The Three romances for violin and piano by Clara Schumann, with their melancholy, harmonically rich melodic arcs, cheerful bird calls and lively accompaniment, immediately strike a chord with the listener. Their new edition by the internationally active violinist and teacher Jacqueline Ross has important advantages: In a trilingual introduction, she tells how Clara created the Romances in admiration of Joseph Joachim's playing. Romances were popular with the Schumanns because they paid more attention to subjectivity, spontaneity and emotional expression through a freer understanding of form. Robert always encouraged his wife to compose and even had songs printed by the two of them together.

The autograph of the first Romance, which Clara gave to her friend and violinist Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski and which is also printed in this edition, provides evidence of various versions. They had evidently worked on it together. Certain improvements, made on the occasion of joint performances of the Romances with Joseph Joachim, did not make it into the printed first edition published by Breitkopf in 1856. However, they have been incorporated into the original text available here. The exclusively English Critical Commentary describes the differences between the various autographs and manuscripts and the first edition. The Performing Practice Commentary is a worthwhile textbook on 19th-century performance practice and gives performance suggestions for many passages of each Romance. Two violin parts are provided: an Urtext with some fingerings handed down by Joachim and a part arranged by Ross, whose suggestions are stylistically correct.

For me, Clara's Three romances inseparable from Robert's Five pieces in folk styleoriginally for violoncello and piano, published for violin by Ernst Herttrich (Henle, HN 911). In April 1849 Clara wrote in her diary: "These pieces are of such freshness and originality that I was completely enchanted." It can be assumed that the violin version goes back to Schumann; and Joseph Joachim had already performed one of the pieces in 1853. When playing the piece, however, it turns out that the violin - sounding an octave higher - is too separate from the piano, which is unchanged from the cello version; there is a tonal gap.

Clara Schumann: Three Romances for violin and piano op. 22, edited by Jacqueline Ross, BA 10947, € 19.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 

Arvo Pärt probably has a tender relationship with a grandchild. In the simple melody of his Estonian Lullaby a fine staccato "Good night!" motif is first woven into the piano, then led in the violin with pizzicato or flageolet to the end of the piece.

Originally composed for a female voice, the piece is based on a folk song. It lasts two minutes and is easy to play for both instruments.

Arvo Pärt: Estonian Lullaby, for violin and piano, UE 38100, € 14.95, Universal Edition, Vienna

Of the many great operas of the 20th century, it is one of the most exceptional, one that, for me at least, evokes highly contradictory feelings when experienced: it is as attractive as it is repulsive and alienating. Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélitespremiered in 1957, in the midst of the heyday of the Darmstadt avant-garde, stands musically outside its era. It is tonal, cantabile, clearly constructed, enchantingly orchestrated, even ingratiating and catchy, it is light and agile in a Mozartian way - and yet it can harden very abruptly at times. It was written by a filou, a causeur and charmer who was both monkish and deeply religious.

This work is not only an opera without love and battle scenes, i.e. without the great theatrical emotions, but actually, as the title suggests, a dialog opera. The text by Georges Bernanos is as sharp as a knife and ideologically tinged: "blackest Catholicism", as a colleague once said, from a time of militant anti-communism. It glorifies the Catholic Church and restitutes it through martyrdom, it undoes enlightenment. You think about this throughout the opera and yet you are drawn deeply into the conflict, even into the abyss.

This is not only due to the historically verified story that the Carmelite nuns of Compiègne were oppressed, captured, condemned and executed by the Jacobins. Behind this, a very human side shines through in this version: the compassion that is transferred to the listener. Based on the true story from 1794, the German writer Gertrud von Le Fort wrote her 1931 novella The last on the scaffold and added a fictional character: the young noblewoman Blanche de la Force, who enters Carmel as Sœur Blanche de l'Agonie du Christ and is drawn into these events. Force and agony (the names speak for themselves!), strength and fear of death, determine the plot. Blanche is on the run, fleeing the world, she is driven by panic and finds safety in the strictness of the order.

This is what this opera is about to begin with, for which Poulenc found a tonal language that is as simple as it is immediately stirring. And this is also the strength of the new Zurich production, eighteen years after the strong performance directed by Reto Nickler. This is precisely where Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen comes in. She doesn't update anything externally, leaves the costumes (Gideon Davey) in the late 18th century, sets everything in a high, mostly sparse stage design (Ben Baur) that can be changed for the respective scenes and, apart from a narrative dance interlude at the beginning, adds no embellishment. More important are the long, distancing tables at which conversations take place and the many chairs, sometimes disorderly, sometimes orderly positioned in the room, eventually knocked over. It creates an oppressive atmosphere, in which Mijnssen knows how to lead the characters convincingly, especially Olga Kulchynska's Blanche, who is subtle in her vocal and dramatic expressiveness.

Around them is the heterogeneous circle of nuns, all of whom are strong individualities (and singers): the motherly, somewhat pathetic Prioress (Inga Kalna), the strict Mère Marie (Alice Coote), who is determined to go to extremes, the young, lovely Constance (Sandra Hamaoui), who is prone to visions, and the anxious Jeanne (Liliana Nikiteanu). And there is the first Prioress, who dies in the first act, in an almost undignified manner full of fear of death and despair, portrayed hauntingly by Evelyn Herlitzius. We are not confronted by faith machines, but by vulnerable, insecure people who react in different ways. And this is ultimately what lends the performance an engaging human warmth, something that the orchestra, the Philharmonia Zurich under the direction of Tito Ceccherini, also radiates: compactness and clarity, rich in color, never going to extremes. This warmth, which the women find among themselves despite the monastic austerity, allows the fear to emerge all the more clearly. Mijnssen works with body language in an impressive way here.

That leaves the famous final scene, which is far more than an opera finale. Similar to the last image in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's The soldierswhere the times fade over each other and shoot together to form an overall picture of the war, here the personal fate of the women is exaggerated in a massacre, and it actually presents every director with an unsolvable problem. How to show death? The nuns die one after the other on the scaffold. Accompanied by a restless pulse, which often appears in Poulenc's music when death is involved, they sing the Salve Regina. Each time the guillotine whizzes down audibly, one voice falls silent until only one remains, that of Blanche, who has decided to be martyred.

This ending is a strength, but also a weakness of the piece, because it is so extremely impressive theatrically and threatens to obliterate the rest of the opera. The human interaction, the dialogue in a broader sense, which characterizes the work up to this point, turns into a killing ritual, into a collective death. One can imagine how painful it must have been for the composer to let his creatures die and to set the harsh cutting sounds of the cleaver into the gentle yet strong female singing: relentless, realistically irregular and musically "meaningful". This is where art and skill reach the limits of cruelty.

In the Zurich production, this is precisely what is softened. The final scene does not extinguish anything, but actually fits logically into the evening, even if it loses some of its harshness, as if one feels sorry for the composer and his creatures. The guillotine is not acoustically prominent, but remains almost in the background. As a sign of death, the women only lower their heads. The scene thus loses its horror. Mijnssen insists on the individuality of the nuns; in death, each of them crosses her name off a wall and leaves the stage with her head bowed. This is merciful, both to the characters and to us, and yet it somewhat obscures the incommensurability of this monstrous opera.

According to the city's press release, the majority of cultural organizations and the SP objected to the vague wording regarding "appropriate funding of cultural promotion" in the draft ordinance during the consultation process. The City Council has responded to the need for more planning security by toning down the reduction clause in the subsidy contracts.

A large majority of comments pointed out the great importance of making cultural life in the city visible and wanted it to be explicitly anchored in the ordinance. The visualization of cultural diversity through cultural marketing is therefore explicitly included in the draft ordinance.

Furthermore, the criticism voiced on various occasions regarding the "optional formulations" of the promotional measures was taken into account. In this context, the concern expressed several times to anchor the promotion prize in the ordinance was also taken on board.

The City Council has now referred the directive on the new cultural ordinance to the city parliament for approval. If the parliament approves the ordinance, it is expected to come into force at the beginning of 2023.

More info:
https://stadt.winterthur.ch/gemeinde/verwaltung/stadtkanzlei/kommunikation-stadt-winterthur/medienmitteilungen-stadt-winterthur/erlass-einer-neuen-kulturfoerderungsverordnung

According to the city's press release, Arnaud Di Clemente and Katharina P. Langstrumpf were elected to the music committee. Arnaud Di Clemente was artistic director of the Bernese concert organizer "bee-flat" for six years and now lives in Lausanne, where he is working on opening a new jazz club and as a booker for the "Cully Jazz" festival.

Katharina P. Langstrumpf has been active in the pop and rock sector for many years, looks after numerous Swiss artists with her own booking agency and is a crew member of the band "Patent Ochsner". The two new members succeed the previous President Fabio Baechtold and Sabine Ruch. Former committee member Nils Kohler took over the chairmanship at the beginning of 2022.

New members of the Literature Committee are Susanne Schenzle, Céline Tapis and Johannes R. Millius. Melanie Grütter, Emily Magorrian and Jonas Junker have been newly elected as members of the Theater and Dance Committee.

With a few exceptions, previous research into musical taste has focused on preferences for certain types of music. For the first time, the research team now explicitly concentrated on the rejection of music. In detailed interviews with 21 participants from five age groups, they asked about the specific reasons behind their individual musical rejections.

The researchers assigned the reasons for rejection to three categories: firstly, object-related reasons, such as composition or text, secondly, subject-related reasons, such as emotional effects or discrepancies with self-image, and thirdly, social reasons, which relate to the participants' own social environment and the taste judgments common there (in-group) or to other groups to which they do not feel they belong (out-group).

In addition to the reasons for rejecting certain types of music, respondents also described personal reactions that occur when they are confronted with the music they reject. These included emotional, physical and social reactions, ranging from leaving the room to breaking off social contacts.

While previous research results already show that musical rejections fulfill important social functions, the current study expands the reasons to include music-related and personal aspects. For example, musical rejections also serve to maintain a good mood, are part of identity expression or help with social demarcation. They therefore fulfill similar functions to musical preferences, although they are expressed less openly and more indirectly.

Original article:
https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/newsroom/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilungen-detail/article/ungeliebte-musik-was-steckt-dahinter.html

The protective measures to combat COVID-19 will be largely lifted throughout Switzerland. The government's new decisions will come into force on Thursday, February 17, 2022.

According to its press release, Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG respects "the individual protection needs of guests" and has therefore come to the conclusion, in consultation with Zurich Opera House, Schauspielhaus Zürich and other theaters, that masks will remain mandatory in both halls of Tonhalle Zürich until further notice.

The certificate controls will be lifted. Bar operations will resume from 17.02.2022. The Tonhalle Bistro will be open from 25.02.2022 before each concert.

High proportions of music students often correspond to short distances to the nearest teaching facility. The MIZ has therefore calculated the average distances between teaching locations, broken down into regions with low, medium and high population density. Nationwide, the average distances in densely and moderately populated regions are 2 and 4 kilometers respectively. Here, twice as many people are reached as in sparsely populated areas, where the distance is 9 kilometers.

Across Germany, there are 933 public music schools with around 21,000 teaching facilities, which are attended by 1.5 million people. In Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, around 24 percent of children of primary school age attend a music school, compared to 5 percent in Bremen. The situation is more balanced among 10 to 14-year-olds. In most states, the proportion of music students is between 8 and 10 percent. Baden-Württemberg is ahead with 16 percent.

Original article:
http://miz.org/news-deutsches-musikinformationszentrum-veroeffentlicht-studie-zu-infrastruktur-und-nutzergruppen-oeffentlicher-musikschulen-n21963
 

According to a statement from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, Abbuehl will succeed the founder and long-standing director of the institute, Bernhard Ley, who is retiring on August 31, 2022.

Susanne Abbuehl studied jazz singing with Jeanne Lee at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and graduated cum laude with a master's degree in jazz performance and music education. She was also taught composition by Diderik Wagenaar and spent several study visits in India, where she learned classical Indian singing. She has received numerous awards for her international activities as a jazz musician and composer. She is currently a professor and head of the jazz department at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and was previously head of the Jazz & Folk Music Institute at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
 

According to figures from the World Cultural Organization, the industry suffered revenue losses of between 20 and 40 percent in the countries surveyed in 2020. The pandemic has also made it clear how inadequately cultural workers are protected. Their working conditions need to be improved. In addition to a minimum wage, the authors of the study propose the introduction of pension and health insurance systems for freelancers.

Unesco also sees a need for action when it comes to gender equality. According to the latest figures, only around a third of all national art prizes worldwide are awarded to women. They are still underrepresented in leadership positions in particular. In order to address this shortcoming, the authors of the study suggest linking public funding for art and culture to gender equality measures.

More info:
https://www.unesco.de/kultur-und-natur/kulturelle-vielfalt/weltbericht-zur-kulturpolitik-veroeffentlicht

Roberto Cereghetti studied trombone at the Lugano University of Music and aural training at the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau. He completed his training as a conductor in the Swiss military band and at the Lugano Conservatory of Music.

Roberto Cereghetti currently works as a music teacher and conductor. He has been a teacher of music theory and aural training at the FeBaTi (Ticino Wind Music Association) since 2013. From 2016 to 2018, he was a lecturer in solfège and aural training at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau. Since 2018 he has been teaching aural training at the FHNW School of Music in Basel and since 2019 as a lecturer in music theory at the Federal Academy in Trossingen (DE).

Roberto Cereghetti is currently the musical director of four music associations: In 2015, he took over the musical direction of the Musikverein Concordia Dornach and in 2018 of the Harmoniemusik Stans. In 2020, he also took over the management of the Musikgesellschaft Niederhasli and the Filarmonica Comunale Riva San Vitale.

Roberto Cereghetti also acts as an expert for wind instrument examinations at music schools and wind music associations and is regularly asked to teach ear training at music universities.

6645 applications were accepted. According to the Suisseculture press release, a total of almost CHF 23 million was distributed - for many creative artists, emergency aid was their only income in these difficult times.

With the pandemic developments surrounding the coronavirus, the Federal Council has sent more and more signals in recent weeks pointing to an end to the restrictions in the cultural and event industry: Certificate, seating and mask requirements could soon be lifted.

However, the Federal Council is also aware that the financial impact of the pandemic will not automatically end when the measures are lifted. Cultural events need lead times for planning and advertising, bookings are still being made cautiously - and it remains to be seen how quickly audiences will return to the venues.

For these reasons, the federal government and parliament have decided to extend individual measures until the end of 2022 - regardless of further pandemic developments and the measures that depend on them. This applies not only to the cantons' transformation projects, but also in particular to Suisseculture Sociale's Covid emergency aid.

This means that cultural professionals who are still in existential need due to the Covid crisis will continue to receive help. Applications to cover a shortfall in living costs can still be submitted every two months.

The research grants awarded by the Cultural Foundation of the Canton of Thurgau in 2020 and 2021 have proven their worth as a supplementary measure, according to the canton's press release. The cantonal government has therefore decided to continue them in 2022. The awards are explicitly not linked to an exhibition or performances and cover all the disciplines supported by the Canton of Thurgau.

The Canton of Thurgau Cultural Foundation has been commissioned by the Canton of Thurgau Cultural Office to advertise and award 40 research grants for artists in the Canton of Thurgau in 2022. Professional artists with a connection to the canton of Thurgau will be given the opportunity to further develop their artistic work in a future-oriented manner.

A research grant includes the payment of a fee of CHF 6,000. Support is provided in particular for the further development of artistic work and the examination of format changes that expand the work. A jury made up of members of the Arts Council will decide on the awarding of the grants.

According to the festival's press release, the new program team is working on a very alpine and at the same time international festival. Sounds, tones and noises from the mountains - from singing cable car ropes to humming lakes and thundering rockfall to the rumbling of avalanches, the materiality of the Alps, so to speak - are the focus of the international festival.

In addition to concerts at Theater Uri, Cinema Leuzinger and Lehn (as well as a few other venues), the program includes spoken word contributions, films, installations and a conference on religiosity and music in the Alpine region. The festival will take place from August 17 to 20, 2023, with a sound walk as the finale.

Founded in 1999, the festival is not committed to any musical style. The theme is clear, but not the genre, which can best be characterized by the term "new folk music". The managing director is the former Pro Helvetia director Pius Knüsel.

According to the Camerata's press release, Raluca Matei took over the management of the orchestra in 2013. She was responsible for the conception and realization of the orchestra's successful 60th anniversary season. A change in strategy introduced by her with a focus on promoting contemporary Swiss music and performers also enabled a return to the founding ideas of Camerata Zurich.

She has also succeeded in developing new collaborations to network the orchestra in Zurich and beyond. In the area of music education, she recently launched a program for children and young people in collaboration with Cornelia Nick, which quickly met with a great response. The 50% position will be advertised from August 2022.