Volume 7 of the Studies on organ music published by the Butz-Verlag, highlights various aspects of the organ works of one of the most frequently performed organ composers of the 19th century in 17 articles and 4 appendices. Mendelssohn's biographical relationship to the organ, the aesthetic context of his works as well as a brief outline of his registration practice and the general handling of the organ as an instrument at that time form the first part.

The subsequent, detailed analyses of his central organ works (Sonatas op. 65, Preludes and Fugues op. 37) provide valuable information on their formal and harmonic conception and sometimes surprising insights into the connections between the individual sonata movements, which on closer inspection appear less disparate than one might think at first glance. Unfortunately, there is a complete lack of practical consequences from the general observations or the analysis of the individual works, and much-discussed aspects of the musical text (dealing with Mendelssohn's - often inconsistent - bowing, questions of articulation and phrasing), which would be relevant for interpretation, are unfortunately not addressed here.

A third section - in addition to an overview of existing transcriptions of other works by Mendelssohn up to the present day - examines the impact of his example on the German organ sonata, but also on organ music in England and the Netherlands, where his organ music was particularly well received and had a formative effect. This should arouse the curiosity of some readers to take a closer look at the works mentioned. Particularly worth reading is the appendix with a detailed list of works and some highly differentiated and subtle reviews of Mendelssohn's organ music by Robert Schumann, August Gottfried Ritter and other critics in the 19th century.

Conclusion: A collection of texts which - without really giving specific interpretative advice - provides a wealth of information and can thus contribute to a better understanding of this music and its environment.

On the organ music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Studies in Organ Music, Volume 7, edited by Birger Petersen and Michael Heinemann, 253 p., approx. € 19, Dr. J. Butz-Musikverlag, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-928412-26-1

Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven again and again. Volumes have been written about the Bonn master, about this epitome of artistic genius who inspired generations, who gave comfort, who provided piano beginners with pieces as pretty as the Moonlight Sonata or Pour Elise. Anyone who takes a new and intensive look at Beethoven must first say: respect for this Herculean task! Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen, Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Zurich, has not only rummaged through mountains of literature that are almost unmanageable. He also took a pleasantly direct approach to Beethoven by rubbing up against the musical texts as well as some of the commentaries handed down by the "master".

Beethoven's high level of reflection runs through the almost 400-page book like a common thread. Hinrichsen repeatedly emphasizes the intellectual climate of the early 19th century, which was essentially shaped by Immanuel Kant's philosophy. The link between the Enlightenment and Beethoven's music is not new, but it is convincing. Indeed, Kant's motto "Have the courage to use your own understanding" is reflected in an oeuvre that demanded and still demands active listening. Hinrichsen proves this not by listening, but by looking at the musical text. His analysis requires some knowledge of music theory. The interested layman might be put off by this, even the intimate Beethoven connoisseur would have wished for more emotion and enthusiasm in places. A sometimes gripping tone ("enthralling work") unfortunately too often seeps away in sophistical discussions in a convoluted musicological style: "The cadenzas in E minor (twice in the introduction [m. 12, m. 28], once in the fugue [m. 166 ff.]) are structurally counterbalanced by two returns to E flat major in the coda and stretto [m. 210 ff., m. 257 ff.], so that the tonic, similar to the Leonore II and III overtures, appears symmetrically framed by its Grossterz mediants." (S. 258)

The academic perspective also explains the desire to correct widespread, unfortunately also cemented misunderstandings. Hinrichsen rightly criticizes some of Theodor W. Adorno's interpretations of Beethoven as well as the assumption that the even-numbered symphonies are no match for the odd-numbered ones. He also makes the case for some neglected works. The musicologist convincingly demonstrates the exceptional nature of the symphonies - between the great Waldstein Sonata and the Appassionata hidden and "scandalously unknown" - Piano Sonata op. 54 or the second movement of the Rasumovsky Quartet op. 59/1. After the demanding reading, one likes to go to the record shelf and listen to the works again. And what more could Hinrichsen wish for in the end than to arouse curiosity and refresh the listening experience?

Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen: Ludwig van Beethoven. Music for a new age, 386 p., € 39.99, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7618-7091-4

Uli Führe is widely known, among other things for his outstanding voice training canons, which have been published in volumes such as Vocal musicals 1+2 are collected and can enrich every singing session. Bosse-Verlag has now published the collection Buy yourself a colorful balloon with hits from films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. What happens today online through providers such as Vimeo or YouTube happened from the 1930s with the linking of image and sound in films: an enormous popularization.

The collection ranges from the lascivious waltz I am from head to toe about the snappy marching song A friend, a good friend to the nonchalant foxtrot Bel ami. Uli Führe does justice to the different film scores in a very sensitive way, working out their characteristics and transforming them into easily feasible and appealing movements for mixed choir (SATB) without voice parts. A real enrichment for this type of repertoire with a great fun factor for the choirs.

Buy yourself a colorful balloon. Pop songs from films of the 30s, 40s and 50s, arranged for SATB choir by Uli Führe BE 921, € 17.50, Bosse Verlag, Kassel

The slow swing piece Blues in Two was written by Mike Cornick (*1947) in 1994 and has enjoyed great popularity ever since. This very piece opens the new volume Blues in two and moreand eleven new compositions in various jazz styles have been added. I would like to recommend this collection to all those who sometimes have the blues and long for musical variety, whether when teaching or playing themselves.

The twelve appealing compositions cover styles such as blues, swing, ragtime, Latin and calypso. They are perhaps no more difficult than many pieces from the classical intermediate level, but require a completely different playing style in terms of harmony and rhythm. Certain harmonic sequences and rhythmic patterns often feel unfamiliar to players with a classical background and require a great deal of attention. This is precisely why it is worth exploring these fresh and light pieces. They are stimulating, instructive, entertaining and drive away the blues and more.

Mike Cornick, Blues in Two and More, for intermediate-level players, for piano solo, UE 21777, € 15.95, Universal-Edition, Vienna 2019

Robert Lindley (1776-1855) was considered the most important cellist in England for over 50 years and was appointed the first professor of cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1822. He wrote mainly for his instrument, including four cello concertos and chamber music. In the etude literature for cellists, his twelve etudes, published in 1826, are among the most important. Capriccios and Exercises for the Violoncello op. 15 is not part of the standard repertoire, wrongly so, as a closer look soon reveals.

Lindley's Capricci are mostly in two movements and, with the exception of numbers 1 and 2, deal with several technical problems in one piece. Numbers 1 to 4 are in the first to fifth positions, from number 5 onwards the thumb attachment is required. Particularly instructive are the diverse and varied double-stop passages, which extend to decimals.

The Urtext edition, edited by Valerie Walden and based on contemporary sources, contains the original fingerings and bowings. Alternative fingerings are consistently placed under the staff, added slurs are printed in dotted lines. The clef notation is adapted to today's standard without octave treble clef. The generously proportioned edition even contains fold-out pages to make leafing through it easier.

Regrettably, the composer did not compose a second cello part, as this would have further enhanced the melodious capricci for concert use.

Robert Lindley: Capriccios and Exercises for the Violoncello, op. 15, edited by Valerie Walden, BA 10936, € 16.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2019

A Caribbean palm beach with a fishing boat adorns the cover of this duet booklet by Austrian composer and saxophonist Florian Bramböck and thus shows where the musical journey is heading. The 16 tracks - some original compositions, some arrangements of well-known melodies - tell of or originate from Africa, South America, the Caribbean and New Orleans and are as much fun to play as they are to listen to. In terms of the range and keys used, the pieces range from easy to medium difficulty. However, they do present some rhythmic challenges that need to be mastered by clarinettists who are not so experienced in these styles.

Bramböck also knows how to set well-known titles in an exciting and very good-sounding way for the clarinet. Hits in this edition include, for example, the well-known Buena Vista Social Club Chan Chan or Miriam Makebas Pata Pata to be found. But the well-known folk and children's song La Cucaracha by setting it in ¾ time, Florian Bramböck is able to take on completely new and surprising aspects. And so it even appears twice in the booklet: once as an overture and finally as an effective "dramatico" waltz finale - what fun! With titles like Strait, more width (a merengue!) or the cool cruising cha-cha-cha Three Days Off in My Cadillac Bramböck shows his musical humor. Some of the titles are also available in an edition for three clarinets, which is also highly recommended (UE 35568).

Florian Bramböck: Afro-Latin Clarinet Duets, 16 pieces for two clarinets, UE 34535, € 14.95, Universal Edition, Vienna 2019

In 2015, Evelyn Glennie celebrated her fiftieth birthday, for which the Icelandic film composer Áskell Másson wrote her this gift, which consists of exactly fifty bars.

As the title Fo(u)r Mallets the work is played with four mallets. The rhythm and tempo of the performance are notated very precisely, just as the performance at the beginning and in between is described with centimeter precision: "... bring the hands halfway up to the face and strike the two mallets against each other about one centimeter behind the heads ..." From quarter triplets to 32nd figurations and 2:3 combinations, everything is demanded of the player technically.

The composer leaves the greatest freedom to the instrument. The surface on which the music is played should be freely chosen, e.g. it can be the floor of the stage or the conductor's platform. The player can stand or sit as desired. "Do not play this piece on four different surfaces and absolutely not on e.g. wooden or temple blocks ..." The four mallets should all have a different hardness, which increases from left to right.

The piece has many dynamic changes, is rhythmically quite impulsive and sounds complex due to the repeatedly interwoven single to triple suggestions: a somewhat unusual but very interesting firework! Due to the freely selectable "instrument", it will shine as a unique sound for each artist.

Áskell Másson: Fo(u)r Mallets, for 4 solo mallets, perc 42, Fr. 12.00, Editions Bim, Vuarmarens

The widely traveled Czech violinist František Drdla (1868-1944), a theory student of Anton Bruckner at the Vienna Conservatory, wrote over 200 works of light music: in addition to two operettas and a violin concerto, many genre pieces for violin and piano. One of the best known, this melting, harmonically charming little tome, has now also been gratefully arranged for viola. It is as good on the viola in the same key as on the violin.

Franz Drdla: Souvenir, for viola and piano arranged by Heinz Bethmann, score and viola part, BU 8194, € 11.00, Musikverlag Bruno Uetz, Halberstadt 2019

His third collaboration with US pianist Marc Copland is also his most mature, bassist Daniel Schläppi says in the documentation for their joint CD Alice's Wonderland know. And duo partner Copland is also full of praise: "Playing with Daniel reminds me of the things I love most about playing jazz: the warmth, the communication and the attempt to share an experience with the listener."

The present work is not least intended to document how the music of the two has developed. Marc Copland (*1948), who has also performed on stage with jazz luminaries such as John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner, once again proves himself to be a master of the chordal and knows how to elicit an ethereal fluid from his piano with a fine touch. Meanwhile, his partner, Daniel Schläppi, 20 years his junior, stands out as a curious bassist with a penchant for groovy sounds. - He also runs a label and is an associated researcher at the Historical Institute of the University of Bern.

The 49-minute, nine-song encounter between the duo on Alice's Wonderland begins with a cover of Cole Porter's Everything I Love. The version by Schläppi and Copland is well-tempered, draws on a broad palette of timbres and is full of emotional power. Although the piece turns out to be stylistically trend-setting for the rest of the album, the two musicians always manage to surprise with their intimate, light playing, improvisation and superb timing. This is also the case on Blue In Greenwhich originates from the Miles Davis songbook. Conclusion: The elegant collaboration between Schläppi & Copland knows how to inspire - from A to Z.

Like Johann Sebastian Bach and later Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) emancipated the cello from its continuo function and treated it as an instrument for true virtuosos in his twelve concertos. Now the Swiss cellist Constantin Macherel, born in Lausanne in 1991, has chosen Boccherini's Cello Concerto in D major (G 479) for his debut CD with the London Mozart Players (conductor: Sebastian Comberti) alongside other technically demanding, musically catchy pieces. Macherel's slender, flexible, only occasionally somewhat narrow tone is ideal for the spectacular flights of fancy that the Italian composer demands of the performer. His Joseph Hill cello from 1765 sounds as fine as a violin in the high register. The careful, tasteful vibrato and airy phrasing lend the interpretation lightness and esprit. The slow movement is touching in its simplicity. The London Mozart Players are subtle accompanists - only sometimes, as in the finale, one wishes for a stronger profile.

In the imagination Souvenir de Spa op. 2 by Adrien François Servais, the cellist, who studied with Ivan Monighetti in Basel and Raphael Wallfisch in Zurich, demonstrates his subtle bowing technique. Rossini's Une larme, Thème et variations with great cantability. And August-Joseph Franchomme's musical language, which is exciting to a limited extent, is also enhanced by Macherel's fine stylistic flair, as in the Variations sur deux thèmes (russe et écossais) op. The fact that the banal Scottish theme would also fit in well with a Rosamunde Pilcher film is ultimately not the interpreter's fault. Macherel's restraint makes it enjoyable and prevents it from becoming too kitschy.

The award also includes a two-year engagement as Assistant Conductor in Hallé and the position of Musical Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra.

In 2019, Lazarova won the first conducting competition of the National Radio of Albania and the James Conlon Conducting Prize of the Aspen Music Festival. She is currently studying for a master's degree in conducting with Johannes Schläfli at the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts). She has already completed a master's degree in violin at Indiana University (USA), where she graduated with honors.

Her current engagements include conducting the Hungarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Albanian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra and the Italian Solisti Aquilani. Her ZHdK studies also include a debut with Carmen at the Meiningen State Theater in Germany.

Swiss flautist Ursula Büttiker already attracted attention with her first CD releases. The last student of André Jaunet, she also took singing lessons. So it is no wonder that her flute playing is primarily aimed at expressive cantabile.

The musician champions little-known works with the passion of a discoverer striving for counter-positions. Made the CD Musical Postcards with rarities by Pál Járdányi or Bryan Kelly, the follow-up production, all works for solo flute, stood out with works by Jindřich Feld and Saverio Mercadante.

The CD produced to mark the 150th anniversary of Hector Berlioz's death is entirely in the French tradition shaped by the flute maker and composer Theobald Boehm Élégie - Rêverie - Caprice with pianist Minako Matsuura playing along with a keen ear. At the center is Jules Mouquet, a Rome Prize winner inspired by Greek mythology. In his La Flûte de Pan In her sonata from 1906, impressionistic moods alternate with brilliance and virtuosity in a classical manner just as frequently as the dynamic contrasts. Although she manages with a minimum of vibrato, Ursula Büttiker develops impressive expressivity even in very low registers. Her bravura breathing technique benefits strongly chromaticized runs; the pianist's delicate touch enhances the sound magic of the many delicate echo effects.

Typical French elegance fills both the Cinq Pièces brèves from Mouquet, Chanson et Badinerie by Pierre Camus as well as the Élégie op. 47 by Theobald Boehm and the music crowned by a tarantella Three musical sketches by Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, who shares the same year of death as Berlioz. In Rêverie et Caprice op. 8, Berlioz's only concertante work, thanks to the subtle arrangement for flute and piano by Hans-Wolfgang Riedel, it is impossible to tell that it was originally set for violin and orchestra and is based on sketches for Teresa's cavatina from the opera Benvenuto Cellini based.

From the 2020/21 academic year, Gebert will join the Zurich Violin College with Ilya Gringolts, Andreas Janke, Rudolf Koelman, Sergey Malov and Alexander Sitkovetski. The Polish-Finnish violinist completed her studies at music academies in Europe and the USA. She is just as much in demand internationally as a teacher as she is as a musician in renowned orchestras and at numerous festivals. Her profound knowledge of historical performance practice and contemporary music enriches the ZHdK's existing expertise.

There are probably no more than a dozen compositions of classical music that have found a permanent place in the public consciousness. The reasons for this are extremely varied; they range from their frequent use on official occasions, in radio, film and television to sometimes not-so-local traditions. Hand on heart: who hasn't heard a more or less festive performance of Beethoven's Ninth on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, at the end of which the singing seems to eclipse everything symphonic? At least in this sublime moment, it is as if - despite many everyday experiences - all people really are brothers. Moreover, this "Ode to Joy" has never been a bad substitute when no national anthem was available or would fit (for example in Rhodesia, in Kosovo or at the former entry of all-German teams at the Olympic Games). In all these cases, however, Friedrich Schiller's visionary verses were not sung, perhaps not even considered. The same applies (unfortunately) to its official use as the European anthem (since 1985). wordless arranged by Herbert von Karajan in the versions for piano, wind orchestra or orchestra.

There was no shortage of arrangements in the 19th century. Even then, the crucial question was how to deal with the text and the vocal parts. Franz Liszt's virtuoso transcription for piano two hands (1853), for example, became a piano reduction in the finale. Years earlier, Carl Czerny had already had reservations about such a performance when he made his own arrangement for piano four hands: Where should the vocal parts have been inserted, since (as is still customary today) the two players are assigned the left and right pages of the open edition respectively? And so the Leipzig publisher Probst finally published a piano volume in landscape format, while the vocal parts were enclosed separately in portrait format. In a letter dated September 3, 1828, Czerny had expressed himself even more pragmatically (and as we know today: with almost clairvoyant abilities): "The future will appreciate the greatness of musical composition so much that it will forget the words."

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

Irish-born singer and songwriter Shirley Grimes has been contributing to the cultural life of the Bern region for decades. She has contributed her musical versatility to various bands, but has also realized many of her own projects.

Over the past twelve years, Bernese violinist Meret Lüthi has built up the Bernese early music orchestra "Les Passions de l'Ame" and positioned it on the international music scene. She has discovered and publicly performed or recorded numerous baroque works.

Since 1992, the Bürgi-Willert Foundation has awarded a cultural prize every two years. It is awarded to people who have enriched Bern's cultural life for many years.