Eight of the 29 piano students from Switzerland and abroad, who had to be enrolled at a Swiss music academy and born after September 1, 1992, qualified for the final. In the first and second rounds of the competition, they had to perform pieces from a repertoire defined by the jury (Benjamin Engeli, Adrian Oetiker, Walter Prossnitz and Oliver Schnyder).

The first prize (12,000 Swiss francs) went to Asuto Kitamura from Japan, born in 1996, and the second prize (8,000 Swiss francs) to Georgiana Pletea from Romania, born in 1993. The two third prize winners, Jérémie Conus from Switzerland, born in 1994, and Yilan Zhao from China, born in 1995, each received 4,000 Swiss francs.
 

Photo: Rahn Music Prize / Priska Ketterer

Georgiana Pletea

The first and second prize winners also receive a performance as a soloist at the Rahn Prizewinners' Concert with the Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Joon Choi. The live video and audio recording of the concert will also be made available to you as a streaming link. The Rahn Prizewinners' Concert will take place on March 30, 2020 at 7.30 pm in the Tonhalle Maag in Zurich. Asuto Kitamura will perform Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor op. 54, Georgiana Pletea Mozart's Concerto in D minor KV 466.

Photo: Rahn Music Prize / Priska Ketterer

Jérémie Conus and Yilan Zhao

Comparable tests have already been successfully established in other cantons, writes the city of Lucerne. The Department of Primary Education of the Canton of Lucerne, the Lucerne Music School Association and selected instrumental and vocal teachers and music school directors have jointly developed a Lucerne version of these level tests.

The tests have six levels with increasing requirements. The first level can be passed after just a few years of lessons, while the sixth level is based on the admission criteria for professional studies at music colleges. Depending on performance, the next level can be passed every two to three years. The level tests help to make your own performance transparent, set goals and shape your personal learning plan.

At all levels, a compulsory piece is chosen from a compulsory list and a further piece is chosen by the student. There are also questions on music theory and rhythm as well as a written test. Instrumental and vocal teachers from music schools in the canton of Lucerne are on hand as experts.

The level tests are a further step towards regional cooperation in the field of music education in the canton of Lucerne. However, the focus is on the optimal promotion of pupils' musical development, which receives additional support through the level tests.

Public certificate concert
The certificate concert will take place on Saturday, February 8, 2020. At this public event, selected participants with excellent performances will perform and all successful candidates will receive their certificate.

Certificate concert of the cantonal level test Lucerne

Saturday, February 8, 2020, 4 p.m.
Südpol, Arsenalstrasse 28, 6010 Kriens, Great Hall
Free admission
Further information: www.musikschuleluzern.ch
 

Daniela Berger was a member of Baden City Council from 2002 to 2015, where she headed the Culture / Children Youth Family department. Among other things, this period saw the establishment of new professional cultural funding in the city of Baden and the launch of the renovation and extension of the Kurtheater Baden. Daniela Berger is a founding and managing director of Badener Tanzcentrum AG, where she also works as a dance teacher.

The Aargau Board of Trustees promotes in particular professional contemporary art in or with a close connection to the canton. As an expert committee, the eleven-member board makes final decisions on funding contributions within the scope of the approved funds. The individual funding areas - including art in all disciplines, intangible cultural heritage, specific further training for artists, awards - must be adequately represented by the eleven members of the Board of Trustees.
 

Tabea Zimmermann studied with Sandor Végh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, among others, and won the international competition in Geneva in 1982. From 1987 until his death in 2000, she performed regularly with her husband David Shallon.

She lives in Berlin and has three almost grown-up children. Tabea Zimmermann has already held professorships at the Saarbrücken University of Music and the Frankfurt University of Music; since October 2002 she has been a professor at the Hanns Eisler University of Music. She has also aroused the interest of many contemporary composers for the viola and introduced numerous new works to the concert and chamber music repertoire.

The award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is endowed with 250,000 euros and is one of the most important music prizes in the world.
 

The FMB has been held every two years since 2012 and is a firm fixture on the agenda of many education managers. Christine Bouvard Marty, President of the Swiss Music Schools Association (VMS), welcomed an impressive number of visitors this year, the majority of whom were present on both days: well over 400 day tickets were sold.

In 2007, the then President of the VMS, Hector Herzig, launched the FMB in order to anchor music education in society's consciousness as an important part of overall education. This concern culminated in the grandiose victory of the referendum on "Musical Education" in 2012. In the first five forums (2007 to 2012, initially still held annually), the political aspects of education were consequently given strong emphasis alongside music education and future topics. As the implementation of Article 67a of the Constitution "Music Education" is now based on the four-year cycle of the Culture Dispatch, the third period of which (2021-2024) is entering the decisive phase of parliamentary deliberation this year, it made sense to focus on politics this time too.

Markus Ritter, President of the Swiss Farmers' Association and CVP National Councillor (SG), gave an informative and entertaining presentation on the mechanisms of power in Bern. Under the title "Being politically successful - what you can learn from farmers", he presented a seven-point guide. As an extremely successful and self-confessed lobbyist, Ritter has repeatedly proven that his recipes lead to success: "Doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right form, with the right person, in the right place, is fundamental to success," he stated.

Max Fuchs, Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Duisburg-Essen, also has a wealth of political knowledge. Fuchs was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his achievements as former Chairman of the German Cultural Council and as a member of the Federal Youth Board of Trustees. In his lecture, he derived a "human right to music" in a scientifically stringent manner, based on the UN's "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (1948).

David Vitali from the Federal Office of Culture (BAK), whose responsibilities include music education, stood in as speaker for the Director of the BAK, Isabelle Chassot, who was injured in an accident. Vitali explained the cultural message currently being discussed in parliament and highlighted the plans to implement the promotion of talented musicians. The speaker then took part in a "table ronde" chaired by Jodok Kobelt together with Christine Bouvard Marty, Max Fuchs and the Director of the Swiss Association of Municipalities, Christoph Niederberger.

The FMB traditionally sees itself as a source of inspiration for future concepts in education. The second day began with Jan Rihak, start-up founder and developer of "Classtime", a web-based participation and examination platform for modern teaching that has already been successfully implemented in various countries. In his presentation "An entrepreneurial spirit with model character for educational institutions?", he presented learnings from the program development and offered them to the audience as an aid for possible projects of their own.

In place of Peter Röbke, who was ill, Michaela Hahn, Professor of Music School Research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, spoke on the topic of "Aspects of contemporary music education". She took a look at the roots and development of the music school movement up to the present day, outlined the social mission of music education institutions and presented some inspiring European model projects.

One of Germany's leading sociologists, Armin Nassehi, full professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, spoke about the importance of digitalization in his presentation "Shaping education in the digital society". He discussed the question: "For which problem is digitalization the solution?" and placed this epochal achievement alongside other world-changing inventions such as the printing press or the steam engine. As in all areas of life, digitalization is also a fact of life in education. However, technology should be placed at the service of educational goals.

As always, the musical program was of exquisite quality. The Quadrifoglio clarinet quartet had already won first prizes with distinction in the Thurgau and Swiss Youth Music Competitions (SJMW). These highly musical young people therefore also earned a special VMS prize. The second VMS prize went to the rock band Weird Fishes. They had already caused a sensation at the SJMW Jazz&Pop and blew the audience away with their progressive sound. The hit parade habitué Gustav brought the first day to a close. He has been known for years for his educationally motivated school concerts.

For the third time, the VMS held its competition for pioneering music school projects. This time there were no runners-up, but three first places: The "Ecole de Jazz et de Musique Acutelle" (EJMA) earned one of them for its "Département de musique assistée par ordinateur (MAO)" project, according to the expert jury chaired by Felix Bamert. The next prize went to the Swiss Jazz School Bern (SJS) for the project "iMPro-Webapp: The digital teaching tool for improvisation". The Audience Award went to the Olten Music School with "Open Music School Olten - More Space and Time for Music".

The next FMB will take place on January 21 and 22, 2022 in Baden.

"To Scotland! When are we leaving? Do I still have time to finish my cigar?" Yes, there was time, including a steamer for which the important composer Jonathan Savournon had been sponsored to write two ship passages. No musical works by Savournon have survived, as he was inspired by the wonderful imagination of Jules Verne. With his novel of the Journey with obstacles to England and Scotland he is still at the cutting edge today, especially with his wise conclusion: "They touched everything, but in reality they saw nothing!" Incidentally, Verne was not inspired by Mendelssohn's journey to the Highlands or his Scottish Symphonybut an excursion of his own in 1859, which he undertook together with the French composer Aristide Hignard (1822-1898).

And Beethoven? It is well known that he never saw the Seine or the Firth of Forth. But then George Thomson (1757-1851) from faraway Edinburgh contacted him in 1803 after he had already ordered chamber music arrangements and concise introductions to Scottish tunes from Haydn, Pleyel and Koželuh: for voice(s), piano, violin and cello. By 1820, Beethoven had made almost 170 arrangements of this kind, and it can be assumed that it was not just a lucrative bread-and-butter business for him. These arrangements replace the series of original piano trios in his oeuvre, which came to an end in 1811 with the large-scale work in B flat major op. 97. Thomson's desire for instrumental preludes and postludes opened up a compositional space for Beethoven - a space which, however, remained misunderstood in Edinburgh. It was all the more clearly understood by an anonymous reviewer of the German edition published by Schlesinger in Berlin in 1822: "No dormant bard is awakened here from the ruins of a misty past: it is Beethoven's independent spirit that walks here over the hills of slumber in a land of his own dreams, which he calls Scotland." (General musical newspaper, Vol. 30, 1828, p. 284)

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The aesthetic experience is a complex interplay of modes of perception and cognitive processes: Features of the artwork such as the color scheme and the content depicted play a role, as do individual characteristics of the viewer such as their expertise and contextual factors - such as the title of a work of art.

Researchers at the University of Basel led by psychologists Jens Gaab and Klaus Opwis have investigated how contextual information about works of art influences aesthetic perception in a real exhibition situation. In particular, they investigated whether and how different types of information affect the aesthetic experience of museum visitors.

Previous research has shown that contextual information can significantly shape perception and experience - for example, if wine tastes better to consumers when its price is higher.

Original article:
www.unibas.ch/de/Aktuell/News/Uni-Research/Kunst-spricht-fuer-sich-und-laesst-Herzen-schneller-schlagen.html
 

For the years 2020 to 2027, the canton has set itself the strategic goals of promoting cultural diversity, preserving and passing on cultural heritage of cantonal importance, safeguarding the state heritage and strengthening the library system. Among other things, the government's cultural promotion strategy aims to establish cantonal cultural locations, further develop funding systems and strengthen digital cultural mediation.

Under the chairmanship of Martin Sailer, Wildhaus-Alt St.Johann, the preliminary advisory committee discussed the regional economic importance of cultural institutions and emphasized the importance of promoting culture, according to the canton's press release. The equalization of cultural burdens between the cantons of Eastern Switzerland relating to contributions to the St.Gallen concert and theater, mandatory inflation adjustments to contributions to cultural institutions and minimum fee rates for cultural professionals in institutions with performance agreements, as well as support for schools in cultural education, were particularly discussed.

A motion proposing a "cultural percentage" based on the model of the canton of Aargau did not find a majority in the committee. The proposed "cultural percentage" should allocate at least one percent of the ordinary state budget to the promotion of culture. The committee also rejected the proposal to transfer the subsidies for monument preservation measures from the lottery fund to the ordinary state budget.

The committee proposes motions that are linked to the approval of the 2020 to 2027 cultural promotion strategy. A majority of the committee was in favor of designating the Klanghaus Toggenburg as a cantonal cultural location as part of the next cultural promotion strategy for the years 2028 to 2035. It also requested that the expenses of cantonal archaeology be transferred to the ordinary state budget from the 2021 budget and the 2022-2024 task and finance plan and no longer be financed by the lottery fund. However, the cantonal archaeology's personnel expenses are to be financed via the government's existing personnel resources.

The Cantonal Council will discuss the bill in a single reading in the upcoming February session. The government's report and draft as well as the proposals of the preliminary committee can be found in the Council information system www.ratsinfo.sg.ch under the business number 23.19.03.
 

Eleonore Maria Sophia Westenholz - as her full name was - was an extremely talented musician. Born three years after Mozart, she worked as a singer, pianist, glass harmonica player and composer at the court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Ludwigslust. She also gave concerts in cities such as Berlin, Leipzig and Copenhagen and found time to raise eight children virtually on her own. It was also in Ludwigslust that she composed her piano works, which she never published, with two insignificant exceptions.

These two volumes of "Works for piano solo" are first editions and have recently been published by Edition Massonneau, which is particularly committed to the cultural heritage of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The editor Reinhard Wulfhorst prefaces the compositions with a very informative foreword, which provides a fascinating insight into the unusual life of Sophie Westenholz. Volume I contains the sonata in C major, two sonatinas, waltzes and a capriccio, the "lighter" pieces, so to speak, while volume II contains the sonata in F minor and the sonata in C minor, two larger-scale, more ambitious works. These two sonatas in particular are worth a closer look.

Westenholz often begins her movements with relatively neutral, not exactly original themes, but uses them to develop a highly imaginative progression through a wide variety of keys and moods. She does not shy away from dramatic escalations and virtuoso outbursts either. Although her music mostly follows classical forms, it occasionally refers to early Romanticism. This is all the more astonishing given that the composer evidently came into contact neither with Beethoven's music nor with that of his successors.

As a pianist, Sophie Westenholz preferred to play works by Mozart at her court. Her last performance took place in 1813. After that, she retired from the podium, not entirely voluntarily. Her granddaughter reported the following: "She was persuaded to resign by the envy and cabal of the local members of the orchestra, who did not want to be conducted by a woman ..." Sophie Westenholz died at the age of 79 in Ludwigslust in 1838.

Eleonore Maria Sophia Westenholz (1759-1838): Works for piano solo, edited by Reinhard Wulfhorst; Volume 1: em 0119, € 20.00; Volume 2: em 0219; € 24.75; Edition Massonneau, Schwerin 2019

To be able to begin with the speech by the then German President Joachim Gauck, who spoke about Romanticism and the composer couple Clara and Robert Schumann at the Villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn two weeks before the end of his term of office, is a stroke of luck that raises expectations for the other contributions. But then the joy of discovery is dampened: in the Schumann Journal 6/2017, an anthology of 355 pages, contains an obituary for Nikolaus Harnoncourt, two longer interviews "Do you love Schumann?" with András Schiff on the one hand and the young pianist Luisa Imorde on her new CD Zirkustänze (with pieces by Schumann and Jörg Widmann) on the other, as well as reports on conferences, association anniversaries and other Schumann events - albeit consistently bilingual in German and English. At least one learns that Heinz Holliger was honored with the Zwickau Schumann Prize in 2016.

Curiosity is satisfied, however, when new CDs, DVDs, sheet music and books are not only displayed but also discussed on 100 pages. The large number and quality of the illustrations in color, which are excellently presented thanks to the glossy paper, should not be underestimated. The target group is not a "specialist musicological audience, but artists, Schumann lovers and interested laypersons who should be well and competently informed, stimulated and delighted", according to the editorial. The entry "With the support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media" clarifies who, among others, is supporting the Schumann Network. The complete publications are also freely available at www.schumannjournal.net.

At 445 pages, volume 7/2018 is even more extensive and also more productive, but follows the same concept: an obituary for the poet Peter Härtling, two conversations about Schumann, this time with the pianist Florian Glemser on the one hand and the cellist Guido Schiefen and the pianist Markus Kreul on the other. The focus, however, is on two weighty contributions (170 pages long, again in two languages) on Clara in Copenhagen by Gerd Nauhaus and Robert in Berlin by Theresa Schlegel, who can already announce that "Clara in Berlin" will be covered in 2019. If you don't want to wait for the 50-volume complete edition of Schumann's letters, you can already read some of the Berlin letters here.

Volume 8/2019 is now also available.

Schumann Journal 6/2017 and 7/2018, publications of the Schumann Network, edited by Ingrid Bodsch and Irmgard Knechtges-Obrecht, German/English, Verlag Stadtmuseum Bonn 2017/2018

If I had a small, cramped neighborhood store to set up, I would ask Thomas Grossmann. After his successful double bass school, the double bass and electric bass player Double Bass ABC, has now written a book for electric bass. And this book has the same quality as a good neighborhood store. You can find everything there - except perhaps bass strings. And Grossmann's book also has everything - even bass strings!

E-Bass ABC to Z offers seven advanced lessons on around 100 pages. This is followed by a further 50 pages of in-depth electric bass know-how. The twelve chapters are a kind of reference to the lessons, with basic topics such as tuning, tablature and note lengths. In addition, there are many basic considerations and suggestions on topics such as picking hands and techniques, muffling and fingerings. Techniques such as slap, harmonics and chord playing are also covered.

Thanks to the focus on the fingerboard markings, you can get started immediately with music. With the solidly produced play-alongs for each music example, even the simplest exercises are fun. This makes playing fun even before you turn to the "classic" lesson structure with empty strings and positions from low to high. There are further practice suggestions for each lesson.

Overall, there is a high level of practical relevance. This is also reflected in the large amount of additional information and explanations. At first glance, they make the booklet seem somewhat overloaded. However, they are particularly valuable in music lessons, as additions and suggestions for your own considerations. I would therefore recommend the book primarily in this setting. Beginners who tackle the book without a teacher will need quite a bit of bite. Either way, at the end you will be rewarded with a solid basic knowledge of the instrument and common playing techniques.

Advanced players can use the E-Bass ABC to Z Thanks to the practical tips and the wide-ranging topics, this book can also help you to catch up on missing knowledge. But the great strength of this book is its breadth, not its depth.

Thomas Grossmann: E-Bass ABC to Z. For beginners, intermediates and advanced players EH 11788, audio files for download, Fr. 34.50, Hug-Musikverlage, Zurich 2019

The Bavarian organist and composer Martin Vogt (1781-1854) is almost forgotten today. In the 1970s, however, the informative and amusing description of the first half of his life was popular with music lovers. The autobiography Memories of a wandering musicianpublished in Basel in 1971 by Heinrich Reinhardt, reveals that Vogt received extensive musical training as a choirboy at various German monasteries and came to Regensburg for further education at the age of thirteen. During the vacancies and after his studies, he made his way from monastery to monastery as a singer, organist and cellist and was a student of Michael Haydn in Salzburg for some time. The wandering church musician finally came to Vienna, from where he had to flee from Napoleon's recruiters.

We find Martin Vogt in Switzerland from 1806 to 1837. He worked as an organist at the monasteries of Einsiedeln, Muri, Mariastein and St. Urban, where he taught Langenthal's middle-class daughters to play the piano, then as an organist and teacher in Arlesheim and from there as a cellist in the Basel orchestra. Finally, he worked as music director and teacher in St. Gallen for 14 years before moving to his last station, Colmar, in 1837.

Martin Vogt's sacred compositions, organ pieces and masses, have appeared in print but are widely scattered. His only secular work, 24 songs with piano or guitar accompaniment based on poems by Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826), can be traced back to a personal encounter between the musician Vogt and the successful dialect poet in 1806. At that time, Hebel's Alemannic poems in its third edition, but also the folk song collection The boy's magic horn were published. Vogt's melodious songs with simple instrumental accompaniments allow a comparison with the dialectal art songs in the folk idiom, as they were published, also with piano or guitar accompaniment, as Collection of Swiss carols and folk songs were to appear in Bern in 1826.

In 2011, a concert of Vogt's Hebel songs from the first edition, which is kept in the Solothurn Central Library, awakened Hans-Rudolf Binz's desire to make this pleasing composition accessible for practical use. It is to the great credit of former library director Verena Bider and research assistant Christoph Greuter that Martin Vogt's songs have been published in a new edition. A booklet with both the piano and guitar versions is available.

Martin Vogt: Johann Peter Hebel's Alemannic Poems. Songs with piano and guitar accompaniment, edited by Christoph Greuter, (Music from the Collection of the Solothurn Central Library, booklet 10); piano booklet, M&S 2523; guitar booklet, M&S 2524; Fr. 38.00 each, Müller und Schade, Bern 2019

Further reading:
Martin Vogt, Erinnerungen eines wandernden Musikers, edited by Heinrich Reinhardt, Gute Schriften, Basel 1971

Christoph H. Hänggi: Martin Vogt (1781-1854), an organist and composer of the first half of the 19th century. 2 volumes, Liz. Basel 1988 (with list of works)

Rudolf Kelterborn (*1931) is one of the most influential musical personalities in Switzerland. Whether as a composer, lecturer, university director, radio personality or editor of the Schweizerische Musikzeitung, he was always at the forefront of events and is still active today: in 2017, Heinz Holliger conducted the world premiere of Kelterborn's Musica profanaa work commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the Basel Music Academy, which Kelterborn had headed for over ten years. The NZZ described it as a "compositional masterpiece".

The Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel have also recently given tribute concerts for him; Jürg Henneberger, for example, conceived an original program with music by Kelterborn and his students. And the Musikkollegium Winterthur performed the world premiere of his Music with 5 trios (2016/17), which it is now also presenting as its first recording on CD. This trio concept was new to him, Kelterborn said in an interview. The 88-year-old still enjoys such dramaturgical "puzzles". Five groups of instruments are distributed around the stage: three high and three low strings, woodwinds and brass, as well as a trio of harp, piano and percussion. The way Kelterborn deals with this unusual constellation is astonishing: he does not aim for spatial sound effects, but plays with pairings and contrasts, subtly and highly expressively.

Under the direction of the accomplished conductor Pierre-Alain Monot, to whom the work is dedicated, a multi-layered coexistence and interaction unfolds. The third part is gripping, Remember, in which Kelterborn quotes himself and glides into the mysterious with noisy whispers. One listens spellbound, above all because the Musikkollegium plays very attentively and with poetic intensity.

This new piece is accompanied by two older masterpieces: the Ensemble Book I (1990) for baritone and instruments and the Songs for the night (1978) for soprano and chamber orchestra. Kelterborn's music demands a high level of musicality from the performers, who intuitively sense the shimmering atmosphere of light and dark. Sarah Wegener's soprano is made for this, she sings the Songs for the night with a charmingly changing timbre, while the baritone Robert Koller makes particularly effective use of the changes in the top voice.

In his early days, Zurich violinist Tobias Preisig was still moving in quite conventional, romantic jazz realms. However, with the spectacular and internationally acclaimed violin/drums duo Egopusher and in duets with Stefan Rusconi on the church organ, he has thrown off all stylistic shackles. And with Diver, his first solo album, he once again shows a new side to himself. "The violin has a long tradition and is perceived as a prestigious instrument associated with technical virtuosity," explains the 38-year-old artist, who now lives in Berlin, in the accompanying text. "That's why there is a tendency for the music to be difficult in order to showcase the player's technical ability. I was always less interested in that."

Diver was developed and recorded over three intensive weeks in Preisig's studio with a view of the football stadium. Jan Wagner, whose artistic connections extend to the Faust Studio in Scheer, but also to the scene around the Berghain Club in Berlin, helped with the production. Turning away from demonstrative virtuosity has led Preisig into the realm of minimalist melodic fragments, which are used in the concluding piece Collective even be reduced to long single notes. The rhythms give themselves air and take their time. Now and again they are hinted at by means of breathy bass and crackling sounds, often they are simply carried by the integral movement of the violin motifs. The whole thing is accompanied by ascetic sustained notes from the synthesizer and lots of echo.

The discipline and boldness to concentrate on essences suits Preisig well. Diver consists of eight pieces that are very different in terms of structure and melody, but all of which radiate a meditative calm. Similar to Brian Eno's ambient music, they create an almost physical space in which the listener can both lose and find themselves. A wonderful album full of space, peace and light.

Anyone interested in the music of female composers will certainly be familiar with Germaine Tailleferre and Mel Bonis. You may also have heard of the Moravian composer Vítězslava Kaprálová or the Alsatian Marie Jaëll, but probably never of Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, Otilie Suková-Dvořáková, Stephanie Zaranek, Vera Winogradowa or Alicia Terzian. All of these composers are represented on a new CD by the Luxembourgish-Swiss pianist Viviane Goergen. She studied in Nancy and Paris and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in numerous European countries. Her repertoire includes not only the standard works, but also rarities such as the piano works of Lyonel Feininger and Ernst Toch. The fact that she is now devoting herself to unknown piano music by female composers is very welcome. Walter Labhart, who is responsible for the concept of her CD with several first recordings, also wrote the knowledgeable booklet texts.

Viviane Goergen has only recorded miniatures. La Cathédrale blessée by Mel Bonis is the longest work with a duration of five minutes. Written in the middle of the First World War, the piece with the unmistakable This-irae-motif is also a haunting homage to the churches destroyed in the war. However, the majority of the short compositions have a more cheerful and light-hearted character, such as the two works by Dvořák's daughter Otilie, who died young and was married to Josef Suk. Marguerite Roesgen-Champion from Geneva, who lived in Paris, was a pioneer of the harpsichord in the 1930s. Her two movements from the Bucoliques are, like Germaine Tailleferres Siciliennetypical works of French neoclassicism. If Marie Jaëll only painted her Valses Mignonnes her music would be considered quite harmless. In recent years, however, numerous compositions by the famous piano teacher have been recorded that have more substance.

The composer and conductor Vítězslava Kaprálová from Brno wrote her piano cycle for Rudolf Firkušný in 1937 Dubnová Preludia (April Preludes), which contains a variety of moods despite its brevity. It is the most compositionally refined and probably the most important work on the CD and has already been recorded several times.

The two Russians Stephanie Zaranek and Vera Vinogradova both studied with Maximilian Steinberg, Rimsky-Korsakov's son-in-law, among others. Their piano pieces, which were written in the young Soviet Union, are reminiscent of the music of Prokofiev and Glazunov, but without copying it. Much later, in 1954, the Argentinian Alicia Terzian composed the atmospheric Danza Criollawhich is dedicated to her teacher Alberto Ginastera and inspired by Argentinian folk music.

Viviane Goergen's interpretations are elegant and tasteful, which particularly benefits the quiet pieces. The fast movements could sometimes be played a little more fluently and with more temperament. The CD can be recommended to anyone who is interested in little-known piano music, even in the Beethoven year.