Rosamund Ender studies cello with Roel Dieltiens, Corsin Hobi percussion with Tony Renold and Cédric Peyer trumpet with Laurent Tinguely. Rosamund lives and works as a cellist and writer in Zurich. As a teacher and freelancer, she is active in various musical formations in and around Zurich. Corsin Hobi is a jazz musician and plays the drums as well as the piano and guitar. He teaches jazz and modern drumming in Zurich.

The Werner and Berti Alter Foundation, founded in Zurich in 1980, awards a prize for the best pedagogy degree in the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy Classical and Jazz/Pop course at the Department of Music at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). The aim is to "honor the profession of vocal and instrumental music pedagogy".

The Dienemann Foundation was able to hold the competition at the beginning of July. The jury awarded a total of ten prizes, including two small recognition prizes.

With the first main prize of 10,000 francs, she awarded Chelsea Zurflüh, Pieterlen, from.
Maximilian Vogler, Zurich, Camila Meneses, Basel, and Maja Bader, Lucerne, each received a second main prize of 8,000 francs.
Four awards of CHF 5,000 each were presented to Raphaela Felder, Basel, Maria Korovatskaya, Zurich, Julia Siegwart, Suhr, and Selina Maria Batliner, Bolligen.

The details for the 2021 competition will be finalized in November.
 

In it, the VdM calls on the federal and state governments to support music schools as public educational institutions in a further digital pact by providing appropriate investment funding for digital infrastructure in the same way as general education schools in the previous digital pact.

In panel discussions, lectures and working groups, more than 200 participants discussed the digitalization of music schools with regard to education management and transformation processes together with representatives of the municipal umbrella associations.

Topics included successful and legally compliant digitalization options in the field of communication and in the teaching context, the further establishment and securing of cooperation opportunities with daycare centres and general education schools, as well as inclusive work with people with disabilities, especially in times of Corona.

More info:
https://www.musikschulen.de/aktuelles/news/index.html?newsid=2895

The aim of the founders of the foundation, Henri Thiébaud (1906-2001) and Margrith Thiébaud-Frey (1909-2004), was to preserve their villa in Bellmund, known as La Prairie, with its large grounds and view of Lake Biel, as a "cultural center for all the future" with their fortune earned in the watch industry. Until 2004, young up-and-coming artists were invited to give occasional concerts in the villa's salon with a close circle of friends. Once many legal issues had been clarified, the foundation's mission could be implemented from 2007. Samuel Dähler introduced concert series with mostly up-and-coming artists ("Jeunesse") but also with renowned artists ("Excellence"). The villa, which dates back to the 1950s, was renovated and extended with a 100-seat chamber music concert hall. Jürgen Reinhold from BBM Munich was called in to deal with acoustic issues. The new concert hall at the La Prairie cultural center was opened with a concert by the Oliver Schnyder Trio on 2 April 2016.

Photo: Guy Perrenoud/Foundation Thiébaud-Frey

The concert hall was opened in 2016.

Flurin Tschurr, a member of the Foundation Board from 2008 to 2019, established cooperation with regional music schools and the foundation has been awarding prizes as part of the Swiss Youth Music Competition since 2005. Gunhard Mattes has been in charge of the foundation's activities since 2017. The focus remains on organizing the foundation's own concerts, and the "Lauréats" series has been added.

The first concert of the 2020/21 season celebrated the 25th anniversary of the foundation with a performance by the Oliver Schnyder Quintet. Until the end of June 2021 Around 20 concerts on the program. They usually begin in the early evening and end with a snack where the audience and performers can get to know each other. To mark the anniversary, Elisabeth Aellen, Managing Director, and Gabrielle Wanzenried, member of the Board of Trustees, have published a commemorative publication that documents the background, history and current situation of the foundation with a wealth of illustrations.
 

Theaters, philharmonic halls, concert halls and opera houses have been built or rebuilt since well before the end of the 20th century. When the old Josefstädter Theater in Vienna became too small at the beginning of the 19th century, it was even demolished and replaced by a new building, which still exists today and has since been extended, in 1822. For the inauguration ceremony on October 3, 1822, Carl Meisl (1773-1853) created a play described in the title of the later print as an "occasional piece", to which Beethoven added individual numbers from his music to The ruins of Athens op. 113 (1811) and added a new overture at the request of the theater director Karl Friedrich Hensler (1759-1825). He also conducted the first performance - whether he actually conducted it remains to be seen, according to a report in the Leipzig General Musical Newspaper remained open, however: "The master conducted himself; however, since one cannot trust his unfortunately still weakened hearing tools, Mr. Kapellmeister was at his back Franz Joseph Glasses 1798-1861 to actually translate the author's will to the likewise newly organized orchestra, which double, not infrequently quite different, tactics actually turned out to be quite peculiar. Nevertheless, everything went off quite happily."

The overture was also performed at the opening of the Königstädter Theater in Berlin on August 4, 1824; Carl Wilhelm Henning had acquired a copy from Beethoven during a visit to Vienna. The composition, which audibly engages with Handel musically, still seems to have been made for such occasions. However, there must have been a misunderstanding: While Beethoven assumed it would be performed, Henning believed he had acquired the work in its entirety - and published a piano reduction for four hands at the end of 1824. Beethoven reacted angrily and vented his displeasure on a copy, describing it as "mutilated". When the request to stop the sale of this edition was not complied with in Berlin, Beethoven and his original publisher went on the offensive with a correction entitled "Warning", which was published several times: "I consider it my duty to warn the musical public of a completely misguided. I consider it my duty to warn the musical public against a completely erroneous piano version of my last overture for 4 hands, which deviates from the original score and was published by Trautwein in Berlin under the title: Festouverture by L. v. B., all the more so since the piano versions for 2 and 4 hands, written by Mr. Carl Czerny and completely faithful to the score, will soon be published in the only legitimate edition by B. Schotts Söhne, Grossherzogl. Hofmusikhandlung in Mainz." - A process that is still remarkable today, which also points to the extraordinary quality of the composition. With so much public, promotional controversy, the publishers obviously expected to make a handsome profit from the sale.

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

A maximum amount of CHF 2,300 per month for the period from February 28 to August 31, 2020, i.e. a total of CHF 13,800 per person, can therefore be paid out to cultural professionals and service providers who have submitted an application by October 31, 2020. This aid is aimed at people who were unable to receive support from either Suisseculture Sociale or the canton, or whose support already received is less than CHF 13,800. In the latter case, they receive the amount minus the support already received. This subsidiary assistance is paid out without any consideration from the canton.

Cultural professionals or service providers working in the cultural sector who have already submitted an application do not need to submit a new application, as this will be automatically checked and any remaining amount will be paid out. New applications can also be submitted. All necessary information and documents can be found on the website of the Culture Department at www.vs.ch/de/web/culture/pauschalbeihilfe-kulturschaffende.

The Federal COVID Ordinance on Culture expired on September 20, 2020. The canton of Valais received 229 applications for compensation (94 applications from artists and 135 applications from cultural institutions). Of the CHF 17 million jointly provided by the canton and the federal government, almost CHF 4 million has already been allocated; the applications that are currently being processed (around 40%) will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Singing and music societies were also eligible for compensation amounting to 80% of the salary (excluding social security contributions) for the loss of work of their director or organist for the period from March 16 to June 30, 2020. The canton of Valais received 210 applications from 187 choral or music societies (81 applications from choral societies and 106 applications from music societies). Of the 187 associations, 51 are German-speaking. This arrangement is financed exclusively by the canton from the extraordinary funds made available as part of the support for COVID-19.

When the federal COVID-19 Act comes into force on September 26, the current emergency measures for cultural workers (Suisseculture Sociale) and support for cultural associations in the non-professional sector will be extended. A new program to support transformation projects will be created. This will promote the revitalization of the cultural sector by supporting sustainable projects.

The Musician's Union has more than 30,000 members in the UK. According to their study, almost half of them have already had to look for work outside the music industry. 70 percent are not able to carry out their profession as before. 87 percent are struggling with major financial difficulties.

The Musicians' Union has called on the government to take urgent action to protect and safeguard the future of the music and culture industry in the UK. It has also written an open letter to the authorities in Northern Ireland, who are currently banning public performances by musicians.

The Grand Théâtre de Genève has been performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande since 1962. As a rule, eight operas (most of them in-house productions), two to three ballets and a few other pieces of music are performed each season. The artistic director is Aviel Cahn.

Opernwelt, a Berlin-based trade journal for music theater, annually identifies the best opera houses, productions, singers, directors and choirs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the previous season. Around 50 opera critics from various countries are interviewed for the survey, which enjoys a high reputation among experts.

The award is published annually at the beginning of the fall at the end of the season. Most recently, the Theater Basel in Switzerland was awarded several times (2009 and 2010 Opera House of the Year).

The reports provided by the teams in the two competitions are published below in abridged form.

The 20th edition of the Eastern Switzerland Soloist and Ensemble Competition (September 5/6, 2020) should have been crowned with a big anniversary celebration. But the coronavirus has shattered all these plans. Thanks to the current situation and the great efforts of the organizers to comply with the protection concepts of the municipality and canton, the competition could be successfully held in Sirnach. Around 600 soloists and ensembles faced the judges at the weekend. For the competition participants, everything went as usual: playing in, the competition performance and finally the ranking announcement. But the whole "trappings" were completely different. There was no marquee, no festival benches and tables. There were only a few chairs in the performance halls to ensure social distancing. Wearing a mask was recommended. This was a very special feeling for the organizers and the audience, because before Corona, only full auditoriums were known.

The OSEW is very popular with both music teachers and pupils, as shown by the ever-increasing number of registrations. This year in particular, it is very pleasing that so many young people have enrolled despite the difficult circumstances. Some even traveled from central Switzerland or the canton of Bern. However, most of them came from the cantons of Zurich, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Appenzell. A sign that music is an important element in life and brings joy and motivation even in difficult times.
 

Photo: OSEW

The youngest OSEW participant, Julia Christen, took two podium places in the xylophone and snare drum categories

The ranking announcements were spread throughout the day. Participants and their families found this very convenient. This meant they didn't have to wait until the evening to receive the trophy they had been waiting for. "The standard of these girls and boys is really high," said one of the judges, impressed. Thanks to the numerous volunteers, everything ran smoothly.

The Board is already working on the OSEW 2021. The organizers are very keen to expand and rejuvenate the board and the music committee. Many of the current members have been involved since the association was founded and would like to hand over the reins to younger people.
 

Despite the school closures due to the coronavirus situation during the preparation period, a large number of percussionists prepared for and took part in the second Swiss Percussion Competition (September 19/20, 2020). Thanks to a very good hygiene concept and all the prescribed safety measures, this year's competition went off without a hitch.

Participants from all parts of Switzerland and neighboring countries faced the top-class jury (Gerhard Eberl, Iwan Jenny, Jochen Schorer, Andreas Csok, Marta Klimasara, Christian Hartmann, Emmanuel Séjourné) at the Teuchelweiher multi-purpose facility in Winterthur. 270 young participants in the categories children, advanced, elite and students played drum set, timpani, drums, all mallet instruments and other percussion instruments both solo and in various ensembles.

Several tons of percussion instruments had to be provided for the entire competition. This was possible thanks to many helpers. On the day of the competition, they were able to see for themselves that the great effort they had put in was worthwhile for the young people and the budding musicians. The many visitors also greatly appreciated all the effort. The organizers received a lot of praise throughout.

The great success is an incentive for the President of the Swiss Percussion Competition, Simon Forster from Winterthur, himself a professional percussionist, to organize the next competition on 18/19 September 2021, which will also take place in Winterthur again.
 

On September 25, the Culture Taskforce wrote the following about the design of the Covid-19 Act: "The cultural sector is largely pleased with the federal parliament's design of the Covid-19 Act. The continuation of support measures for the cultural sector is essential for the preservation of cultural diversity. The Culture Taskforce welcomes the following decisions in particular:

Art. 1 para. 3 Involvement of the cantons and umbrella organizations of the social partners in the development of measures

Art. 11 para. 2 The increase in the cost ceiling to CHF 100 million for compensation for cultural enterprises
The federal government continues to provide for loss compensation for cultural enterprises, half of which is to be co-financed by the cantons. Unfortunately, the cultural sector's call for organizers to be additionally covered by a kind of risk fund was not taken up. This makes it all the more important to find a practical, unbureaucratic form of compensation that gives event organizers as much planning security as possible. We regret that creative artists will be excluded from the cancellation compensation in future. It is therefore all the more important that the cantons also accept the fees and royalties of cultural professionals in the cancellation calculations of cultural enterprises.

Art.11 Ab. 3 Transformation projects
New formats must be tried out. However, pure streaming offerings cannot be a substitute for live performances, neither economically nor socially. Constructive cooperation with the funding bodies is necessary here so that new or adapted formats can be created. Not only cultural enterprises should benefit from this funding, but also collaborative projects by cultural professionals themselves.

Art.11 para 4 Continuation of essential emergency aid by Suisseculture Sociale
It is sensibly defined and now covers all important groups of beneficiaries. It is unclear whether the budget will be sufficient if cultural workers no longer receive compensation for loss of earnings, there is no more short-time working compensation for temporary employees and the compensation for loss of earnings for the self-employed will only be continued until mid-2021.

Art. 15 Measures to compensate loss of earnings for self-employed persons and persons in an employer-like position
Compensation not only in the event of business interruption, but also in the event of significantly restricted operation, is crucial for many and to be welcomed. However, it is regrettable how Parliament defines the "significant restriction": Only those with less than 55% of average turnover over the last five years are eligible. The period of validity until mid-2021 is also too short, especially for the cultural sector, as it will take longer to return to normal operations.

Art. 17 That the Short-time work for temporary employees is to be discontinued, we regret this. In the cultural sector, many people work in temporary, project-related short-term positions. They are already working in precarious conditions and do not meet the conditions for daily unemployment benefits. The only support available to them under the federal measures is emergency aid from Suisseculture Sociale. Unfortunately, the proposal to extend the framework period for unemployment insurance in order to allow short-term temporary employees access to unemployment insurance was not heard in parliament either."
 

The debate on the 2021-2024 cultural dispatch went almost unnoticed. Parliament not only approved the budget proposed by the Federal Council, but also increased it in certain areas. The Culture Taskforce welcomes the fact that "compliance with minimum or indicative fees set by professional associations for cultural workers has been included in the cultural dispatch as an explicit condition for cultural funding. This is a positive signal both for Swiss cultural professionals whose livelihoods are threatened by the Covid-19 crisis and an invitation to other cultural funding institutions - cantons, cities and municipalities as well as private foundations - to follow suit."

Max Aeberli founded and conducts various choirs and large-scale orchestral projects, according to the canton's press release, with an innovative approach to early, dramatic, sacred, lyrical, contemporary and experimental music, often at special performance venues and in a harmonious atmosphere. He often sought out unknown works, with which he ensured Swiss premieres or world premieres.

Max Aeberli completed his professional studies at the Lucerne University of Music. He specialized in music education with Josef Röösli, choral conducting with Hans Zihlmann and Alois Koch, and piano with Rene Gerber. His circle of activities includes the Cantate choir, the Sängerbund, church choirs, children's choirs, the cantacanti choir and Dilettanti.
 

The 62-year-old Basel native, who has won numerous prestigious film and TV awards, achieved his international breakthrough in 1996 with the film "Jenseits der Stille" by Caroline Link, which received both the German Film Award and an Oscar nomination. Since then, he has composed the music for numerous audience favorites from the German film industry in his sound studio in Gundeldingerfeld, including the 2002 Oscar-winning "Nowhere in Africa" and "The White Maasai".

Niki Reiser studied classical music in Basel, specializing in flute, before studying jazz and film music at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. He usually records his film music with the participation of musicians from Basel and with his sound engineer Daniel Dettwiler at Idee und Klang Studio Basel. At the Zurich University of the Arts, he teaches on the master's course for film and theater music. As a jazz flutist, he was a member of the Basel klezmer jazz band Kol Simcha for many years.

There is something theatrical about Brunnen on Lake Lucerne, with the water mirror as a stage and the mountains as a backdrop. If you wish, you can recognize pitches in the rise and fall of the peaks or a rhythmic form in the rise and fall of the waves during foehn storms. Untouched by the dramatic changes to the townscape over the last century, Villa Schoeck on the Gütsch is slightly elevated with a view of the lake. It is no wonder that Othmar Schoeck was fascinated by musical theater, with such images before his eyes.

This edition marks the start of a new cycle of the Schoeck Festival in Brunnen. The sponsoring association has set itself the task of embedding Othmar Schoeck's work in a larger context with an annual festival. This time, the focus was on images of women in Schoeck's works and in 19th and 20th century music theater. The festival title "Amazons" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a particularly enigmatic figure in world literature and an almost avant-garde opera by the Brunner composer: Penthesileapremiered in Dresden in 1927 and has been a regular part of the repertoire of renowned opera houses ever since. But it was also intended to provide an outlook on women in artistic professions in connection with the #MeToo movement. The festival could have gone on for many more days before all the keywords were covered.

The fact that the board of the association did not allow itself to be slowed down or completely stopped by corona-related imponderables in the preparation and implementation of the festival is to be highly commended. Not having an audience was an adjustment that had a very direct impact on the budget. The livestream transmission placed high technical demands. And yet: the artists had the opportunity to play and the beautiful thematic focus did not fade into the background. On the contrary. Bravo to the festival organizers first and foremost.

A serenade to kick things off: The Brunnen Music Society, conducted by Michael Schlüssel, played Schoeck's "Military March" from the windows of the Künstlervilla. Photo: SMZ

Brunnen and its inhabitants were actively involved. The music society kicked off the festival and explored the village in the footsteps of remarkable women, adding to the festival's focus on everyday history.

The musical highlight of the festival on Saturday evening was eagerly awaited. Works by the contemporary composer Stefan Keller entered into a dialog with compositions by Othmar Schoeck. It proved to be a good decision by the festival directors to give space to contemporary art. Stefan Keller Three songs based on poems by Unica Zürn (world premiere), Swing (2015) and Piece for piano (2009) sounded exciting and were performed with great urgency and virtuosity. Truike van der Poelaccompanied on the grand piano by J. Marc Reichow, set strong emotional accents with the warm timbre of her voice, both for the songs of the Unica Zürn cycle and for the three Schoeck songs based on poems by Keller, Storm and Eichendorff op. 35. Rafael Rütti (piano) Mateusz Szczepkowski (violin) and David Snow (viola), which congenially combines the rhythmic tension of Stefan Keller's music with Schoeck's oeuvre (Andante in E flat major, Violin Sonata op. 46, Consolation and Toccata op. 29).

Alvaro Schoeck, a great-nephew of the composer, caused a minor sensation with the program compilation. It was unbelievable how the pieces resonated with each other and with their performance venue. They will probably never sound the same again in this dialog of confrontation and intermingling.

The performance in the studio of the Schoeck Villa was an emergency solution as a result of the corona restrictions, whereby the music revealed hidden and exclusive references to the space (after all, it was partly created here). The excellent acoustics and suitability of the studio for chamber music were also evident. We can only hope that the concert reached its audience via livestream. And also that this historic location and the villa as a whole will be preserved, a wish whose scope was further outlined in a panel discussion at the very end of the festival.

Panel discussion on the future of Villa Schoeck
From left: Chris Walton (music historian, Schoeck biographer), Monika Twerenbold (cantonal monument preservation), Christoph Dettling (architect, moderator), Roger Aeschbach (scenographer), Josias Clavadetscher (cultural commission of the municipality of Ingenbohl). Photo: SMZ

The performance homELESS was shown on two evenings and led back to the thematic focus. One speaker (Stephanie Gossger), a singer (Anna Schors), a pianist (Hélène Favre-Bulle) and women who have written music history in one way or another were suddenly in the room, including Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot and Ethel Smyth, Cécile Chaminade and Alma Mahler. Daring combinations, embedded in text fragments by Colette, the versatile variety artist, author and passionate campaigner for women's rights. HeimatLOS plays virtuously with the voices of 19th and 20th century female artists who struggled with their claim to a stage life, subjectively, painfully, wittily and confidently. What worked for Colette and culminated in her celebrated retirement at the Palais Royal in Paris is a challenge for young women today, despite equal rights.

Performance "heimatLOS" in the artists' studio. Together with director Tamara Heimbrock, Anna Schors (front), Stephanie Gossger (above) and Hélène Favre-Bulle developed a play tailored to the space. Photo: SMZ

The director Tamara Heimbrock be grateful for their courage, their erudition and their good reference library, which has made the wealth of associations of homELESS were the basis. The lyrics of the poems and songs were not just atmospheric images, but a system of references to women, each of which depicted an entire universe. Alongside Colette, Marlene Dietrich (her famous song If I could make a wish praises the renunciation of fulfillment as the real secret of enjoying life), Pauline Viardot (the celebrated diva of the Belle Epoque and Turgenev's muse) and Mascha Kaléko (as a Jew, she experienced a particularly tragic but stoically endured discomfort that filled her poetry with never-ending warmth and tenderness). Another trail led to the composer Judith Weir, who achieved the greatest possible professional recognition as Master of the Queen's Music. A hodgepodge? But yes. This is exactly what the Wunderkammer principle of the studio space, which was played with wit and daring by the artists, is all about. References to the performers' own history were edited into the film and showed their lives today: Berlin subway instead of Palais Royal, birch grove in Mauerpark instead of aristocratic country estate and the vibration of a railroad bridge instead of waltzing in the Savoy ballroom.

During the day, the Atelier was twice a meeting place for international musicology, both physically and virtually. A top-class symposium in cooperation with the Institute of Musicology at the University of Zurich (Inga Mai Groote, chair of the panel discussion) and the Mariann Steegmann Foundation under the direction of Merle Tjadina Fahrholz with female voices and female roles in 19th and 20th century opera (program and CVs of the participants at https://schoeckfestival.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/frauen-stimmen.pdf). The balance between music theory and performance practice was very successful.

International Symposium "Women:Voices - Roles and Personalities"
Subtitle: "Opera in transition from the 19th and 20th centuries". Some speakers were connected via Zoom, lectures and discussion rounds were streamed live. Photo: SMZ

The social situation of female stage artists between 1870 and 1930 was examined, the attribution of immorality to female singers, the dilemma of success, because because gainful employment was considered reprehensible for middle-class women, financial success was all the more so. From a moral point of view, a life as an artist could be nothing other than a failure. Women tried out individual career strategies by staging themselves as divas or tying themselves to famous names, one example being the alto Ilona Durigo (1881-1943) and Othmar Schoeck. As an interpreter of his songs from 1911 onwards, she played a role in his biography that was perceived as binding by the public. The Zurich patron Mathilde Schwarzenbach called them a "musical couple" (Anna Ricke).

Barbara Beyer, a dramaturge and director with practical experience on numerous opera stages in German-speaking countries, gave an outline of images of the feminine from Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea about Händel's Alcina to the female roles of the 19th century. While baroque opera was extremely experimental in its play with gender roles - in this respect, the artistic practice of the time is a forerunner of feminist research today - in the bourgeois age, the role and character images became more fixed. Stereotypes emerged that often made women the victims of their love. What was special about this, however, was that the man's soul was saved. In the 19th century, marriage and gender were important topics of discourse, reported music historian Melanie Unseld, hardly anything else preoccupied society so much in the 19th century. The natural differentiation between the sexes was based on a strict dichotomy: the man was the normal, proper sex, the woman the "other" sex, beautiful, weak, inadequate.

And Penthesilea? Schoeck was in his late thirties when he took on the material, and we don't know what exactly motivated him to do so. Penthesilea's bloodthirsty murder of the unsuspecting Achilles is pure battle of the sexes, but in Kleist's work, the Amazon queen's rebellion against a normative social order appears to be the real drama. Did Schoeck follow him in this? He wrote provocatively expressionist music with unusual instrumentation that was a hit with audiences.

Consistently inductive, the conductor and mediator Graziella Contratto in the analysis of Schoeck's images of women: She moved from the small structural unit to the larger insight. By including not only large stage works but also songs in her considerations, she brought astonishing things to light: Othmar Schoeck dealt with female figures who were outsiders, be it the enigmatic Peregrina (op. 17 No. 4), the vagrant heroine of a cycle of poems by Eduard Mörike, the violent Venus, a rebel who physically destroys her admirer, or the terrible Penthesilea, who fails because of her excess of feelings. Then the change: "With the birth of the daughter Gisela, not only did a change take place in the personality of the apparently happily fulfilled father in his social behavior, but also in the compositional aesthetics can be seen, for example, in the Stargazer op. 52/7 demonstrates that the texture has a greater inner resonance, an even more careful care of the polyphonic voice tissues. Is it a protective gesture that also contributes to a repression of the past catastrophes of the Second World War or simply a transfiguring perspective of old age, inwardly warmed by fatherhood?"

The next festival will take place from September 10 to 12, 2021 under the motto "passé composé" - Neoclassicism in Switzerland.
https://schoeckfestival.ch
The Swiss Music Newspaper was the media partner of the 2020 festival.

Yannis Pouspourikas is originally from Marseille and now lives in Geneva. He studied at the Geneva Conservatory before becoming Sir Simon Rattle's assistant at the Glyndebourne Festival. He has been a guest conductor at the Opéra National de Paris, the Zurich Opera House, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Teatro Real and many others.

Pouspourikas' five-year contract with Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn begins with the 2022/23 season. The position of Chief Conductor of Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn and Director Concerts of Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn now includes the musical direction of one opera production per season in addition to numerous concert conductorships.

Kaspar Zehnder has been Chief Conductor of the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra since 2012 and is Director Concerts of the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn, an institution newly founded in 2013 following the merger with the theater. From summer 2022, Zehnder will devote himself to new tasks, but will remain closely associated with TOBS, the orchestra and its audiences.

Final works, especially unfinished ones, always carry a secret. How would the ending have turned out? What else would the musical world have had to expect? Franz Grillparzer's epigram for Schubert's gravestone immediately springs to mind, in which he speaks of "even more beautiful hopes" is the talk of the town. In fact, there are some prominent "missing parts" in the history of music: the end of Bach's Art of the fugue (even if he didn't die over it), Mozart's Requiem, the finale of Bruckner's Ninth or Mahler's Tenth almost as a whole. With other great composers, however, one looks in vain for such weighty words of farewell: Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms. And with Beethoven? The sketches for a tenth symphony date from the years between 1822 and 1825, and the last string quartets were all published in print by August 1826. Anton Diabelli had already asked Beethoven about a composition for string quintet - a chamber music genre in which a second viola or a second violoncello can achieve completely different sound effects, but also a genre in which, as a rule, only individual works were ever presented (with the exception of Spohr and Onslow).

After his early Opus 4 (1795/96), the Quintet op. 29 (1801) and a Fugue op. 137 (1817), Beethoven also seems to have been reluctant to write for this instrumentation again for a long time. On September 26, 1826, however, he announced to Diabelli that he would complete a work in just six weeks, demanded a fee of 100 gold ducats and also noted: "I will respect their wishes, but without compromising my artistic freedom." However, the six weeks did not come to fruition, and the work apparently barely made it out of the initial sketches stage. When the estate was auctioned off in November 1827, Diabelli (as the correspondent of the Leipzig General Musical Newspaper to report) by his companion "at a relatively exaggerated price also Beethoven's last work, a quintet begun in November 1826, of which, unfortunately, hardly twenty to thirty measures have been put on paper in draft form". The manuscript is lost today, but Diabelli published his own arrangements for piano two and four hands in 1838, renewing the words that it was "Beethoven's last musical thought". This is a Andante maestoso in C major of 10+14 bars each to be repeated, harmonically not surprisingly wandering into the distance and obviously intended as a slow introduction to the first movement. However, Diabelli probably took the notation, which was certainly intended as a particella, far too literally, as there is a considerable distance between the sketch (or draft) and the finished work in Beethoven's case. One should therefore not be too disappointed when listening ...

But anyone really looking for Beethoven's last notes should consult a letter to Karl Holz dated December 3, 1826. There you will find a musical sentence that can also be read as a canon: "We are all wrong, but we are all different" (WoO 198).

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"