Harald Feller (*1951) teaches organ at the Institute for Church Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Several of his compositions have been awarded prizes. He is also known for his interpretation of the famous organ part in the film Sleeping Brother. His catalog of works includes compositions for choir a cappella, vocal music with ensemble or orchestra, music for keyboard instruments, chamber music and orchestral pieces.

The present four-movement Sonata da Chiesa for cello (viola) and organ is based on the musical material of Feller's 2006 work Feldafinger Fair for 7-part mixed choir, strings, harp, percussion and organ. The movement titles of the sonata correspond to the structure of the mass: Kyrie eleison - Calm, expressive; Gloria in excelsis Deo - Lively, very rhythmic; Sanctus - Benedictus - Calm, solem; Communio - Adagio. Feller's compositional style is sometimes reminiscent of Maurice Duruflé, Flor Peeters or even film music.

The cello part offers predominantly rewarding, lyrical tasks, although in the third movement there are some demanding double-stop passages in the high register (range: G-f2). According to the composer, "a large part of the organ part must be played on two manuals, as the hands often overlap. Attention must be paid to when one voice should be prominent or when the two hands can be played equally on two or even one manual. It is important that the organ part always remains varied and transparent."

The sonata is suitable as liturgical music in church services, but can also be used as a concert piece. The not too rich repertoire of original literature for cello and organ is enriched in an original way with this technically demanding composition. A transposed version for viola is also available as a supplement.

Harald Feller: Sonata da chiesa for cello (viola) and organ, EW 1229, € 19.80, Edition Walhall, Magdeburg

For the Beethoven anniversary year, the Viennese pianist Rudolf Buchbinder has recorded his 33 Variations on a waltz by A. Diabelli again, and for the third time. He came up with something very special: He combined Beethoven's gigantic cycle with settings by his contemporaries, who at the time also wrote variations on the given theme for the publisher Diabelli, including versions by Franz Schubert, Franz Xaver Mozart and the eleven-year-old Franz Liszt. In addition, however, Buchbinder encouraged contemporary composers to explore Diabelli's waltz. The list is impressive and includes eleven names from Lera Auerbach to Jörg Widmann.

Some of these works have now been published by Schott, for example Christian Jost's racy Rock it, Rudi! (ED 23535) or the Variation on a theme by Anton Diabelli by Rodion Shchedrin (ED 23536). The latter turns out to be a clever piece full of pirouettes and surprises and should be played entirely without pedal (although the middle pedal could be helpful here and there).

Toshio Hosokawa's contribution goes into greater depth. The composer, who was born in Hiroshima in 1955, not only seems to be inspired by Beethoven's Changesbut also on the variation that Franz Schubert contributed to the joint work at the time. Hosokawa's Diabelli variation with the title Loss is also in the key of C minor and bears other related traits. It is a meditation whose quiet sounds are repeatedly interrupted and questioned by brusque interjections. This "Adagio, sostenuto, with feeling and expression" allows Diabelli's theme to shine through clearly at all times and, with the exception of a fast cadenza, makes few pianistic demands. Towards the end, however, Hosokawa also indulges a preference of late Beethoven with two longer trills ...

This piece, captivating in its simplicity, was premiered together with the other contributions by Rudolf Buchbinder at the Vienna Musikverein in March 2020 and is available on the CD The Diabelli Project (Deutsche Grammophon 00028948377077).

Toshio Hosokawa: Verlust/Loss, Diabelli-Variation for piano, SJ 1211, € 7.50, Schott, Mainz

It's not often that you wait forty (40) years for a book. I first heard about Martin Staehelin's biography of the Zurich musician Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836) in the spring of 1983. Opus ultimum of the respected Swiss musicologist, who spent his life studying Nägeli and his Zurich circle. It was known that Nägeli was a "singing father", composer, publisher, Bach admirer, music aesthete and corresponded with Beethoven, but that Nägeli, a man of ideas, also ventured into pedagogical, philosophical and theological topics, wrote poetry, theorized and intervened in politics - but was not the composer of Rejoice in life was - that is what we learn from Staehelin's comprehensive study.

It is based entirely on written sources, primarily from Nägeli's Zurich and Winterthur estates, but includes a vast amount of contemporary writings and remote secondary literature. The 640-page text is easy to read, detailed but never lengthy, and the author knows how to guide the reader safely through the labyrinth of his far-reaching thoughts. As yet unpublished texts by Hans Georg Nägeli are available in a digital Volume II, which can be downloaded free of charge.

The fact that this double Nägeli monument could only be published thanks to the expert support of helpers due to the illness of its author is hardly noticeable in the book. Nevertheless, it seems as if Martin Staehelin and his co-authors regret not being able to fulfill his various requests for more detailed studies themselves. It was worth the wait: the book is not only a life's work, but also a milestone in Swiss music historiography.

Martin Staehelin: Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836). Insights into his life and work, Volume I, 789 p., Fr. 90.00, Schwabe, Basel 2023, ISBN 978-3-7965-4746-1

Anarchist-inspired DIY experiments, multicultural fusion sounds and atmospheric rap now represent something of a stylistic orthodoxy of Geneva (see SMZ 11/2023, The sound of squats). But the city also has all kinds of "outliers". At one end of the spectrum is the extreme metal band Rorcal, whose search for the "inexpressible" has landed them in a pitch-black storm of sound. At the other, we find Quiet Island, a quartet of four voices - one woman, three men - and an instrumentarium of restrained plucked guitars, cello, flute and a touch of synth. push/pull is her third album.

Back in the day, they once won the "Pop" category at the Demotape Clinic at the m4music festival. Yet their elegant, finely chiseled music is miles away from everyday pop froth. Light as gauze, the four-part vocal harmonies lay over Bossanova-like beats, leaving plenty of room for the unagitated riffs or the gentle plucking of a discreet, jazzy guitar. Curiously, the band has its most beautiful piece, Frozen Lakeburied at the very end of this enchantingly misty album. The sudden use of woodwinds is a veritable moment of brilliance.

Comparisons? The Swingle Singers perhaps, or Fifth Dimension and Simon & Garfunkel. Just everything performed in slow motion and beamed in from another firmament.

Quiet Island (Julien Dinkel, Voice, Drums, Guitar; Julien Henchoz, Voice, Guitar, Piano; Louise Meynard, Voice, Bass, Cello; Laurent Zito, Voice, Guitar,Transverse Flute): push/pull. Red Brick Records

In an article on Heinrich Sutermeister, in which she characterizes the composer quite clearly as a Nazi collaborator, musicologist Antje Müller writes that when considering "conformist" music from Germany between 1933 and 1945, it is not the "music, which is mostly poor anyway, that should be examined", but the reception, as the music alone would hardly convey all the associative accessories. This does not do justice to the music of the composer, who was born near Schaffhausen in 1910 and died in 1995 in his adopted home on Lake Geneva.

The fact is, however, that Sutermeister, who had studied in Munich with Walter Courvoisier and the arch-conservative Hans Pfitzner, among others, and whose friends included Carl Orff and Werner Egk, who were very close to the Nazi regime, seemed blind to life and politics in Germany. Two of his operas were successfully premiered in Dresden in 1940 and 1942, while a third, written for Berlin, could only not be performed due to the events of the war. It seems strange that the booklet of the new Toccata Classics CD makes no mention of this problem, as Othmar Schoeck is regularly criticized for his lack of distance from the National Socialist state.

The CD contains Sutermeister's great vocal cycles as well as an aria from the opera Romeo and Juliet (1940). There is no question that the composer understood his craft and was also able to develop a personal style based on late German Romanticism and remaining true to tonality and conventional instrumentation, with the harpsichord adding a few unusual touches of color. It is astonishing that the Seven love letters for tenor and orchestra from 1935 does not sound worlds apart from the Six love letters for soprano and orchestra from 1979. The choice of texts is actually original: they are love letters from the 16th and 18th centuries by mostly well-known personalities and poets who describe very different moods. The problem is the abundance of text, which is not always comprehensible, at least without a booklet in hand, and also seems a little long-winded. The same applies to the Consolatio philosophiae for high voice and orchestra on Latin texts by the Roman philosopher Boethius, which was written in memory of Ernest Ansermet and premiered by Peter Schreier in Geneva in 1979.

Despite competent interpretations by the soprano Juliane Banse, the tenor Benjamin Bruns and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz under the direction of Rainer Held, the CD is not a fiery plea for renewed concert performances of these works.

Heinrich Sutermeister: Orchestral Music Vol. 2, Works for Voice and Orchestra. Juliane Banse, soprano; Benjamin Bruns, tenor; Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz; Rainer Held, conductor. Toccata Classics TOCC 0608

What do African, Oriental and Caribbean music have in common? Nothing less than the "world rhythm formula". It reads:Only the pitch and the emphasis of the individual beats make the difference between the African, Oriental or Latin feeling. In the African version, the rhythm formula is

in the orientalin the CaribbeanThen there are the instruments that make up the specific sound. The playing techniques of the djembe (African), conga (Caribbean), darabukka (oriental) and other percussion instruments are explained concisely and vividly and demonstrated in the videos, which are available via the Helbling Media app.

The rock and pop patterns, on the other hand, defy the ternary sense of rhythm and are straight. Depending on the song, however, they fit better. The drumset is then spread across several percussion instruments and is therefore well suited to classroom music-making. Brazilian choro or samba have a different feel, not to mention the odd rhythms of the Balkans. All of these styles, each with their own accents and timbres, have their own Rhythm without borders found entrance.

The rhythmic formula of two dotted crotchets plus a crotchet forms the basis for the arrangements that accompany the sample songs. So for once it's the other way round: it's not rhythmic playbacks that accompany songs, but melodies and harmonies that support the rhythms played in the ensemble. Both the full versions of the songs and the playback versions without rhythm instruments can be viewed in the app.

Rhythms with or without songs

Author Gerhard Reiter is, on the one hand, a well-traveled musician who has learned the styles and their rhythms on site. On the other hand, he is a teacher and knows all about successful teaching techniques. This includes the rhythm language, which not only describes the rhythms themselves, but also the pitches of the rhythm instruments - an excellent aid for working out the accents and timbres of the percussion instruments. The arrangements are available in a basic and an extended version, whereby the simple version is fully sufficient for an exciting accompaniment to the eleven songs. However, the rhythm arrangements can also be played independently of the songs.

Conclusion: A few well-founded ingredients mixed well - that's the recipe for the authentic feel of great musical traditions. What more could you want?

Gerhard Reiter: Rhythm without borders. Percussion models to accompany songs from all over the world, for secondary school, 56 p., audio examples and 90 videos, Fr. 39.60, Helbling, Bern 2020, ISBN 978-3-99069-315-5

Already in the foreword to Finger flickwhich emerged from a reflection as part of her pedagogy master's degree at the Zurich University of the Arts, the author Anna-Barbara Rösch points out the aim of "working with young children (from kindergarten to third grade) on finger technique without specifically mentioning the subject of finger technique".

The first part contains twelve stories with the characters Flurina and Niels, who practise elementary building blocks of flute technique such as playing scales, changing fingerings and improvisation at the end of each story. For example, in the second story, "At school", the two climb the school stairs and are asked to climb them with the flute at the end (scale). At the same time, on the same page, there is a piece of music from the literature that fits the theme, in this case a scale excerpt from a maestoso by Franz Anton Hoffmeister. These musical examples of varying degrees of difficulty can be simplified for practicing. Colorful illustrations by Jasmin Céline Baumann make the musical stories even more vivid for children. The second part contains a series of exercises that promote the mobility and dexterity of the fingers, even without an instrument, some of which originate from occupational therapy. These include, for example, warm-up exercises, exercises for fine motor skills and posture.

The varied booklet, which is an enrichment for music lessons with young children and playfully practises technical elements without naming them, was originally designed for the transverse flute, but with a little creativity can also be used for practising with other instruments.

Anna-Barbara Rösch: Fingerflink - Musical finger exercises in the form of stories, illustrated by Jasmin Céline Baumann, 130 p., Fr. 35.00, self-published anna-barbara.com/fingerflink

Music lessons at elementary school are in a bad way. Why is that? How can the school subject of music be suitably revitalized? The public service union VPOD Zurich/Music organized a public and well-attended panel discussion on this topic on 23 September, which was moderated by Esther Girsberger.

Maja De Luca from the VPOD Zurich.music board began by saying that the federal government and cantons are committed to high-quality music lessons. The canton of Zurich has a music school law, and thanks to the popular initiative jugend + musik (youth + music), the broad promotion of music is enshrined in Article 67a of the Federal Constitution. In Curriculum 21, music lessons at elementary school have been significantly upgraded. It stipulates two weekly music lessons from year 1 to 6.

Why is that?

But today, ten years after the introduction of the constitutional article, the reality in the canton of Zurich is sobering. There is indeed a "basic musical education" in the lower grades of elementary school. However, this is taught by a specialist teacher and is voluntary; it is not included in Curriculum 21. Later on, music lessons depend on the teacher. For some, the subject of music is important and they teach it with corresponding commitment. Others do not, and their music lessons hardly take place at all. No one monitors this. What's more, music is no longer a compulsory subject at the University of Teacher Education; it is offered on a voluntary basis. Very few students choose music as an art subject.

In response to Esther Girsberger's question about how bad it really is, basic music teacher Sibylle Dubs said: "It's bad. The reason for this is usually individual: the teachers are often afraid of teaching music. They don't have the confidence to do it, especially not singing. This often has to do with childhood trauma. Many were told they couldn't sing and had no voice."

Are there ways out?

For Simone Kramer, head of a primary school in the city of Zurich, the quality of music lessons stands and falls with the school management. As she herself had a musical childhood, music is an important part of education for her. So, in collaboration with the music school, a day school with a musical profile was created. In concrete terms, this means that the children should have intensive contact with music at every level: basic musical education, choir singing and class music-making. There are two weekly lessons for this. In Year 5 and 6, they can join a choir or band. And if a child likes their instrument, they can continue with it.

The idea of the elementary school teachers taking part in these music lessons is an interesting one. As Kramer's elementary school is located opposite the Toni-Areal, she helps herself with music students. It soon became clear that it was better to bring in artistic people for music lessons. The ZHdK offers a corresponding course, the BA in Music and Movement. However, this course does not have a secure field of work. Although there are jobs, the local authorities decide on the funding to fill such positions. Couldn't these specialist teachers trained at the ZHdK teach at elementary school?

What is already possible in other cantons seems a long way off in the canton of Zurich. Myriam Ziegler, Head of the Department of Primary Education, clarified the political situation: "When the universities of applied sciences developed around 20 years ago, there was a discussion as to whether or not specialist teachers should be admitted to elementary school. The conclusion was that this was not wanted in order to retain the class teacher as a reference person." Today, a maximum of 3 specialist teachers are permitted at primary level.

What puts the brakes on? The finances!

Where can solutions be found? The ZHdK is currently discussing a further education course in classroom music-making for primary school teachers. According to Bernhard Suter, didactics lecturer at the PH Zurich, better cooperation between music and elementary school would also be important, but this would require more funding. In his opinion, the following option would be promising: "A person responsible for music could be employed in a school. This person could then be called in by the class teachers for music lessons." That sounds reasonable, it would just have to be done and properly remunerated.

Version dated October 23, 2023

Deep down in the Leventina, traffic roars along the Gotthard highway, but up in Sobrio, eleven hundred meters above sea level, you see and hear none of it. After driving up a steeply ascending road with countless hairpin bends, you end up in a different world here: a secluded mountain village, situated on a sunny slope between meadows and a wooded area, the houses covered in natural stone. A 14th century church, a restaurant with a beautiful terrace. The view of the mountains opposite is breathtaking.

Like most mountain villages in Ticino, Sobrio has lost a huge number of inhabitants over the course of the 20th century; in 2016 there were just eighty. But now new life has returned. "Villaggio della Musica", the village of music, is what it is called today, and a banner hangs on a railing at the entrance to the village: Sobrio Festival. From July to mid-October, instrumental courses for students and young professionals are held here, with instructors from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and La Scala Orchestra in Milan, among others.

There are rehearsals and practices, concerts and the Elizabeth Tchaikovsky piano competition - a distant descendant of the Russian composer has lent her name to the event. The activities are divided into two events that complement each other: the summer academy with its master classes and the Sobrio Festival. In addition to concerts by international artists, the latter also offers the best course participants an opportunity to perform and, conversely, some guest soloists teach in the courses. The Villaggio della Musica forms the common umbrella.

A village changes

A metamorphosis has taken place in Sobrio. Many houses have been sustainably renovated, but their exterior has remained untouched. On the walls of the houses are small brass plaques with their names: Casa Gioacchino Rossini, Casa Héctor Berlioz, Casa Franz Schubert. Around fifty of the old houses have now been "musicalized" in this way. Most of them belong to private individuals who contribute to the musical activities in various ways, including practicing and former musicians.

Two of these houses are owned by the organizers: one is the large Casa Francis Poulenc with double rooms for the young musicians and a spacious kitchen where they can cook and meet as self-caterers. There are a number of young trees on the extensive grounds; a new one is planted for each winner of the piano competition. The other house is the perfectly furnished Casa Mahler. With a small hall for chamber concerts, workshops and master classes, it forms the heart of the company. A larger concert hall with around one hundred and sixty seats is the San Lorenzo church, and for open-air concerts there is an area supported by old walls directly behind the Casa Mahler.

The realization of a dream

The initiator and creative mind behind the Villaggio della Musica is Mauro Harsch, pianist and lecturer at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. With this project, he has realized an old dream and found the ideal location for it in the small village of Sobrio, which he has known since childhood. "There are masterclasses and concerts everywhere, but Sobrio is unique, not only because of the landscape, but also because an entire village is involved in the music here." Harsch speaks enthusiastically about the atmosphere here: "You won't find this peace and harmony anywhere else. Here, in contact with nature and shielded from the banalities of everyday life, the young musicians can develop freely." This is not possible in a more touristy or urban environment.

Institutionally, the music village stands on two legs. The Ars Dei association founded by Harsch, which he heads, is responsible for artistic and organizational matters, while the Amici del Villaggio della Musica foundation takes care of all institutional aspects. These two bodies, plus a circle of friends with over two hundred members, also guarantee financial security. The music village is largely self-financed, but donations from third parties are welcome.

So that the village and music win

The music village is a long-term development project. This primarily concerns the expansion of the properties. Work has just begun on the conversion of an old albergo at the end of the village, and perhaps as early as next year a small hotel will be available to accommodate festival guests under the name "Hotel Symphony". A residential project for elderly musicians is already being considered, and new accommodation for course participants is also being considered.

But everything is being done in order, nothing is being rushed. Not least because those responsible are aware that the musical undertaking represents an intrusion into the village's long-established social fabric, including problems for the infrastructure. Consideration for the sensitivities of the locals and strict sustainability are therefore the first priority. Social tensions cannot always be avoided, which is why the individual development steps are carried out in collaboration with the municipality of Faido, to which Sobrio has belonged politically since 2016.

For example, there were difficulties with the plan to build a small concert hall on the meadow in front of the village. The architect Mario Botta had been commissioned to design the building and had already delivered a draft. But then some residents objected. They feared that village life could be turned upside down by growing cultural tourism and the project was shelved for several years. An agreement has now been reached and the search for sponsors for the construction costs of 3.5 million has begun.

The Sobrio music village is a socio-cultural adventure without equal. Here you can observe how an originally purely cultural idea can have an impact far beyond its own sphere and profoundly change social reality. It is a process with an open outcome. But if enthusiasm for the cause and social responsibility go so closely together, as seems to be the case here, then there is reason to believe that for both sides, the music and the village, the future has only just begun.

www.sobriofestival.com

Joachim Raff (1822-1882) left behind several works for cello and piano: two Romances op. 182, the Fantasy Pieces op. 86 and the Duo op. 59. The most extensive work, however, is his four-movement Cello Sonata in D major op. 183. There is hardly any reliable information about its genesis. It was premiered in December 1873 at a novelty concert at the Berlin Singakademie and published by C. F. W. Siegel. The reviews were predominantly critical. Expectations were apparently too high after the triumphant Berlin premiere of Raff's 5th Symphony Lenore on October 29 of the same year.

However, the critics' verdict at the time does not do the piece justice. It is an entertaining, brilliantly virtuosic work: the cello and piano are equal partners and the performers are required to demonstrate a great deal of technical skill. So one thing will certainly never be neglected in performances: the pleasure of playing! The sonata is perhaps more "striking" in character than the sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn, for example. The catchy tonal language of the four movements is very pictorial, so that one is occasionally reminded of Raff's symphonic works with extra-musical program references.

The 200th anniversary of the composer's birth in 2022 gave rise to numerous performances and new editions. Raff's cello sonata has now also been published in a critical Urtext edition by Breitkopf & Härtel in collaboration with the Joachim Raff Archive in Lachen.

Joachim Raff: Sonata for piano and violoncello op. 183, edited by Claus Kanngiesser, EB 9406, € 28.50, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

The DrumBook by Toni Schilter is friendly, colorful and extremely appealing. The practice-oriented teaching aid is designed for children aged five to nine. The author's idea of associating the individual components of the drum kit with a color in the first part is a great help for beginners.

After a short introduction, the first warm-up begins, followed by a short note theory, the "pizza comparison". The progress in this booklet is not focused on the rhythmic structure with figures, but on the groove, expression and coordination. The DrumBook has a clear structure and also lays a foundation in topics such as rudiments, music theory, independence and general knowledge about the drumset and its components.

Combinations with the feet and exercises with accents are introduced early on. There is also a small suggestion to work with word rhythms. After just a few pages, the children will be grooving over the entire drum set. As the book progresses, the structure of a song is illustrated and the parts that make it up are explained.

With numerous exercises, practical pictures and illustrations as well as several solos and duets in various levels of difficulty, the author combines and illustrates learning, practicing and making music in a varied way on 122 pages. The freedom to develop their own ideas ensures the individual and creative development of learners, which teachers can also help to shape. The author is convinced: "With Toni's drum book, children constantly celebrate small successes and therefore remain motivated." Curious? Sample pages are available on the website, where the book can also be ordered.

Toni Schilter: DrumBook "Tonis Trommelbuch", workbook for drumset with clear storyline, first teaching aid for young drummers, Fr. 35.00, self-published www.drumbook.ch

Babbling, shouting, whispering, whooping, singing - "the voice - our first musical instrument". This is the music education approach in the Song sparks for music lessons in the 1st cycle, for children between the ages of four and eight. Music lessons are not packed into music lessons here, but appear in various moments of everyday school life: when greeting and saying goodbye, on children's birthdays, in connection with learning about natural phenomena or in connection with life-science topics. In general, the present song arrangements pay great attention to an age-appropriate reference to everyday life. One chapter is called "Children's everyday life", and one song in it is called Plaster, ointment or tea? The other chapters are entitled "Grüezi und Adieu", "Draussen unterwegs", "Winterzeit" and "Nachtstimmung". They organize the songs according to content.

Special attention is paid to "verses and sayings" and thus to the relationship between language and music. The "finger verses" combine speech with motor skills and rhythm in a humorous way - "Chömed all' zu mir zum Znacht, ich han us Schnee e Pizza gmacht!" - also with a view to children with German as a second language, for whom the verses help them to acquire language in an imaginative way.

By embedding the songs and language games in social interaction, music becomes an instrument that uses the personal experience and the community-building power of music to promote both subject-specific and interdisciplinary skills: expressing oneself by singing, dancing and making music or listening to each other promotes musical expression as well as independence and the ability to cooperate. The 24 songs in the book refer explicitly and in detail to the skills specified in Curriculum 21. However, the focus is on the diverse and playful ways of developing the songs composed by the author - explained simply and clearly.

Christina Schnedl: Song sparks. Sing, dance, make music, 127 pages, Fr. 51.00, Verlag LCH, Zurich 2021, ISBN 978-3-908024-31-6

To coincide with his 100th birthday, a previously unpublished work by the great Viennese organist, pedagogue and composer Anton Heiller has been published, at least in part. The small chorale partita was composed at the beginning of 1975 as a commissioned work for a collection of organ music for church services; however, only the intonation, chorale movement and variation 1 were published, while the two remaining variations were not included due to their complex harmonies and therefore appear here in print for the first time. According to an online commentary by Anton Heiller's son on a recording of the work by the publisher, the piece seems to reflect the composer's mental state, which was characterized by illness and increasing exhaustion.

A short (manualiter) intonation introduces a chorale movement, which in this country would have to be rhythmically adapted to the version in the reformed hymnbook for an alternatim performance with sung verses. A first, very expressive variation accompanies the melody with a counter-voice in expressive, sometimes widely stretched sighing phrases. Variation 2 is a somewhat oddly dance-like movement in 6/8 time, which integrates the first two lines of the chorale. The finale is a full-bodied, harmonically rugged chorale movement in a powerful forte. Thanks to its not particularly high technical demands and its suitability for small instruments with one or two manuals and pedal, Heiller's short opus is a practical and therefore very welcome addition to the repertoire. It allows a (re-)encounter with an artist who has also had a lasting influence on the Swiss organ world and whose compositional work has been unjustly pushed into the background.

Anton HeillerIntonation, chorale and three variations on the melody "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir", edited by Lukas Frank, D 02 542, ca. € 12.00, Doblinger, Vienna

Nadia Boulanger, the grande dame, was a teacher and pioneering discussion partner of Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Igor Stravinsky and many composers who are not so firmly anchored in the imaginary museum of music history. Boulanger, as this book impressively shows, came from the Romantic aesthetic of inspiration, but remained open-minded into old age. She was never dismissive or even skeptical of the new, although her focus was on French aesthetics and history.

Bruno Monsaingeon has published his book Mademoiselle. Entretiens avec Nadia Boulanger published in 1981, is now available in German, excellently edited and translated by Joachim Kalka. In the foreword, Monsaingeon remarks that Boulanger did not like "making any confidential announcements". This probably explains the somewhat fragmented style of the book, which is based on conversations from the last years of his life. Boulanger is neither a philosopher of music nor a scientist or theorist. Her thoughts are erratic, but not unproductive.

Nadia talks at length about her sister Lili, about her talent and also about Lili's spark of genius, which she herself never had. The book often revolves around themes such as talent, creativity and the creative urge - see "romantic inspirational aesthetics". On page 97, Boulanger states:

"In the question of genius or masterpiece, I must admit my embarrassment. In fact, I know nothing ... I know and I don't know because I have a certainty that is not based on reason. It begins, of course, with a certainty that is partly reasonable, insofar as I state that a piece of music is well written, well orchestrated, well constructed. But the moment it is about something else, you enter into a mystery. Since I am a believer, everything seems a mystery to me."

You can call it respect, respect for art, respect for music. However, the more you delve into Boulanger's thoughts, the more you get the feeling of a cultivated mysticism, which is strangely at odds with quite concrete ideas of musical craftsmanship as well as deep and tangible insights into important works of music history. It is precisely this impression that probably explains Boulanger's pedagogical success: she taught the basics, knowledgeably and rigorously at the same time. What her pupils made of it, what happened in unconscious processes - she had respect for that and kept quiet. This is probably also the conclusion of this multifaceted book: there are many impulses. But the reader is responsible for thinking further.

Bruno Monsaingeon: I think in tones - Conversations with Nadia Boulanger, 176 p., € 28.00, Berenberg, Berlin 2023, ISBN 978-3-949203-50-3

The singing father Hans Georg Nägeli, born 250 years ago, made Switzerland sing. It is ironic that a CD was released on his birthday that shows a completely different picture of the Swiss musical landscape: Switzerland swings.

The fifth installment in the "20th Century Foxtrots" series features a host of rarities by twelve Swiss composers as well as the German José Berr, who lived in Zurich for many years, and the Geneva composer Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, who was more successful in Paris. The musicologist Mauro Piccinini, who is also the academic supervisor of this series, has tracked down the mostly unpublished dance pieces. He writes about how the foxtrot, which was mistaken for jazz, became established in St. Moritz hotels, for example, by means of a "Tschetzpend". In the latest episode, the pieces are also played with captivating verve and humor by Viennese pianist Gottlieb Wallisch. The booklet cover, brilliantly designed by Alastair Taylor in typical Art Deco style, shows a couple dancing in front of a snowy mountain backdrop. The CD, recorded in the SRF radio studio in Zurich and produced in Germany, also exudes an international, predominantly American flair.

Twelve premiere recordings feature fox trots and tangos by composers born between 1865 (Emile Jaques-Dalcroze) and 1941 (Urs Joseph Flury), all of whom briefly lost their hearts to jazz and American fashion dances. In addition to Arthur Honegger, Conrad Beck, Paul Burkhard, Peter Mieg and Julien-François Zbinden, this project also includes lesser-known composers such as René Gerber, Walter Lang and André-François Marescotti.

Albert Moeschinger makes a compelling start with a lot of swing and a particularly sensitive approach to jazz. Tallula is the name of his syncopated foxtrot fantasy from 1930, to which a genuine Farewell Blues follows. These two sharply profiled pieces serve as models for everything that follows. The Rheinberger pupil José Berr amuses curiously with a one-step on the Jodellied I am a Swiss boy and the Thurgau song.

20th Century Foxtrots, Vol. 5. Switzerland. Gottlieb Wallisch, piano. Grand Piano GP 922