used to be." Shortly before that, it says: "in case of doubt, the anthroposophist gives a lecture." Thematically fitting again: "the dogmatists of Dornach have little humor, but they bring a lot of laughter into the world."

In addition to the works created between 1955 and 2015, there are fluxuesque word formations, often garnished with unorthodox spelling. All of this opens up spaces for the imagination, but can also be alienating. Schneider composes his texts with the help of mathematical algorithms. Perhaps this explains some of the sequences of syllables that are - quite sonorously - less suitable for reading than for reciting in the sense of a sound composition.

Anyone who picks up these writings can enjoy their friendly openness to the world, which does not express a "hooligan mentality" at all. You won't read this thick, thoroughly and lovingly edited book "in one go". You will probably leaf through it, taking in whatever you like. Incidentally, casual music is not Schneider's thing - nor is it to be recommended when reading the book, which in any case has one thing going for it: its richness of sound.

Urs Peter Schneider: Schriften I to V - Texte für als mit zur Musik 1955-2015, illustrations by Ursi Anna Aeschbacher, 528 p., Fr. 39.00, Verlag die brotsuppe, Biel 2016, ISBN 978-3-905689-70-9

Looking over the publications of recent years, it is hard to shake off the impression that there is a kind of twilight of the gods in the traditional sectors of the music market - or at least the feeling of a "last call". On the CD market, it is the major labels that are virtually "emptying" their full archives in any form under ever new aspects and want to bring them to the public. The situation is hardly any different for publishers, who have been taking the good idea of encyclopaedias and handbooks to absurd extremes for years. This drive towards the encyclopaedic began more than two decades ago. Since then, not only composers and genres, but also individual epochs or areas have been covered accordingly - and one may ask oneself whether here and there the publisher's penchant for profit was not the father of the idea.

At the Lexicon New Music such an assumption is not immediately obvious. And yet one may be surprised when reading the introduction. Because the two editors (cleverly enough!) never tire of calling the "lexicon" a "handbook", which is exactly what it is. honni soit qui mal y pense. Thus, nine essays summarizing the subject matter (Themes, pp. 3-156) break through the persistent lack of clarity before moving on to the actual articles (Lexicon, pp. 157-635). But even these sometimes read like broader treatises in a small (better: large) space. Anyone looking for lexical information on individual composers of New Music, exemplary works, institutions or really musical facts will be disappointed. The unquestionably successful focus is rather on general orientation. Nevertheless, there are surprises - both in detail and as a whole: such as a hasty swan song to university musicology (p. 424), but also the serious reflection on humour or considerations on the canonization of the new. It is strange, however, how geographically all of this - with separate entries on Africa, India, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, etc. - revolves around the center, which is obviously included but unspoken.

Lexikon Neue Musik, edited by Jörn Peter Hickel and Christian Utz, XVII/686 p., € 128.00, Bärenreiter/Metzler, Kassel/Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7618-2044-5

The fact that the rediscovery of early music and the turn to historical performance practice was neither the result of a revolution nor without influential personalities is made clear by the book The harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm (1914-1995) clearly. A generation younger than Wanda Landowska (1879-1959), Isolde Ahlgrimm relied more uncompromisingly than Landowska on teaching works and musical sources from the past; half a generation older than Gustav Leonhardt (born 1928) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt (born 1929), she was a source of inspiration for these pioneers and - despite all differences of opinion - a supporter, at times even a musical partner. She trained as a pianist at the Vienna Academy of Music and, at the age of twenty, met the controversial collector and charismatic advocate of unconditional fidelity to the original, Erich Fiala, whom she married in 1938. While performances of Mozart's keyboard works on the fortepiano were initially the focus of her own "Concerts for Connoisseurs and Lovers", from 1943 she turned to the (pedal) harpsichord and thus to the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach, which she recorded (almost) in their entirety between 1951 and 1956. After her divorce from Fiala, this finally opened the door to an international career and a teaching position at the Vienna University of Music. Until 1983, she gave concerts at home and abroad, as far afield as the USA and Japan, and was a particularly frequent and popular performer in Switzerland. Isolde Ahlgrimm died in Vienna on October 11, 1995.

In many ways, Ahlgrimm was far ahead of her time. First of all, this concerned her meticulous work with sources, thanks to which she compiled a compendium (posthumously edited in 2004) of the Ornamentation of music for keyboard instruments could compose. On the other hand, she decided (all too) late, in 1972, to play on real copies of historical instruments and remained faithful to her Ammer harpsichords with their long (piano) keys. She rejected certain mannerisms of her younger (especially Dutch) colleagues and relied on a multitude of historical statements and examples. Even in her insistence on professionalism and technical perfection, she always remained a supporter of good taste or, as she herself said, "bonne grace".

The expanded and enriched translation of an English biography of her last student Peter Watchorn from 2007 by another former student, the Swiss Regula Winkelman, rightly draws attention to the work of the important Viennese harpsichordist as a preliminary collection of material. The reprinting of Ahlgrimm's own accompanying texts to the complete Bach recording is particularly commendable; in their complexity and wealth of ideas, they are indispensable documents of Bach's reception in the 20th century.

Regula Winkelman, Peter Watchorn: The harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm (1914-1995). A pioneer of historical performance practice, 288 p., hardcover, € 29.99, Böhlau, Vienna and others 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79679-4

Mario Venzago is and remains an unconventional and uncompromising conductor. This is also true of his CD projects, with which he always knows how to surprise. The complete recording of the Bruckner symphonies with various orchestras on cpo has caused a sensation in the international specialist press with his own interpretation - linear, transparent, with a sensuous sound and rhythmic verve.

He consistently champions Swiss music, be it the orchestral works of Othmar Schoeck or Paul Juon. As chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, which he has been since 2010, he incorporates Swiss modern music into his programming as a matter of course. And the orchestra, which he has restructured, rejuvenated and made more attractive with part-time positions, follows his lead with dedication.

Now it is Arthur Honegger's (1892-1955) turn. On the current recording, which is one of the last CDs to be released on the soon to be discontinued Migros label Musiques Suisses, Venzago and his Bern orchestra present RugbyMouvement symphonique (1928), the Symphony No. 3 Symphonie liturgique (1945/46) and the 5th Symphony Di tre re (1950).

Although Honegger had a Swiss passport, he remained in Paris during the Second World War. He remained loyal to the vibrant city of music, where he had already studied, for the rest of his life. With Rugbyone of his three Mouvements symphoniques, Honegger expressed his enthusiasm for sport.

The rhythmic force, which is also Pacific 231 The music that broke new ground here comes across as loud as in a sports stadium. The Bern Symphony Orchestra nevertheless succeeds in differentiating, maintaining agility in the harmonically dense sound and clearly articulating the imitations and fugues.

In the Liturgique Honegger brings liturgical evocation into the symphony through movement titles such as "Dies irae" or "Dona nobis pacem", but there is no direct reference to original church melodies. It is confessional music of the deepest shock, written immediately after the end of the war. Mario Venzago draws from the full here, interpreting the atonality and expressionistic gestures with all intensity, right up to the limits of what is bearable. One is more than grateful for the Allegretto Adagio of the 5th Symphony, which follows a dark Grave.

The 1964 national exhibition in Lausanne presented modern Switzerland in terms of technology and architecture, forgetting the culture and needs of the mountain dwellers. To fill the gap, so to speak, the Forum alpinum study group published a four-language illustrated book in 1965 and the Anthology of authentic folk music from the Swiss mountains before. However, this record edition was hardly noticed, was withdrawn from the market as early as 1966 and was only recognized as an important document in a CD recording in 2008.

The lack of understanding of traditional Swiss music also meant that the 435 handwritten music books containing 11,874 folk dances, which Hanny Christen had collected from all over Switzerland between 1940 and 1960 and donated to the Basel University Library in 1963, were forgotten. It was not until 1992 that the Zurich musician and publisher Fabian Müller recognized the value of this collection. A team of 17 volunteers initially created a database and inventoried 10,000 dances by canton and contributor. With financial support from the Society for Folk Music in Switzerland (GVS/SMPS), ten large-format volumes were published in 2002 under the title Swiss folk music collection. The dance music of Switzerland in the 19th and first half of the 20th century collected by Hanny Christen be presented. The dances from all over Switzerland (with the exception of the canton of Thurgau), written down in unison, were copied by the collector mainly from handwritten dance books and supplemented with aurally notated recordings of instrumental pieces by older musicians. The Christen collection contains dance genres that extend today's repertoire of ländler, waltz, polka and schottisch with mazurka, galopp, cross polka, polonaise, varsovienne, tyrolienne, allewander and montferrine.

After the publication of the Christen collection, professional folk musicians led by cellist Fabian Müller founded the Hanneli-Musig, set about realizing the sheet music and in 2004 were able to release the first of seven recordings, the album Blümchen Wunderhold (ZYT 4895, out of print). This was followed in 2005 under the title Nightmares Tänze aus der Innerschweiz (ZYT 4897, out of print). A year later, the six musicians, all of whom also collaborated on the selection and arrangement of the monophonic melodies, published the CD Tänzix (ZYT 4900). Abbreviations and numbers indicating the canton of origin and the collection location of each piece make it possible to refer to the original notation. Those who prefer the printed polyphonic arrangements of the first three recordings will find them in specialist shops.

With the album Zealand from 2008, the Hanneli-Musig revives the harmonious repertoire of the Biberemusig from the 1850s (Murten region, ZYT 4919) and with the title Basel area (ZYT 4930) will pay tribute to Hanny Christen in 2010 with folk music from her homeland.

In the recently released album About Stock & Stei the skilled Ländler clarinettist Dani Häusler, the minstrel Johannes Schmid-Kunz on the violin, the editor of the Christen dances and cellist Fabian Müller, the thoroughbred musician Ueli Mooser on double bass and saxophone, the brass player Christoph Mächler and Fränggi Gehrig with the accordion offer "lüpfige" dances from the Alpine regions of the cantons of St. Gallen, Glarus and Graubünden, some of them performed at virtuoso speed.

It is certainly a pleasure to listen to all these recordings - and one hopes for more - as testimonies to Swiss musical landscapes, but one misses the efforts of historical performance practice in the interpretations of the Hanneli-Musig.

It was still a slightly damp but opening Sunday afternoon, inviting numerous art lovers and families to go out into the Schopfe. This is apparently how the word "Schöpfe" is used in the area, as opposed to the usual plural of the word "Schopf", which is largely extinct in High German. There are a number of these stables and sheds in this moorland near Gais, as there are in Appenzell in general. And if, as a child, you always had the inclination to delve into these buildings and count the hay, this was a wonderful opportunity.

"Klang Moor Schopfe" is the name of the small festival, which took place for the first time at the beginning of September and may, the organizers are not yet sure, be continued. The nine sound locations are barely half a kilometer apart - and easy to reach even after heavy rainfall. There was no uniformly curated concept, nor was there supposed to be, but the juxtaposition of completely different concepts was as appealing as it was instructive - to the question: How do the artists go about their work?
 

While one of them, Olga Kokcharova, who comes from Siberia and lives in Geneva, walked through the moor with moss researchers and created a spatial installation from the excerpts of the conversations, the Austrian Rupert Huber hung his sounds and an accompanying, admittedly very open score in a corner and turned the barn into a small temple of art. The one provided documentation, the other transformation, and both did not go far enough here.

The more interesting example of documentation, almost over-documentation, was offered by the Bernese ethnologists of the Norient group with a Theatre of Warwhich they set up in a shooting range of all places. With headphones and a telescope, you felt localized, only the firearms were missing. But it was precisely these that were then addressed in the contributions that could be heard. Through the reports of artists from war zones in Israel, Palestine, Syria and Serbia, a field of experience was opened up, precisely in this idyllic environment, where there is also shooting.

A transformation was attempted by the two German artists Albert Oehlen and Wolfgang Voigt, who bombarded a tree reassembled from branch fragments with flashes of light and harsh drumbeats. This was less nice and noble and demonstrated a broken nature. Not a place where one would like to linger for long - but it remained in the memory.
 

Jason Kahn, on the other hand, the US musician living in Zurich, explored the Appenzell soundscape and hung his sound impressions noted on sheets of paper together with snippets of song in a barn. We encountered a city dweller who doesn't feel at ease in this rustic landscape, but doesn't resign himself to it in a friendly manner, but instead adds his own annoyance, for example when the blare of a cowbell competes with the tinnitus in his head.

Most of the artists did not concern themselves with the pretty landscape arrangement, but rather rubbed and scratched at it. Some of the activities in the supporting program also made this clear. Such a barn or stable, where the hay is still lying and it smells a little like a cow, naturally has its own cachet, although I would like to add, despite all the sound installations, that every room actually has a special effect when it is exhibited and provided with sound. This is why Norbert Möslang's sounding and neon-lit blue cuboid or Svetlana Maraš's fine sound-generating water machines were so effective. Such simplicity - regardless of the setting - has something enigmatic about it, although it is hardly surprising.
 

Two other rooms were more surprising. The "Living Instruments" by the percussion ensemble WeSpoke and the biology group Hackuarium actually consist mainly of a mossy room. Two of the moss surfaces can be touched and groped, stroked and scratched - triggering electronic sounds. You could lose yourself in playing.

Photo: Thomas Meyer

Zimoun lets the mop of hair float

This trip to Gais was rewarded with such variety. Of course, there was only one thing missing, which is a must in Appenzell. This time, blasting master Roman Signer only delivered "one low tone", which of course came at a different pitch each time it was triggered by the motion detector. At the ninth barn, it boomed across the landscape as if from the last pipe, once again calling out the small expanse and solitude of the moor, like a minimal whoop from the moorland underworld.

Born in Estonia in 1992, Marianna Liik completed her master's degree in composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Helena Tulve and Margo Kõlar in 2017. She has already written works for orchestras and ensembles such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Finnish Uusinta Ensemble and has already received major awards.

Josep Planells Schiaffino, born in Valencia in 1988, studied composition at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. His works have been performed by various ensembles, including Ensemble Modern, the Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken. Planell's Schiaffino has already been awarded the Hanns Eisler Interpretation Prize 2015, among others.

Since 2003, works have been commissioned from world-renowned composers as part of the Roche Commissions, and the partnership has been expanded with the Roche Young Commissions. The works of the Roche Commissions and the Roche Young Commissions are premiered alternately every two years. In 2015, Lisa Streich and Matthew Kaner received the Roche Young Commissions 2017 commission.

The DOV writes that efforts in the field of music education and theater pedagogy have contributed to the clear upward trend. All major theaters and many small theaters now have extra positions for educators who bring both theater and music closer to visitors. The high popularity among audiences shows that the path taken is the right one.

According to the DOV, the seasonal balances of the past few months also confirm the trend. For the season that has just ended, an unusually large number of theaters and orchestras have presented record balances. Municipalities across the country are also spending a lot of money on renovating their theaters or even constructing new buildings and concert halls. DOV Managing Director Gerald Mertens is convinced that the classical music turnaround is in full swing.
 

Since 1999, the "Ear we are" festival has been attracting internationally renowned musicians from the fields of jazz, experimental and improvisational music to Biel, writes the municipal council. The quality of the program and the intimate atmosphere of the festival in the premises of the old Jura garage make the festival a unique event in Switzerland that radiates far beyond the region.

Curated by four musicians from Biel, the festival stands for a varied and surprising program of "concentrated, loud, edgy, enchanting, independent and urgent music of our time", according to its own description. It took place this year in February.

The 2017 Culture Prize of the City of Biel/Bienne goes to the writer, poet and literary mediator Rolf Hermann. Rolf Hermann is one of the most important representatives of the up-and-coming Swiss literary scene. He mainly writes poetry, but also prose, radio plays, theater and dialect texts. His work has received various awards, most recently the Canton of Bern Literature Prize (2015) and a grant from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia (2015). Rolf Hermann (1973) has lived in Biel since 2005. He works as a lecturer at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel.

Invoicing is no longer based on the number of spectators as before, but on the actual hours worked by the public service providers. As before, no costs are charged for major cantonal and Swisslos Fund-supported events such as Fasnacht, Em Bebbi sy Jazz or the Youth Culture Festival.

Other sporting and concert events will be charged half of the costs and other major events will be charged all of the costs. In order to introduce the new billing model, the Government Council has amended the Ordinance on the Cantonal Police of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, the Ordinance on the Fees to be Charged by the Fire Service and the Ordinance on the Fees to be Charged by the Basel Ambulance Service.

The new regulation is primarily motivated by the activities of FC Basel. While it will have little impact on concert and other event organizers, it will mean that the football club's contributions to the cantonal security authorities will double from around CHF 1 million today to around CHF 2 million per year.
 

The implemented measures include a new basic infrastructure for the stage technology. Safety on the stage was improved with an additional working gallery. The existing stage lighting control system was adapted to modern requirements. The sound system, video system and in-house communication systems had to be completely replaced. All stage curtains were replaced with non-flammable fabrics.

The legal requirements in terms of fire protection, safety and disabled access were also implemented. A new main fire compartment had to be created between the auditorium, stage and stairwell areas. The spread of fire to adjacent sections is now prevented by fire-resistant components.

As a publicly accessible building, the municipal theater was adapted to meet current standards regarding accessibility. The disabled WC was renovated and additional wheelchair spaces were created in the audience area. The escape route situation from the audience area had to be improved with information signals and new safety lighting.

The Stadttheater Biel has not been renovated since 1979 and no longer met today's requirements for a theater. The stage technology was very outdated and at least some of the electrical installations had to be replaced so that the theater could continue to operate in the coming years.

The view of Untersee from Arenenberg is simply fantastic. Napoleon III thought so when he built a castle in Salenstein in Thurgau. Anna Gassner was also convinced that it was the right place to spend an enjoyable vacation when she and her fellow musicians set up a music camp for adults five years ago. Right from the start, the organizing committee received support from the Thurgau Cantonal Music Association and the Thurgau Music Schools Association.

Relaxation, culinary delights and making music together - this was also the motto of this year's active vacation, which took place in the last week of July, as in previous years. Over 40 participants registered and enthusiastically made music under the expert guidance of conductors Bruno Uhr and Roland A. Huber. Four additional music teachers were brought in for rehearsals, workshops and ensembles.

The feedback was extremely positive. One participant wrote: "I was simply happy as can be." In a first meeting, the OC has now taken stock and discussed how participants' wishes can be taken into account and in which direction the music vacations should continue to develop in the coming years. After the past five years, one thing is clear: the increasing number of participants shows that there is a need for active music vacations. In order to ensure the continuation of the program, a supporting association is to be founded in the near future.

The hotel and training rooms have already been booked again for the Arenenberg Music Holidays 2018 from Tuesday, July 24 to Friday, July 27, and registration is now open:

www.musikferien-arenenberg.ch