Louis Théodore Gouvy was born in Goffontaine (today: Schafbrücke [Saarbrücken]) in the Franco-German border region in 1819 and died in Leipzig in 1898. He lived alternately in France and Germany and found artistic recognition in both countries. His compositional oeuvre includes symphonies, chamber music, an opera, songs and vocal symphonic works.

The ten character pieces for violoncello and piano op. 28, written in 1859, were published under the supertitle Décaméron. These are all duo compositions that treat the piano and cello equally. They can be performed both cyclically and as individual numbers and offer the performers a varied palette of moods.

The level of difficulty is medium. The rediscovery of this romantic cycle is an enrichment for instrumentalists and listeners alike.

Louis Théodore Gouvy: Décaméron for violoncello and piano, edited by Wolfgang Birtel, Volume 1: PON 1035; Volume 2: PON 1036; € 19.95 each, Ponticello Edition, Mainz 

The present edition of La Stravaganza is not only the first scholarly-critical edition, but also the only complete edition available. Vivaldi first published the twelve concerti in 1716 with Roger, Amsterdam, the best publisher of printed music at the time. Because they became so popular, there were soon many more reprints and pirated editions. The editor Bettina Schwemer collected the sources for this edition in many European countries and in Canada (she was able to draw on extensive preparatory work by the late Christopher Hogwood). The copies by the concertmaster of the Dresden court orchestra, Johann Georg Pisendel, who spent a year with Vivaldi in Venice, make a particularly valuable contribution to this new edition. An alternative version of seven of the concerti is printed; they provide new, contemporary variations on phrasing, voice leading or more virtuosic treatment of the solo violin. In five of the twelve concertos, the part of the violino di concertino is supported by a second solo violin or a solo cello. Some of the alternative versions manage without a viola. The original figures for the bass are included in the scores; in the piano reductions they are omitted. The solo parts are pure Urtext.

When immersing oneself in Vivaldi's compositional style, one is amazed at how varied and diverse the forms of the movements are, the ever new, unexpected rhythms and virtuoso figures, the dancing lightness, emotional depth and, above all, the harmonically bold sequences; no wonder Bach took them as a model!

Antonio Vivaldi: La Stravaganza. Twelve concertos for violin, strings and b.c. op. 4, 2 volumes, edited by Bettina Schwemer, vol. 1 (I-VI): BA 7566; vol. 2 (VII-XII): BA 7567; score € 74.00 each; piano reduction € 29.95 each; Bärenreiter, Kassel

"I like practicing, but I don't like exercises where I have to play the same thing all the time. Of course practicing is repetition, but I don't want to get bored either." This is what Jost Nickel says and presents a work that offers players a wealth of different, varied snare exercises to improve their playing technique and general understanding of rhythm.

In his usual structured form, the author presents exercise concepts in various time signatures and subdivisions for the systematic improvement of rhythmic flexibility and motor independence as well as for better playing control via tempo changes, which strengthens the rhythmic overview. A separate bound booklet is included at the beginning of the book. These are the reading texts that are repeatedly used as a basis in the various chapters and topics. This shows how structured and well thought-out the work is.

The Snare Book is divided into six chapters. The first contains various warm-up exercises in which, for example, familiar hand movements are combined with unusual accentuations, subdivisions and time signatures. The ostinato exercises, which improve independence, are particularly exciting, while the interlocking exercises promote better coordination.

Clear concepts also characterize the second chapter of the book, in which Nickel leads step by step through exercises for inverted double-stroke rolls, flams, multiple strokes, ruffs, paradiddles and more. They enable the drummer to devise his own exercises by keeping the approach but changing the content.

Nickel also gives many helpful tips on practicing in general, e.g. how to sing a groove to the exercises or how to approach a practice plan with a tempo list. He describes the individual exercises in detail and clearly, guiding the player through the topics in a targeted manner.

Conclusion: an interesting work that makes you want to play the lottery drum.

Jost Nickel: Snare Book, book and reading texts (supplement). Art. no. 20279G, € 21.95, Alfred Music, Cologne 

As a team, Steier and Gebhardt will jointly manage the opera division and thus jointly shape the content, repertoire, ensemble and directorial positions. The dance dramaturge Wanda Puvogel will take over the management of the dance division at the Lucerne Theater as part of the new team. Katja Langenbach comes to Lucerne from St. Gallen and takes over the management of the drama department.

American-born Lydia Steier studied singing at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and directing at Carnegie Mellon University. She has worked as a freelance director since 2009, including at the Komische Oper Berlin, Los Angeles Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Konzert Theater Bern, Theater Basel, Bremer Theater and Theater Weimar, at the opera houses in Geneva, Düsseldorf and Cologne. In 2018, she opened the Salzburg Festival with her interpretation of Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte". She has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and at the Darmstadt Summer Course, among others.

Lars Gebhardt studied theater studies and German language and literature at the University of Leipzig and dramaturgy at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater Leipzig. Permanent engagements as a dramaturge have taken him to the Komische Oper Berlin, the state theaters in Oldenburg and Mainz and, since 2017, to the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Wanda Puvogel studied violin at the Aachen University of Music. She was subsequently entrusted with tour planning and organization for major international dance companies at the Norddeutsche Konzertdirektion Melsine Grevesmühl, among others. In 2007, she moved to Switzerland and worked as a dramaturge and manager for the Bern Ballet, directed by Cathy Marston. Since 2014 she has worked for the professional association Danse Suisse. Nationally and internationally, siel also works as a freelance dance dramaturge and, since 2016, as a dramaturge for the Migros Culture Percentage Dance Festival Steps.

Ensemble Phoenix Basel is organizing a biennial Swiss composition competition between November 2020 and November/December 2021. The competition starts in June. Together with Michael Jarrell (Professor of Composition at the Geneva University of Music), the selected composers will develop short pieces that will serve as "satellites" to the piece Vortex Temporum for piano and five instruments. This, a major work by Gérard Grisey, will be performed at the Gare du Nord in Basel at the end of 2021.

First, composers will be selected for a three-part work phase between November 2020 and June 2021 based on the dossiers submitted. Ensemble Phoenix and Michael Jarrell will then commission two musicians to each write an ensemble work, which will then be performed together with Vortex Temporum be performed in the "Trabant Concert". The deadline for submitting dossiers is June 30. For admission requirements, submission details and exact procedure, see:

http://ensemble-phoenix.ch
 

The five-member Janett family of musicians from Sulgen "effortlessly make the leap from old and traditional music to new and experimental sounds" in their musical work, writes the canton. Sibylle, Curdin, Madlaina, Cristina and Niculin Janett live a great stylistic openness that ranges from folk music and classical music to jazz and improvisation.

Curdin Janett, born in Tschlin in the Engadine in 1953, studied music at the Winterthur Conservatory and plays as a freelance musician in various well-known formations of traditional Swiss and Engadine folk music. Sibylle Janett is a kindergarten teacher in Sulgen and a former teacher of early music education at the Weinfelden music school. Madlaina Janett is an active violist in the folk music scene and a member of various formations. She also works as an event organizer, is a board member of the association Musikvermittlung Schweiz+ and founded an office for cultural mediation in 2011.

Cristina Janett, 1986, completed her Master's degree in Music Education in Bern in 2010 and went on to obtain a Master's degree in Performance at the Zurich University of the Arts. She now plays in various ensembles and teaches cello. Niculin Janett, 1989, completed his Bachelor's degree in jazz saxophone at Zurich University of the Arts in 2011. He obtained a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy in 2013. As a freelance saxophonist, Niculin Janett improvises, composes and arranges for and with renowned bands and musicians and plays in his own bands. Niculin Janett teaches at the Untersee and Rhine Music School and at the Weinfelden Music School.

Of all the musical parameters in Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony op. 92, rhythm is undoubtedly at the forefront: each of the four movements is closely linked to motif-like figures of movement that lend the work an energetic pulse - from the occasionally bouncing 6/8 Vivace of the weighty opening movement to the power-packed, racing finale. Richard Wagner therefore called the composition a "Apotheosis of the dance", a term he used less to indicate a possible choreography than to capture the general gesture of the score in words.

The emotional center of the symphony, however, is the second slow movement, marked Allegretto (somewhat fast). With its sunken, striding tone, it marks a tragically motivated funeral march, from which Beethoven only emerges in two sections - similar to a repeated trio - into a lighter A major, carried melodically by the clarinets and bassoons. An openly fading chord in the wind harmony solemnly frames the movement at the beginning and end. The funeral march is characterized above all by its sustained basic rhythm (long - short - short), which is complemented motivically by two subsequent long notes; it is also reflected in the work's nickname, which is still common in France, of Symphonie dactylique reflected. At the first performances, just a few months after the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig, which was won with considerable losses, the contemporary audience listened to the symphony with open ears and immediately understood the tragedy expressed in the Allegretto. This affinity for Vienna is documented by a report in the Leipzig General Musical Newspaper. The audience is said to have demanded a dacapo that is almost unimaginable in concert today: "The Andante ! (A minor) had to be repeated every time and delighted connoisseurs and non-connoisseurs alike."

The extent to which the movement is still able to evoke similar connotations today is shown by its use as film music for apocalyptic scenes - not in an illustrative sense, but as a sonic realization of inner turmoil. This applies, for example, to The King's Speech (2010). Beethoven's music is set to the radio address by the British King George VI, in which he - already aware of the countless victims - justifies the country's entry into the Second World War to his people. The only slightly abbreviated movement is also used far more dramatically in Knowing - The future ends now (2009), when Nicolas Cage (alias John) gets into his car shortly before the earth goes up in a sea of flames, inserts a CD and makes his way to his parents, acoustically shielded from the desperate mob looting in the inferno. The funeral march is not integrated into the actual plot, but more fundamentally into the philosophical and theological play of ideas in The Man from Earth (2007) - as a musically meaningful answer to the question: "Do you believe in the future of humanity?"

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

One of these will be streamed on May 21 from 10 am to 4 pm: A multicolored solidarity cloth of over 400 m2 will be created from 900 flags with the date EJCF 2020. Not only the audience in Switzerland, but also choirs abroad will be able to watch the cloth grow over the course of six hours, accompanied by choral music from past festivals.

The solidarity scarf symbolizes the solidarity with the children and young people in other European countries who are now unable to sing together at the festival or in their home country. It stands for "The Colours of Cultures", which have always been the colorfulness of the EJCF and would also have grown together during these festival days to form a great togetherness.

Born in 1994, the Upper Valais singer Tanya Barany, whose real name is Tanja Zimmermann, grew up in Visperterminen. She studied jazz & pop singing at the Zurich University of the Arts from 2014. She completed her Bachelor's degree with distinction for the "Best Bachelor Project" in 2017 and her Master's degree with distinction in music education in 2019.

Tanja Zimmermann has made a name for herself nationally and internationally in recent years as "Tanya Barany". She has performed on many stages at home and abroad and, in addition to "Tanya Barany", is a versatile musician in various formations, a vocal coach, composer, lyricist, producer and songwriter.

The Culture Prize of the Canton of Valais was established in 1980. Endowed with CHF 20,000, the prize crowns a recognized, confirmed artistic career. Since 1982, three further prizes have also been awarded to support talented young artists at a decisive point in their careers. The prizes, each worth CHF 10,000, are a strong sign of recognition and an encouragement to continue on this path. Since 2011, a special prize of CHF 10,000 has also been awarded to individuals or innovative groups in the field of cultural mediation or implementation who contribute to the canton's cultural development through their work "behind the scenes". The prizes are awarded by the State Council to artists nominated by the Cultural Council.
 

The three musicians will each receive prize money of CHF 10,000 and an additional scholarship in the form of participation in the academy worth a further CHF 10,000. As the summer festival and therefore also the academy cannot take place this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, the scholarship is valid for next year. In summer 2021, Karen, Lai and Gignoux will take part in the Lucerne Festival Academy together with the winners of the Fritz Gerber Award 2021.

Born in 1991, Finnish pianist Helga Karen is a member of the Lemniscate ensemble in Basel. She received her Master of Arts in Specialized Musical Performance from the Hochschule für Musik Basel in 2016, where she studied with Mike Svoboda, Jürg Henneberger and Marcus Weiss, among others. She has attended masterclasses with Christian Dierstein, Florian Hoelscher, Nicolas Hodges, Benjamin Kobler and others. Since 2015, she has taken part in the Lucerne Festival Academy several times and also performed with the Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra in 2018.

Double bassist Thomas Hong Yiu Lai, born in Hong Kong in 1997, is completing his Master's degree in Music Education with Duncan McTier and Wies de Boevé at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2019, he received a Master of Arts in Musical Performance from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts under Božo Paradžik. He currently plays with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in the Orchestra Academy. He has already been engaged on a project basis with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Zurich at the Zurich Opera House.

The French-Swiss percussionist Aurélien Gignoux, born in 1997, studied at the conservatory in Paris with Gilles Durot, Jean-Claude Gengembre and Florent Jodelet. He has already played in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski and Lorenzo Viotti. In 2019, he won the Osnabrück Music Prize as well as 2nd prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned composition at the ARD Music Competition.

The Fritz Gerber Foundation for gifted young people has been active since 1999. It supports talented young people in the fields of crafts, culture and sport. Support is provided in the form of financial contributions to education, further education and training. Over the past 21 years, the foundation has supported over 2,300 talented young people with a total of over CHF 27 million.

Marc Unternährer impresses "as an extraordinary and gifted musician with national and international appeal", writes the city. His virtuosity and creativity, his unique willingness to experiment and his expressiveness as a tuba player are expressed in his extensive musical work.

Unternährer is active in a wide variety of musical styles, whether in the classical field in various orchestras in Switzerland (Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, LSO, etc.) or in many independent musical projects in established formations for new music, improvised music, new folk music and jazz (Albin Brun's NAH Trio, Ensemble Le Rex, etc.).

He is involved in the Forum for New Music Lucerne, organizer of the "Jazz am Dienstag" series at the Kleintheater Lucerne, program director of the Stanser Musiktage and co-founder of the Mullbau, which offers a roof for improvisation and experimental arts in particular. Since his stay in Chicago at the Lucerne twinning studio in 2002, the exchange and networking with musicians from Chicago has continued to grow.

As a committed musician, he is also unwaveringly committed to cultural policy issues. He is a lecturer in improvisation at the HKB Bern and the HSLU Music Lucerne.

The international classical music trade fair Classical:NEXT will be held digitally this year, as will the Innovation Awards ceremony on 20 May 2020. The aim of this award is to raise awareness of pioneering projects in the field of classical music worldwide every year. The registered projects will be judged by a international jury and nominated for the award. This year it consists of 26 music journalists and expertswho are committed to the renewal of classical music and track down corresponding trends. They see it as their task to inform professional classical music players about potential recipients who move outside their own national or professional environment.

Also involved in the decision is the global art music community, which can be reached via the Classical:NEXT network site (www.classicalnext.com/net) can select the three best projects by voting. The award ceremony will be hosted by Mischa Kreiskott from NDR Kultur and streamed via several online channels.
 

At a time when people are more likely to stick mini-pods in their ears when they're out and about than hum or whistle a tune themselves, the beautiful word "Gassenhauer" has long since gone out of fashion. While the popularity of music today is determined by charts, in the past it was voted on with the feet, or more precisely: on the street, namely by picking up the "catchy tune" and passing it on. In the decades around the turn of the 19th century, composers also liked to pick up on such popular melodies, wrote all kinds of arrangements (mostly for piano) and were well paid by publishers. Joseph Gelinek (1758-1825) was the undisputed "king of variations" in this respect in his day. Beethoven, however, always took a particularly thorough approach to a popular song.

Only rarely are such variations to be found in a chamber music context, as in the finale of the Piano Trio in B flat major op. 11, which is scored for clarinet (instead of violin).Pria ch'io l'impegno" a melody from the opera L'amor marinaro ossia Il corsaro (Der Korsar oder Die Liebe unter den Seeleuten) by Joseph Weigl (1766-1846), which was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on October 15, 1797. However, in this case it was probably not only the catchy music that contributed to its rapid popularity, especially as it does not come from an aria or canzonetta, but from a trio (at the beginning of Act II) between the captain, his servant Pasquale and Cisofautte, a bandmaster who sets clear priorities for himself: "But before I show myself as a master / I must first eat. / Then they will see / how much I can do. / When from the heights / to the depths / my hollow stomach / resounds so brightly." The vernacular is "An empty stomach can't jump well" not too far away from that.

Not quite an "evergreen", the "Pria ch'io l'impegno" inspired numerous contemporaries to create variations, fantasies or even more - in addition to works by Joseph Eybler, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Joseph Wölfl and Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Nicolò Paganini even wrote a Sonata con Variazioni op. 29 for violin with orchestral accompaniment. And as late as 1832, a certain H. W. Stolze from Celle published a set of variations for piano and violoncello op. 6. Nevertheless, Weigl's melody has only survived in Beethoven's composition - which is now (and not entirely accurately) referred to as the "Gassenhauer Trio".

The libretto (Italian/German) was also published in Dresden in 1798 under a slightly different opera title; the "Gassenhauer" can be found on p. 118/119 (scan 122/123). Link to the libretto.

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

Resistance to the criteria formulated in the draft bill on the basic pension has formed among federal cultural associations, even if the law is welcomed in principle. For example, the Federal Association of Visual Artists has written an appeal with 45,000 signatories to the federal government, members of parliament and the Federal Council, which is also supported by the Alliance of Liberal Arts.

According to Martin Maria Krüger, President of the German Music Council, creative professionals insured through the Artists' Social Security Fund (KSK) often do not even earn the required 30 percent of the average income that would be necessary to receive the basic pension according to the draft law, despite many years of highly qualified and enormously committed work.

For example, 20,000 artists are currently excluded from the basic pension because their income is too low. In turn, private pension provision is unaffordable for this professional group: a vicious circle of poverty.

The Music Council therefore appeals to the Bundestag to make improvements in the upcoming deliberations on the draft bill and to adjust the minimum income required for the basic pension downwards to 20 percent of the average income, in line with the situation of many creative professionals.

At today's meeting, the Federal Council decided to extend the Covid Culture Ordinance by four months. In today's press release, it cites the fact that the impact of the coronavirus on the cultural sector goes well beyond the period of validity of this support as the reason for this decision. All major events with more than 1,000 people will remain prohibited until at least the end of August 2020 and numerous cultural institutions will have to remain closed until at least June 8. Regarding the funds allocated on March 20, he writes: "The total amount remains at CHF 280 million for the time being. However, funds that were previously used to finance interest-free loans for cultural enterprises will now be partially allocated to default compensation. So far, applications for support amounting to CHF 234 million have been received."