The composer, who was born in 1906 in West Bohemia and died in Prague in 1973 after a musically varied life, is best known as the author of the Sonata for double bass and piano, written in 1946. He also made a name for himself as a formative double bass teacher of the Prague School, as a composer for various chamber music ensembles and orchestral works and as a conductor.

While the Sonata for Double Bass and the rarely performed Double Bass Concerto mostly move in chromatically extended tonality, the Four pieces more in the direction of a modality based on fourths and fifths. With its concise rhythms, the refreshingly rapid succession of contrasting dynamics, the contrasting tempi and the tonal shifts between light and dark, expressive and impressionistic, her tonal language can be seen as connected to tradition, yet individual and at home in the 20th century.

The Prelude (Moderato to Allegro) explores the extremes of dynamics and articulation. The Burlesque in ABA form begins with playful, Scherzo-like staccatos in the piano and ends in an exaggerated stretto in fortissimo. The fine, cantabile Nocturne follows a Tarantella. František Hertl skillfully plays with its idiom and uses dissonances to lend it an expressiveness that goes far beyond the entertaining.

Editorial errors are to be regretted. Presumably the original printing plates were copied without proofreading, resulting in accidental errors as well as incorrect notes and slurs and the corresponding need for detective work. In view of the technology available today, it is incomprehensible that the piano score in the Prelude the double bass part is notated in the octave, but in the other three pieces it is notated a major second lower or a minor seventh higher than the actual sound, i.e. the notation required for the solo double bass in D is adopted. In his arrangement, Stefan Schäfer has limited himself to a few technical bowing recommendations in favor of interpretative freedom.

The new edition enriches the otherwise not too abundant chamber music repertoire for double bass players.

František Hertl: Four pieces for double bass and piano, double bass part arranged by Stefan Schäfer, BA 11556, € 18.95, Bärenreiter Prague

Matthias Kohler is always on the lookout for inspiration: As an artist in residence in New York in 2016, the river there drove him to his Hudson Suite while the wild boar was at the origin of the new work by his band This Is Pan. The Bernese musician came across it as a heraldic animal during a stay in the south of France. This first gave rise to a musical motif and then the idea for a concept album.

Kohler had decided to create a musical monument to the local animal world. Consequently, the Animal Heart Now it's not just an album full of driving melodies, but also an animalistic parade in which lynx, deer, horses and birds of prey do the honors alongside wild boar. What's more, the eleven pieces were written in a euphoric phase, which is also noticeable in the extremely variable, agile and lively sound: band leader Matthias Kohler on saxophone and his four comrades-in-arms, Lukas Thoeni (trumpet), André Pousaz (bass), Gregor Hilbe (drums) and guitarist Dave Gisler, had to wait until the end of the lockdown before they could meet up live again and start playing together. The joy of the reunion is reflected in playful joy, rhythmic flights of fancy and wild harmonies.

While All The Pretty Horses traces the grace of the horses with a sustained melody and combines it with tasteful wind instruments and free-flowing guitar interjections. I Saw A Lynx Once with arabesque motifs and intricate twists. Another highlight, Red Milan, uses wind instruments to trace the nervousness of the birds that have to defend their nest in flight - it is direct, unadulterated and intense. Animal Heart offers smartly arranged and free-spirited jazz that is brilliantly performed and knows how to utilize its unrelenting curiosity and love of experimentation. The result speaks for itself.

This Is Pan: Animal Heart. Matthias Kohler, saxophone; Lukas Thoeni, trumpet; Dave Gisler, guitar; André Pousaz, bass; Gregor Hilbe, drums and electronics; Sissel Vera Pettersen, vocals (track 11). Anuk Label ANUK 0044

On a list of "eagerly awaited" new editions, Richard Strauss' concerto would certainly be at the top of the list for oboe players. The newly published Henle Urtext edition therefore raises high hopes that much-voiced doubts and ambiguities in the Boosey & Hawkes edition have now been removed and a reference edition created.

To anticipate: The new edition, supervised by the former oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, Hansjörg Schellenberger, has been compiled in a serious manner and for the first time also takes into account the performance material from the first performance in Zurich. It therefore fulfills the requirements to become a new standard. At the same time, it must be mentioned that the Boosey & Hawkes edition was not so bad, because it is based on the same main source (namely the practically error-free autograph score) and has already undergone several corrections compared to the first edition.

The big plus of the new edition is certainly the editorial report, which mentions and illuminates all source-relevant and editorial details. This is really fun in the digital version of the Henle Library, because here all the passages about which something is written in the edition report appear marked in blue. In the print version, only a few (mostly superfluous) footnotes are included, and occasionally extremely important ossias of objectively equal readings are omitted entirely. It is incomprehensible, for example, that a new reading in the 3rd movement (m. 386) appears without an ossia or direct footnote, as it has presumably never been played in this way before and also makes little musical sense.

The fact that many words are lost at figures 9 and 10 as to whether sfzp or p sfz could be meant is also incomprehensible. A glance at the autograph score clearly shows that Strauss did not write the two markings next to each other, but diagonally below each other. It is therefore clear that the dynamics of the passage should be piano and that sfz at this point means an articulation indication, namely a clear accent. The fact that in modern editions all dynamic indications have to appear on the same graphic level should be urgently reconsidered in this context! The fixing of a controversial note in the first bassoon (two bars before figure 23) to d also seems less than happy to me; although it is an improvement on f in the previous edition, c (as it appears in Strauss's particell) would certainly have been the better variant in terms of voice leading and harmonic interpretation.

The instrumental indications in the piano reduction are pleasing, otherwise there are no major differences to the earlier edition. It is a pity, however, that the first recording of the work (1947; Léon Goossens, Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Alceo Galliera) was not included as a source, as it was obviously made using the first edition and is therefore the only audio document with the original ending of the work. Nobody will want to play this first (shortened) ending today, but it would have been interesting if Henle had included it in this edition in order to provide valuable insights into Strauss's compositional workshop and his thinking.

Richard Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D major, edited by Hansjörg Schellenberger; piano reduction by Johannes Umbreit, HN 1248, € 24.00; study score, HN 7248, € 15.00; G. Henle, Munich

The Middle Ages had their own ideas about humans and animals. On the new CD Song of Beasts The Basel-based ensemble Dragma is home to all kinds of creatures: songbirds, dragons, mice and unicorns. They are colorfully depicted in medieval "bestiaries", valuable parchment books in which the mythical creatures are also described in detail. They are kept in such important archives as the British Library in London or the Bibliothèque National in Paris.

The colorfully decorated creatures have enormous expressive power. They are therefore shown and gently animated in a film created especially for this project. - The exclusive link is printed on the CD. This video goes perfectly with the songs that the Dragma ensemble has collected from libraries in Florence, Lucca, Chantilly and Paris: a fascinating musical zoo full of poetry.

The songs are grouped according to different animal species: "Von Singvögeln aller Art", "Hör mich brüllen" or "Viper, Skorpion & Basilisk". However, the medieval descriptions of the creatures are full of religious and political symbolism, and the lyrics are correspondingly enigmatic and poetic. They can be deciphered in English translation in the booklet, and in the film some of them are also spoken in peculiar Middle High German.

The fact that the Dragma ensemble is made up of three distinguished connoisseurs of medieval performance practice is immediately apparent. In these animal worlds, they reveal a lively and rhythmically agile passion for music-making. Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennet, who also takes up the harp from time to time, sings with a soft, well-focused voice and portrays these mythical creatures very vividly.

She is accompanied attentively by Jane Achtman on the fiddle, just as if she were singing a second vocal part. The third member of the ensemble, Marc Lewon, provides agile grace on the lute. Lewon also appears as a narrator and singer: for example in the madrigal Fenice fu by Jacopo da Bologna, in which a woman tells how she is transformed from a phoenix into a turtledove. Budzińska and Lewon sing this duet powerfully and movingly.

In the chapter "Von Fledermäusen und Mäusen" (Of bats and mice), you can enjoy the coarse humor of the Middle Ages. The three-part piece about the mouse is performed with witty charm by the three performers. The mouse is unhappy and hungry and wants sausage or a fat capon for dinner. However, the description of his actual meal is rather depressing: black bread, radish and broad beans. This concludes this colorful kaleidoscope of medieval art: it doesn't get any more vivid than this!

Song of Beasts - Fantastic Creatures in Medieval Song. Ensemble Dragma : Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett; Jane Achtman, Marc Lewon. Ramée RAM 1901

Breitkopf & Härtel, in collaboration with the Joachim Raff Archive in Lachen, Switzerland, is to be thanked for the new edition of the first two string quartets by Joachim Raff in parts and score, which were composed in 1855 and 1858-59 respectively. With considerable effort and a meticulously precise critical report on the source situation, the respective editorial decisions and a detailed, exciting preface, they deserve great respect - especially from a musicological point of view. Joachim Raff, whom Joseph Hellmesberger considered to be overly well-meaning in the rank of Schumann and Beethoven, completed a total of eight quartets in the years after Schumann's death, which were rare in terms of high-quality string quartets. None of them found their way into the classical canon of ensembles of importance in the 20th and 21st centuries, just like Louis Spohr's 36 quartets.

Raff's reputation soon faded with his death in 1882. In contrast to some other, less comprehensible loss of importance of composers, there are good reasons for this in the case of Raff himself and his work. Current, commendable performances make this clear - despite the renaissance of his name. He will remain a controversial composer, as he was almost throughout his lifetime, who produced much, but also much that was average. His ambition to write string quartets was based on practical considerations, as an increasingly professional public quartet scene was establishing itself at the time the first was written, including directly in Raff's circle. Nevertheless, he struggled for a long time to find a response, both from the performers and the public.

If one devotes oneself to the first two quartets, one is repeatedly captivated by brilliant melodic ideas, surprisingly modern effects (longer ponticello and flageolet passages), echoes of folk songs, powerful, thoroughly quartet-like elements that prove Raff's outstanding musical talent. What is fascinating in parts (for example in the Scherzo of Opus 77), Raff unfortunately flattens out again and again with extended, one might even say meaningless episodes that overshadow the absolutely brilliant jewels of his artistry. It would have taken a greater, more formally coherent mastery to prevent these weaknesses, or an uncompromising concentration on the essentials.

It is the crux of artistic creation that true greatness only emerges when the highest quality is predominant and not just intermittent. Some of Raff's contemporaries were affected by this problem of the second or third rank of music, precisely because they had to free themselves from the clutches of Beethoven's legacy without appearing epigonal or completely unhinging the traditions. Most of them sought ways out of this dilemma on their own, although they could have learned a lot from each other.

Whether Raff's quartets will now be performed more with this commendable edition remains to be seen, given that the first edition is available online. There are still countless works that have not been published, for example the highly noteworthy quartets by Carl Czerny that were composed up to the mid-1850s.

Joachim Raff: String Quartets No. 1 (op. 77) and 2 (op. 90), edited by Stefan König and Severin Kolb; Parts No. 1: EB 8939, € 41.90; Parts No. 2: EB 8940, € 41.90; Study score 1+2: PB 5622, € 39.90; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

With this textbook, marimba pioneer Elisabeth Amandi closes a gap that has existed for decades in the market for percussion teaching literature and offers a mallet school for beginners and advanced players that focuses on the motivational aspect.

It deliberately replaces purely technical exercises with 300 international songs, dances and solo pieces that systematically cover the most important playing techniques step by step. Whether for children or adults: Familiar and memorable melodies appeal to the musical imagination and make it easier to perform on the marimba, xylophone or vibraphone.

The requirements are clearly structured. After the initial quarter notes, pegs soon come into play and the range is extended bit by bit. The different styles also allow for a variety of time signatures and keys. In this way, hand movements and movement sequences are trained and at the same time music theory basics and musical design possibilities are taught. For many titles, Amandi describes why she chose this song and the difficulties or challenges that need to be overcome for this next step.

Reading music and the two-string technique are trained almost incidentally. Every music title - from simple children's songs to virtuoso Flight of the bumblebee - prepares the next one. Of course, some well-known numbers should not be missing, such as Trepak, The Entertainer, Circus Renzand the last title with the number 300 is the Flight of the bumblebee.

In this way Guaranteed to learn marimba the essential aspects of complex marimba playing. Because Elisabeth Amandi knows from her own experience as a marimba soloist and teacher: "If you like a melody, you don't lose the fun even when practicing intensively, and the training becomes a wonderful dance over the marimba keys!"

Elisabeth Amandi: Garantiert Marimba lernen. The method for beginners and advanced players on marimba, xylophone and vibraphone with 300 international songs and concert pieces, book and CD, No. 20288G, € 23.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

Halffter was born in Madrid in 1930 and spent part of his childhood in Germany. From 1939 to 1951, he studied piano, music theory, harmony and composition in Madrid. In 1961, he became a teacher of composition and formal theory at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. He was director of the institute from 1964 to 1966.

In 1970, he began teaching and conducting at the University of Navarra. In 1976 he was a lecturer at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, after having worked with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio on several occasions in the 1960s, and in 1979 he became director of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation's Studio for Electronic Music in Freiburg im Breisgau.

In 2009, he received the Spanish Fundacion-BBVA's "Frontiers of Knowledge" prize, endowed with 400,000 euros, in the contemporary music category. In 2014, he was awarded the Culture Prize of the City of Kiel.

What did a lyre sound like in ancient Egypt or a kithara and an aulos in classical Greece? Unfortunately, sound examples cannot simply be streamed, and yet music research today is able to faithfully reconstruct the sound of these instruments using replicas. In the richly illustrated Accompanying publication The exhibition guide contains fascinating information on the scientific background. The exhibition can also be enjoyed without this background knowledge. Around 30 sound samples of various instruments can be listened to via the museum app. Visitors must bring their own smartphone with headphones.

The instrumentarium of the Near East, Egypt and ancient Greece essentially comprises string, wind, noise and rhythm instruments as well as singing. Based on finds and illustrations on many vessels, especially from ancient Greece, replicas were made. Most of these instruments are on loan from the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg. They have been included in the album Sappho and her time by Conrad Steinmann's ensemble Melpomas and form the auditory part of the exhibition. These are musical re-creations for voice and instrumental accompaniment, which are based on the sound of the reconstructed instruments on the one hand and the verse of Sappho's poetry on the other.

The remaining exhibits, including vessels, sculptures and reliefs, are largely from private collections, the Kunstmuseum and the Historisches Museum in Basel. Many of the pieces come from the Museum of Antiquities' "own" sculpture hall.

There is little evidence of music and music-making from the Near East in the 4th millennium BC or later from Egypt. However, the little that has survived indicates that there must have been written melodies and a kind of notation system from the middle of the 4th millennium. The ancient Greeks probably got to know this Near Eastern system orally and developed it into a proper music theory. Philolaos (ca. 470 to 399 BC) and Plato (ca. 427 to 347 BC) are the central figures here. Theory actually means "observation" and initially describes what exists. The aulos, for example, is a double-reed wind instrument made of wood or bone that is played with a striking tongue. Four to five notes can be played on the left and right reeds. Steinmann writes: "The arrangement of the finger holes naturally follows the possibilities of the human hand. The tones produced when blowing therefore follow physiological conditions. ... They are the basis of a musical system and thus also of a musical perception." (Catalog, p.45)

The title "Of Harmony and Ecstasy" hints at this: In antiquity, the various instruments were assigned to opposing principles. The stringed instruments were assigned to the Apollonian principle of harmony (life, order, spirit), while the wind, noise and rhythm instruments were associated with ecstasy, death, chaos and the body. The kithara, for example, was the instrument of professional musicians in ancient Greece and is the symbol of Apollo in mythology, while the somewhat shrill-sounding aulos belongs to the world of Dionysus and the demons of nature.

A remarkable example of sound can be heard from a replica bowed harp from Egypt in the 13th century BC. The harp was considered a noble instrument and was correspondingly rare. The somewhat younger lute was also relatively rare. It had a fingerboard, a long stick over which three strings made of sheep gut were stretched. The lyre was much more widespread. It is an Egyptian invention from the 3rd millennium B.C. In Greece, it was often used to accompany poetry (hence the word relationship lyre > lyric). The example documents the rhythmic strumming of the strings, which is most reminiscent of today's ukulele.

The rattles and bells were used to appease or ward off demons and in the cult of the dead. The family of rhythm instruments includes the tympanum (tambourine), the krotala (hand clappers) and the kymbala (cymbals). According to mythology, they were mostly used by maenads and dancing nymphs, while the satyrs played the auloi. Singers were depicted on Egyptian and Greek vessels in typical singing poses, usually in ecstasy.

The audio samples include some very fine contributions, which, however, hardly fulfill the criterion of historical authenticity.

He has already attracted attention with some unusual projects: the pianist See Siang Wong, who lives in Switzerland and teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts. For example, he has initiated a "compendium of new Swiss piano music" and has recorded chamber music versions of concertos by Chopin and Beethoven. He is now dedicating an entire trilogy to Beethoven, which is primarily devoted to lesser-known works by the Bonn master. The first CD is entitled "Fantasia". He has recorded the Fantasia op. 80 in C minor for piano, choir and orchestra - with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (conductor: Leo Hussain) and the Vienna Singverein. The disc also includes the Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat major "Quasi una fantasia" and, as a prelude, the anything but unknown Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor. It was given the nickname "Moonlight Sonata" by the poet Ludwig Rellstab after a boat trip on Lake Lucerne.

Thus, at the beginning of the trilogy, which is actually intended to be dedicated to rarities, there is first of all a contribution to the epic discussion of how Beethoven's notorious, solitary pedal instruction at the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata should be interpreted. András Schiff repeatedly pleads for a brisk alla breve tempo, but with a consistently sustained pedal; he considers this to be Beethoven's intention. See Siang Wong sees a reference in the Adagio to the scene after the death of the Commendatore from Mozart's Don Giovanni. He also keeps the pedal depressed throughout, but chooses the very slow tempo that has become commonplace in most interpretations. The result is a delicate, impressionistic soundscape on the Steinway D-274 concert grand, which is more coherent than Schiff's somewhat gruffly merging harmonies.

The Choral Fantasy was recorded in April 2019 in the Great Hall of the Radio Kulturhaus Vienna and the sonatas in January 2020 in the SRF Radio Studio, Zurich. ORF and SRF are also co-producers.

Beethoven Trilogy 1: Fantasia (Piano Sonatas No. 14 and 13, Piano Fantasy op. 77, Choral Fantasy op. 80) See Siang Wong, piano; RF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Singverein, conductor Leo Hussain. Sony Music RCA Red Seal 19439800512

Russian-born Andrei Krivenko received his first flute lessons at the age of 6. He graduated from the Basel Music Academy in Felix Renggli's class. Krivenko holds a scholarship from the Kurt Redel Foundation and has won numerous prestigious international competitions.

He has already performed as a soloist in Sweden, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, as well as with the Zakhar Bron Festival Orchestra (Switzerland) and the Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yuri Bashmet. He received further important artistic impulses in master classes with Vincent Lucas (Paris), Andrea Lieberknecht (Munich), Philip Bernold (Paris), William Bennett (London), Peter Lukas Graf (Basel) and Denis Bouriakov (Los Angeles), among others.

Michael Zisman is a dual Argentinian-Swiss citizen and is regarded as "one of the great talents on his instrument, the bandoneon", writes the canton. In Argentina, he specialized in tango music. He developed an extraordinary brilliance, his playing is "natural and effortless, warm and exciting".

In his childhood, Zisman learned music mainly from his father, the violinist, bandleader and composer Daniel Zisman. After learning the instrument largely self-taught - together with his long-time colleague Peter Gneist - he studied in Buenos Aires at the age of 13 with Nestor Marconi and Juan C. Cirigliano, the former pianist of Astor Piazzolla.

In 2007 Michael was awarded first prize in the bandoneon solo category at the International Accordeon Competition Klingenthal (Germany).
 

The 14 prizewinners of 2021 are: Alexandre Babel (Geneva), Chiara Banchini (Lugano, TI), Yilian Cañizares, (Havana, Cuba and Lausanne, VD), Viviane Chassot (Zurich, ZH), Tom Gabriel Fischer (Zurich, ZH), Jürg Frey (Aarau, AG), Lionel Friedli (Moutier, BE), Louis Jucker (La Chaux-de-Fonds, NE), Christine Lauterburg (Bern), Roland Moser (Bern), Roli Mosimann (Weinfelden, TG), Conrad Steinmann (Rapperswil, SG), Manuel Troller (Lucerne), Nils Wogram (Braunschweig, D and Zurich).

Stephan Eicher was born in Münchenbuchsee in 1960. He gained his first experience in an electropunk band, the Noise Boys. In 1981, he and his band Grauzone became known in German-speaking countries with the song "Eisbär". His success in France began with the album "Les Chansons Bleues" (1983). Stephan Eicher has released around twenty albums in his career to date, most recently "Homeless Songs" from 2019. In 2021, he will be presenting his project "Das Floss der Unnötigen" on tour.

Every year, the BAK mandates around ten experts from the field of music. They propose candidates from all regions of Switzerland and from all musical genres. Their selection is then submitted to the Federal Jury for Music. In January 2021, the seven members of the jury selected the winner of the Swiss Grand Prix Music and the 14 winners of the Swiss Music Awards. The Swiss Grand Prix Music is endowed with CHF 100,000, the Swiss Music Prizes with CHF 25,000 each.

The new program by Ensemble Voces Suaves presents some of the most expressive madrigals by Giaches de Wert (1535-1596) in the context of his biography, in particular his relationship with the musician and intellectual Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617). The two met at the Este court in Ferrara, which was characterized by music but also by intrigue, and became close friends and presumably lovers. The program follows their common path, primarily through the madrigals of Wert and his contemporaries, but also through excerpts from historical letters and poems.

Two musical publications of value from the period of his relationship with Molza occupy a special place in the program: the ninth book of madrigals and the volume of canzonettas. These volumes contain madrigals of contrasting characters: beautifully expressive and complex settings of some of the saddest poems from Petrarch's Canzoniere, alongside light, short, playful and witty canzonettas. These contrasting pieces show the depth of de Wert's oeuvre and how his music vividly portrays the full spectrum of human emotions.