Vivaldi's Sonatas op. 2 - the usual debut work of a young aspiring musician since Corelli - were for a long time completely overshadowed by his violin concertos, even though they stand out from the comparable works of his contemporaries. These sonata da camera with a clearly dialogic basso could even be used as duets with cello. It seems that Vivaldi wrote many of the virtuoso, yet not too difficult, fast movements in the work for use in lessons with his pupils at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà. He dedicated the first edition, published by Bortoli in Venice in 1709, to the King of Denmark and Sweden, who was staying in that city at the time. The order for the reprint from Rogers in Amsterdam was also in line with this ambition: It is produced in copperplate engraving technique - more legible than the Venetian type print (a facsimile of the latter can be found in the score on page 47) - and now includes figuring of the bass, which suited its use by aristocratic amateurs in the north. In Italy, where only trained musicians played, this was not necessary.

Adolf Busch's fine arrangement of the Sonata II with a beautifully ornamented Adagio and the "Urtext op. 5" by Nagels (Walter Upmeier) - described by Vivaldi in the title as the second part of op. 2 - prove the high regard in which the work was held in the last century. In the present, excellent Urtext with easy-to-perform continuo realization by Joachim Reutter, the detailed and helpful preface and critical notes are impressive. They provide many valuable tips for a stylish interpretation.

Antonio Vivaldi: Sonatas for violin and b.c. op. 2, edited by Bernhard Moosbauer, score with continuo realization by Jochen Reutter, violin and bass parts UT 50176, € 29.95, Wiener Urtext Edition (Schott/Universal Edition), Vienna 2012

Sunao Goko is a student of Pavel Vernikov at the Vienna Conservatory. Vernikov is also a member of the competition jury. In addition to the competition's first prize, Sunao Goko also received the audience prize and a prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work - "Shèxi" by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing.

The second prize went to 23-year-old Bulgarian Liya Petrova and the third to 21-year-old Japanese Eimi Wakui. A total of 24 participants from 13 countries competed.

The Tibor Varga Violin Competition was held together with the International Violin Competition Sion Valais for the first time. The two events were previously held separately.

More info: www.varga-sion-concours.ch

Today, the Music Studio Frey GmbH as a competence center that is oriented towards the standards of international universities.

With the opening of the "Akkordeon-Jugend-Akademie Reinach", a new teaching module is being offered that takes account of the changed school conditions and aims to provide targeted support for ambitious accordion students. The director of this new institution is Lina Frey. Musikstudio Frey GmbH regularly offers further training courses that are open to professional musicians and interested amateurs. In addition, the focus is on instrument trading and a comprehensive range of sheet music, including in-house publishing.

New management

Peter Frey has now handed over the management of the institute to his daughter Sabine Bachmann-Frey at the 40th anniversary celebrations on August 25. He will continue to work as a music teacher and internal consultant.

Sabine Bachmann-Frey's first professional training was a diploma as an accordion teacher in her parents' music studio and, as a permanent employee for more than 20 years, she has in-depth knowledge of the business. Her initial training was followed by studies in piano with Patrizio Mazzola in Lucerne and Bern, which she completed with a teaching and concert diploma. Master classes abroad and several years of further training in jazz and improvisation complete her portfolio. Sabine Bachmann-Frey has made a name for herself as an accompanist (e.g. at the Sursee Municipal Theatre) and performs with various professional ensembles, e.g. the Salontrio founded by her and her husband Sven Bachmann (clarinet and saxophone) La Jalousie. Sabine Bachmann-Frey directs the Aargau operetta ensemble The bats. In addition to her work at Musikstudio Frey, she teaches a piano class in Seengen AG, is a member of the Peter Frey Regional Accordion Orchestra and leads its junior formation.

Traditional musicology might be alarmed by the fact that more and more publications from the field of cultural studies are crowding the market. Music as an occupying power. On the history of music and emotions in the age of world wars is not devoted to work structures or to individual composers in the tried and tested biographical manner. Instead, the book combines essays on music in concentration camps, on French denazification efforts after 1945 and on the terrible activities of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the period before that. Such heterogeneous topics certainly do not make for easy reading. The danger of becoming frayed is then exacerbated by the "emotional" effect of sounds, which is already hinted at in the subtitle and in which cultural studies is obviously particularly interested. According to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, it is undisputed that "music has a deep connection to our emotional lives". But at the same time, she admits: "But the nature of this relationship is difficult to describe."

The musical and emotional consequences are not calculable for philosophers, rulers or occupiers. Neither the National Socialists nor the French, who tried to stabilize Germany with the help of music even after 1918, had a specific music-aesthetic or music-political strategy. Stephanie Kleiner looks at the French occupation of the Rhineland following the First World War. On the one hand, performances of Richard Wagner's Rheingold articulated an offensive appropriation of the Rhine as the French border. On the other hand, it was clear to the French occupiers that a long-term stabilization of the area could only succeed through a cultural rapprochement between the occupiers and the occupied, in other words: only through a feeling for the sensitivities of the locals. An overly offensive appropriation (or even elimination) of German culture could ultimately have led to a partisan struggle.

All the essays, divided into the three chapters "Music as an instrument of occupation", "Threatened music - threat music" and "Musical responses to war and occupation", shed light on an important topic in the history of mentalities. Certainly, in some cases a stronger focus on the issues would have been useful. For example, the separation of the "popular" and "elitist" spheres was largely ignored. A laudable exception is Michael Walter's text Lili Marleen. Germanic hegemony or spoils of war? The song was broadcast on various German military radio stations. Lili Marleen was broadcast with great impact in Belgrade and above all in North Africa during the war. It met with a broad response, as it also filled the "erotic void" of German soldiers at the front. As the song also met with a great response from the Americans and British, Walter concludes that soldiering could obviously be more important than the national-political attitude. In any case Lili Marleen a musical multiple coding that is just as tricky for those in power and occupiers as it is for representatives of cultural studies.

Besatzungsmacht Musik. On the History of Music and Emotions in the Age of World Wars, edited by Sarah Zalfen and Sven Oliver Müller, 336 p., Euro 32.80, transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012

In the series Organ plus Dr. J. Butz Musikverlag has published two volumes of romantic music for cello and organ edited by Kurt Lueders, both of which represent a very welcome enrichment of this genre.

Apart from the well-known Prière op. 158 by Camille Saint-Saëns, both volumes contain mainly rarities by 19th century composers such as Waldemar von Bausznern, Friedrich Lux, Gustav Adolf Merkel, Ernst Toller and others. Three first publications are by Alexandre Guilmant, Otto Dienel and Emile Bourdon. The first is an interesting arrangement of the middle movement from the 6th Organ Sonata op. 86.

These are exclusively slow, contemplative individual compositions, which are suitable for the musical arrangement of church events, but can also be used as a supplement to concert programs.

Romantic music for violoncello and organ, edited by Kurt Lueders; Volume 1: Easy Works, BU 2302 (2010); Volume 2: BU 2602 (2013); each € 20.00; Dr. J. Butz Musikverlag, Bonn

The term "leitmotif" is so closely associated with Wagner's music dramas among music lovers, and in an arguably oversimplified form, that it is always necessary to clear up the accumulated misunderstandings. They are not simple symbols for things like sword or castle, for characters like Tristan or Sieglinde or for abstract concepts like love or deceit. The title of the book by Melanie Wald and Wolfgang Fuhrmann Hunch and memory indicates it unmistakably: Leitmotifs refer to something coming (foreboding) or to something past (memory), they link the course of events forwards and backwards and are much more than just waymarks in the plot - Wagner himself speaks of "emotional signposts". Nor is he the inventor of the term; Meyerbeer, Marschner and Berlioz preceded him in this respect, and it was only Wagner's posterity that reserved the term "leitmotif" for him.

This account tirelessly points out how complex Wagner's use of motifs is and that he brings out the finest nuances by varying a sequence of notes many times - whether through instrumentation, modulation or rhythmic changes - whereby much can only be discovered by listening carefully and repeatedly. There are discoveries to be made on almost every page, which are underpinned by numerous musical examples summarized at the end of the book. Fascinating, for example, is the proof of how Wagner in the Twilight of the gods creates a "mechanism of overwhelming force" through extreme compression of the harmonies, with a "matted leitmotif" and the "massive use of instrumental groups to produce the typical mixed sound".

The text is very easy to read and the structure of the chapters is didactically exemplary. However, the explanations cannot be simplified to such an extent that "this book will also be understandable and accessible to readers with little or no musical training, even if they occasionally have to tolerate music-theoretical jargon". This is a respectable, but ultimately pious wish, because the examples with harmonic references alone do not enable any increase in knowledge without prior training. However, it would be desirable, also from a political point of view, for such circles to gain more insight, because the phalanx of the intolerant Wagner community of the ignorant or semi-educated still receives the largest influx today.

Melanie Wald and Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Intuition and Memory - The Dramaturgy of Leitmotifs in Richard Wagner, 269 S., € 24.95, Bärenreiter/Henschel, Kassel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7618-2260-9 

The most popular opera and ballet performances on the Covent Garden stage can be seen simultaneously via satellite in HD picture and sound quality with subtitles in the following Swiss cinemas: Corso 1 in Zurich; Gotthard in Bern; Rex 1 in Basel.

The program includes a total of five ballet and five opera performances. The series begins with Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.

DI, 17.09 2013 20.00 h Turandot (Opera)
MI, 16.10.2013 20.00 h Don Quixote (Ballet)
MO, 04.11.2013 6.30 pm Les vêpres siciliennes (Opera)
DO, 12.12.2013 20.00 h The Nutcracker (Ballet)
MI, 18.12.2013 5.30 pm Parsifal (Opera)
MO, 27.01.2014 20.00 h Giselle (Ballet)
MI, 12.02.2014 7.30 pm Don Giovanni (Opera)
MI, 19.03.2014 20.00 h Sleeping Beauty (Ballet)
MO, 28.04.2014 20.00 h A Winter's Tale (Ballet)
DI, 24.06.2014 19.30 h Manon Lescaut (Opera)

Advance booking has begun. Tickets are available at www.kitag.comat all kitag box offices and via the Carte Bleue app.

Prices: Regular price CHF 38.-; with Carte Bleue/Ciné-Card CHF 30.-; group price from 10 persons, CHF 30.- each; AHV/Legi/children/youth CHF 35.-
 

Megliodia was founded by the recorder player Annina Stahlberger and the cellist Gerhard Oetiker. Its aim is "to promote joint music-making for children and young people with exceptional, high-quality music projects".

The ensemble playing and the development of special thematic concert programs should convey an overall experience for the participants that goes beyond everyday musical life and encourage their creative participation, writes the city of St. Gallen in its tribute.

Megliodia has already won its twelfth Days for low strings  carried out. As part of the event Music in shop windows children and young people performed in various formations in the city. In this year's concert series Machines and music various concerts are held at special venues.

The visual artist Katalin Deér, who explores the interface between three-dimensional space and photography in her works, will also receive a sponsorship award worth CHF 10,000. Publisher Josef Felix Müller and Vexer Verlag will receive a recognition prize of 20,000 Swiss francs.

Researchers led by Professor Lutz Wiegrebe from the Department of Neurobiology at the LMU Faculty of Biology have developed a new technique for training echolocation with test participants.

Using a headset consisting of a microphone and headphones, they create a virtual space: the microphone picks up clicking noises that the participants make with their tongues. Depending on where they are in the virtual room, the echo of the sounds changes. This suggests a certain position in the room.

The auditory system of sighted people normally tries to block out echoes and perceive sounds independently of the room. This allows sound sources, such as the other person speaking, to be better perceived.

With their work, the researchers were able to show that this echo suppression can be functionally inverted by training echolocation. After several weeks of training, the participants were able to locate echoes quite well.

Lutz Wiegrebe and his colleagues will conduct further experiments to find out how well echolocation can work in humans. They are currently investigating how the coordination of self-motion and echolocation enables echo-acoustic orientation and navigation in space.

Original article: Ludwig Wallmeier, Nikodemus Geßele, Lutz Wiegrebe:
Echolocation vs. echo suppression in humans, Published August 28, 2013 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1428 Proc. R. Soc. B October 22, 2013 vol. 280 no. 1769 20131428

The two composers will each be given the task of composing an orchestral work within two years, which will be premiered by the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra under the direction of two young conductors as part of the Lucerne Festival in summer 2015. In summer 2014, the two composers will work on the works in Lucerne together with Pierre Boulez, young conductors and the orchestra.

Samy Moussa was born in Canada in 1984 and studied with Matthias Pintscher, Pascal Dusapin and José Evangelista. In recent years, he has already been commissioned by organizers such as the Munich Biennale, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Kissinger Sommer.

Piotr Peszat, born in Poland in 1990, received his training in Krakow with Olga Lazarska and Krzysztof Meyer and is currently studying in Aarhus, Denmark. His works were premiered at the International New Music Festival in 2012 and at the Axes Festival in Krakow in 2011.

The Roche Young Commissions complement the previous Roche Commissions, which have been commissioned as part of the Lucerne Festival since 2003. In future, the works of the Roche Commissions and the Roche Young Commissions will be premiered alternately every two years.

The conference Growing Up: Jazz in Europe 1960 - 1980 is organized by the Bern University of the Arts, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the HEMU Lausanne. It sheds light on developments in European jazz during two of its most eventful decades.

Ekkehard Jost, Alexandre Pierrepont and Bruno Spoerri have been invited as keynote speakers.

Contributions to the following panels/sections are welcome:

- Jazz stages in Europe: festivals and clubs
- Parallel worlds: The pluralism of scenes and styles
- Jazz reception, record companies and the media
- Aspects of gender and ethnicity in European jazz
- Jazz education, professionalization and organization in professional associations
- State-subsidized jazz in Switzerland and other European countries
- What is "Swiss" about Swiss jazz?

Presentations can be given in German, English or French. Selected conference papers will be published in an issue of the European Journal of Musicologywhich is dedicated to the conference topic.

Proposals for conference contributions (personal details, academic degree, abstract of the planned contribution of approx. 400 words) can be submitted to the head of the program committee Thomas Gartmann (thomas.gartmann@hkb.bfh.ch) can be entered.
 

According to DOV Managing Director Gerald Mertens, the number of German orchestras that are still doing relatively well artistically and economically is decreasing. The increasing number of so-called in-house collective agreements, in which orchestra members have to forgo wages for a limited period in order to keep their jobs, is a cause for concern.

However, current calls for symphony orchestras to be converted into part-time orchestras for reasons of cost-cutting, such as the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Chemnitz, or for 25 percent salary cuts, as in the case of the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, are also worrying.

At the end of September, the Federal Labor Court is also expected to make a decision on the future of the wage link between orchestra remuneration and the public sector, which has been in place for decades. Around 100 out of 131 cultural orchestras have not received a regular wage adjustment since 2010, writes the DOV.

With the creation of a music school law, the cantonal government wants to make music education an integral part of public education in the canton of Zurich. In particular, the conservatories are to be more clearly anchored in the educational landscape. The draft of the new law regulates the organization, management and financing of music schools.

In addition to elementary school, secondary schools and vocational schools, music schools should offer music lessons that are accessible to children, adolescents and young adults residing in the Canton of Zurich up to the age of 20 or until they have completed their initial education, but no later than the age of 25. Music lessons in accordance with the curriculum at elementary school and grammar schools are not affected by the Music School Act.

According to the draft law, the responsibility of the municipalities for music schools remains unchanged. As before, these have the task of ensuring access. Minimum requirements for the structure of the offer are now to be defined and cooperation between music schools in the Association of Zurich Music Schools is to be promoted. This should improve quality and optimize the range of services.

The financing of music schools also remains fundamentally unchanged according to the draft law: This will continue to be based on the three pillars of parents, municipalities and the canton, whereby it is planned that the canton will in future contribute 10 percent of the chargeable operating costs by means of state contributions.

The consultation period lasts until November 29, 2013. The consultation documents can be downloaded at www.zh.ch/internet/de/aktuell/vernehmlassungen/info.html (keyword "Music School Act").
 

According to a report in the "Aargauer Zeitung", the Catholic priest Thomas Sidler asked the conductor Urs Stäuble to send him confirmation of a church affiliation so that the reservation for the concert could be made properly. Stäuble, who had previously left the church, therefore withdrew the church reservation and explained that he did not want to discuss the matter with an "enemy of the free spirit".

In the article, Markus Schmid, President of the Roman Catholic church council in Frick, signals understanding for the pastor's request. He considers it problematic, to say the least, when people leave the church but still want to benefit from its infrastructure.

In an online commentary, Sidler asks whether it is right to perform in the church after having clearly distanced oneself from using the church's infrastructure and not supporting it financially, as well as "conducting musical masterpieces that were made possible in the first place thanks to the church, and at the same time renouncing the same church".

Original article:
www.aargauerzeitung.ch/aargau/fricktal/der-kammerchor-fuehlt-sich-in-der-katholischen-kirche-frick-unerwuenscht-127083962
 

In 1973, during his time as a student at the Winterthur Conservatory, Reto Parolari founded the Orchestra Reto Parolari. The first public concert of the newly founded ensemble took place on July 1, 1973 on the Serenaden-Platz of the Winterthur Conservatory. The program included works by Josef Rixner, Fritz Kreisler, Franz Lehár, Ernst Fischer and Vittorio Monti.

Original cast
All the great composers have also written music that can be classified as light music. For Reto Parolari, it is therefore important that these works are performed with the original instrumentation: "Authenticity and honesty are essential for the performer. Sound-optimizing synthesizers and sequencers have no place here. They only ruin the original, highly differentiated texture of a piece and in particular its transparency and depth of sound. Because the melodic events often change across the different registers." (SMZ 10/2008 P. 19/20).

Photo: ORP

The ZS Big Band