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

In a list of the most important oboists in music history, the name Gustave Vogt (1781-1870) should not be missing alongside the likes of the Plà brothers, Carlo Yvon, Antonio Pasculli, Léon Goossens, Evelyn Rothwell and Heinz Holliger. In the first half of the 19th century, he trained two generations of players for almost 50 years and had a fundamental influence on the Parisian oboe school. Only the 2nd movement of a three-movement concerto for cor anglais and orchestra has survived in the original. The same music appears in a transposed version in his 2nd oboe concerto, which prompted the oboist and editor Michel Rosset to transpose the 1st and 3rd movements for the cor anglais in the same way. His commendable reconstruction is highly convincing.

The three directly consecutive movements follow a Romantic gesture, and the operatic tone is occasionally reminiscent of the almost 20 years older Scène for cor anglais and orchestra by Antoine Reicha. The high level of virtuosity lies well in the hand, the vocal passages are always finely and richly ornamented, and the composition, which lasts a good quarter of an hour, is also formally convincing in the most beautiful way.

Domenico Cimarosa's original C major concerto was published for the first time by the same publisher. It was written in 1781, three years after Mozart's famous contribution to this genre. Although there are certainly echoes of the great model, the two concertos are not comparable. Cimarosa composes much more succinctly - he manages to write a veritable rondo in just 2 minutes in the 3rd movement, for example - and combines the movements with "attacca" writing. The heart of the concerto is a vocal Andante sostenuto in A minor: here Cimarosa proves himself to be an inspired opera composer.

Pēteris Vasks' has just released a brand new concerto. His English horn concerto (1989) has already achieved great popularity, presumably because of its unabashed stylistic proximity to Jean Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela. His oboe concerto, which has now been published (as a piano reduction with solo part), is also likely to find its way into concert halls, as its simple, modal tonal language appeals to the musical tastes of the subscription audience. Two melodic pastorale movements (Morning and Evening Pastorale) frame a lively middle movement in which various dances and an arioso come together and frame an extensive solo cadenza. The brittle piano reduction is unlikely to be satisfactory for a performance, but merely serves as preparation for a rehearsal with orchestra.

Gustave Vogt: Solo de Concert pour le Cor anglais, for cor anglais and large orchestra, first edition and reconstruction by Michel Rosset; score: EW 1216, € 32.50; piano reduction: EW 1208, € 18.50; Edition Walhall, Magdeburg

Domenico Cimarosa: Concerto in C major for solo oboe, 2 horns, 2 violins, viola and basso, first edition by Sandro Caldini; score: EW 1200, € 23.50; piano reduction: EW 1194, € 14.90; Edition Walhall, Magdeburg

Pēteris Vasks: Concerto for oboe and orchestra, piano reduction by Claus-Dieter Ludwig, ED 23365, printed edition € 32.00, Schott, Mainz

A photo of the legendary Nelly Melba during a radio recording in 1920 adorns the cover of the second volume of the "Handbuch des Gesangs" (Handbook of Singing) published by Laaber-Verlag. This photo captures a great and decisive moment that opened up a new path for the development of the art of singing and its reception history.

One of the editors of this book, Thomas Seedorf, only published his book in 2019. Handbook of performance practice for solo singing which contains a wealth of information for singing early and contemporary music (Bärenreiter). It is dedicated to vocal practice from 1600 to the present day, voice types, vocal aesthetics, ornamentation and declamation, but focuses on the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The developments of the 20th and 21st centuries are only touched on in passing with a chapter on new music and modern notation.

The new handbook concludes with the title Voices - Bodies - Media, Singing in the 20th and 21st centuries The content of the book follows on from the existing work. It opens up a new perspective on the voice and body on stage, namely in song and chanson in popular music theater as well as on the opera stage, and is dedicated to singing as a cultural practice and choral singing as a global phenomenon. The examination of modern media and the transformation of the singing voice through sound carriers, studio technology and digitalization is indispensable. The aesthetics of popular singing in the 20th and 21st centuries place different and new demands on the singing voice, where speaking, shouting and screaming are not only permitted in pop and jazz singing, but also serve the vocal expression of emotions, where the performers are microphones and sound engineers.

A large chapter is devoted to questions of pedagogy and therapy. The variety of sound aesthetics and stylistic expansion has never been greater than it is today. Just think of pop, rock, soul, jazz and musical singing, tango and indie groups, overtone singing and yodeling, experimental noisiness and sound creations of new music - alongside the ideal of classical singing, which has obviously lost none of its appeal; just look at the enrolment figures at universities ...

The kaleidoscope of vocal diversity is reflected in the extremely pluralistic range of singing lessons covered in the book, ranging from choral voice training to functional voice work, various pop singing schools and so-called bel canto technique to voice work combined with body and breathing training. A variety of methods becomes an attractive quality feature of technical vocal instruction; the magic word is networking instead of separation.

The handbook ends philosophically: Does singing make you happy? "Yes," is the answer! The question is why... Why does sounding, letting your own voice resound, letting it unfold freely, have a euphoric effect?

Voices - Bodies - Media: Singing in the 20th and 21st Centuries, edited by Nils Grosch and Thomas Seedorf, (= Handbuch des Gesangs 2), 396 p., € 98.00, Laaber, Lilienthal 2021, ISBN 978-3-89007-906-6

Swiss bands have traditionally had a hard time rocking out and producing catchy tunes as well as being dynamic. The Zurich quartet Annie Taylor - named after the 63-year-old teacher who was the first to plunge down Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901 and survive the adventure - has no such problems. In terms of instrumental expertise, Gini Jungi (vocals, guitar), Tobias Arn (guitar), Michael Mutter (bass) and drummer Daniel Bachmann, who recently joined the band from Winterthur post-Krautrockers Klaus Johann Grobe, could certainly also serve up virtuoso neo-progressive rock. Thank God they don't want to do that. Instead, on their second album they have remained true to the organic blend of post-grunge, garage and pop rock that made their debut three years ago so lively. Sweet Mortality scratched the Swiss album charts at the time and earned the band a long series of national and international festival appearances. The self-confidence gained in this way oozes from every groove of Inner Smile.

For the recordings, they moved to Bristol, where they spent the days in the studio of producer Ali Chant, who has also worked with PJ Harvey, Yard Act, Katy J Pearson (a favorite of Jungi) and Aldous Harding. At night, they retreated to the villa and honed the ideas of the past few hours. The sound has become much more versatile. Boisterously rumbling pop-punk numbers (Schoolgirl) are contrasted by catchy songs in which the loud/quiet dynamic developed by the Pixies is skillfully applied (Push Me). Ride High is Californian "sunshine pop", so to speak, even Fucking Upset finds room for a few thoughtful moments, and Sister lives not least from the glorious bass riff. The gifted singer, songwriter and frontwoman Jungi dominates the proceedings with aplomb. Conclusion: a terrific live band, skillfully preserved on vinyl.

Annie Taylor: Inner Smile. Cab Gauche Records TGR 037 (Vinyl)

Children often react surprisingly positively to country music. It is therefore all the more regrettable that there is hardly any beginner's literature available for teaching. Müliradverlag in Altdorf wants to remedy this situation with a new series, which is being launched with two booklets. Marion Suter and Claudio Gmür, two luminaries of the country piano from two different generations - Suter was a student of Gmür's for a long time - are each presenting a booklet with 16 simple dance pieces. Suter's compositions are original, Gmür's are half original pieces and half arrangements of classics of the genre.

The pieces are easy and enjoyable to play and at the same time convey the formal and harmonic basics of Swiss folk dance music. The new compositions follow the traditional patterns and sequences and yet are original and witty. It is clear to see that the author is very familiar with the subject matter. The most important forms - ländler, waltz, polka, schottisch as well as a mazurka in the case of Suter and a ländler fox in the case of Gmür - are presented in a simple and exemplary manner.

If this is too simple for you, you can use the two booklets as a basis to venture into the variation and ornamentation practice of Ländler music and, in the spirit of the old tradition, change and expand the pieces to suit your own taste. The booklets are therefore a worthwhile introduction to Swiss folk music not only for beginners, but also for more experienced people from other genres.

Swiss country music for piano,

Vol. 1: 16 new compositions by Marion Suter, No.1211;

Vol. 2: Eine Tasten-Bike-Tour, 16 new and traditional dances composed and arranged by Claudio Gmür, No. 1212;

Fr. 25.00 each, Mülirad, Altdorf 2021

Anyone who teaches music like a trainer is successful. That's not to say that music is sport, but in Ulrich Menke's Method navigation sports medicine and sports psychology aspects help to achieve positive results more quickly. The concept of practicing is supplemented by the concept of training. By alternating the use of all the senses, the brain can really get into shape: Kurzweil makes you forget about "practice time" and leads to flow. The teacher responds to the pupils more with questions than with criticism and thus helps them to develop more independent working skills.

In 18 chapters illustrated with instructive music examples from the violin literature, you are given a wide range of assignments to fan out the difficulties. Here is a selection:

1st warm-up, starting with the body: posture, muscle and finger sensitivity, self-observation in the mirror.

2. practice a new piece flawlessly right from the start thanks to Slow Motion; first introduce, then play.

3. looping: incorporate breathing pauses in difficult sequences and repeat the sequence parts; simplify large jumps as sound swings and listen to them and feel; in the case of double holds, determine the guide finger whose path is easiest to execute and remember; isolate error triggers and consolidate with loop.

4. time-out: extend fast passages with dotted rhythms or repeated notes.

5. supervision: Observe yourself playing in turn with different senses.

7. rhythm is it! Play rhythmically difficult passages on one note or on a scale first; play the string change movement of the bow of a multi-string passage on the empty strings first; find the optimum bow hand curve for tied passages.

8. place accents: In a passage that runs evenly, place accents on the second note in groups of four sixteenths, for example, and on the third and fourth notes in the repetitions, or even on every third note (against the meter) of the passage. In this way, every note comes into focus once.

9. self-coaching: like a reporter, you look at your "inner team's" performance and assess what needs to be improved. Focus on a finger that is too weak, a tone that is not expressive, a change of position that happens too late; "look at the scenic layout of playing situations".

10. playing away. Acquire confidence: playing the passage on other strings, in other positions, walking, back to back in an ensemble.

11. mixing desk. Trying out different dynamic variations of a passage (searching with crescendo and decrescendo for the right emphasis) leads to a more conscious understanding of the composition.

12. happy ending. If you place a fermata on a problem note and experience it more consciously, it loses the aspect of the "point of fear".

13. call - recall: singing a passage - repeat with playing. Call - Response: Singing a musical question - playing the answer. This makes it clear more quickly how a passage should be musically arranged.

Finally 18th performance! Here we explain how stage fright and fear of failure can be avoided, but also how musical flow can be encouraged.

In a concluding explanatory section, the importance of mindfulness, skillful coaching, mental training, a new relationship between teachers and learners and the training ground as a place of well-being is explained in detail. All in all, a valuable treasure trove of ideas!

Ulrich Menke: Das Methoden-Navi, Routenplaner zu einem erfolgreichen Instrumental- und Ensembleunterricht, 192 p., € 22.95, Schott, Mainz 2023, ISBN 978-3-7957-3092-5

Rümlingen was on the road again at the end of July. After the Lower Engadine in 2019 and Appenzell in 2021, the festival now explored a particularly attractive part of Ticino. The starting point was the former dropout paradise Monte Verità above Ascona. Then it was off on a hike to Valle Onsernone, the little Arcadia of the Swiss-German cultural bourgeoisie, and by boat to the subtropical Brissago Islands, always with compositions, sound installations and other acoustic performances carefully adapted to the landscape in their luggage - sometimes as a well-structured concert, sometimes in the manner of wonder bags for the sonic refreshment of the hiking public.

With its summer festivals, the Neue Musik Rümlingen association, which has been in existence since 1990, consistently takes a side path through the bushes that line the avant-garde mainstream. The handful of media people, composers and music mediators from Germany and Switzerland are well connected musically in both countries and can also rely on the interest of friendly sponsors. Clever institutional cooperation makes it possible to keep costs low. Local partners in Ticino were the Associazione Olocene (named after the story written by Max Frisch in the Onsernone Valley Man appears in the Holocene) and the Teatro del Tempo. The composer and festival founder Daniel Ott As a true Swiss, he also has a good knowledge of the country and a flair for the marginal.

Ticino, the end of the world?

"Finisterre", the end of the world, was the associative motto of the five-day event. As an expression of a romantic yearning for nature, this made perfect sense, and it was also fitting for the remote Onsernone, which is marked by migration. However, as is well known, the limit of perception, the "end of the world", always coincides with one's own horizon. And this now apparently only just reached as far as Lake Maggiore. To associate the tourist hotspots of Ascona and Brissago and industrialized Ticino in general, with its more than eighty thousand Italian commuters every day, with the idea of the end of the world is somewhat naive. In the program book, the organizers undertook all sorts of ideological pull-ups, apparently inspired by the genius loci of Monte Verità. Cloudy speculation about other realities was combined with tourist longings from a Nordic perspective and a touch of cultural colonialism along the lines of "Now we're exporting our avant-garde to the musically fallow south".

Aside from such conceptual contradictions, the undertaking was definitely a success. Everyone was satisfied, the artists, the organizers and the audience. This consisted of a crowd of loyal festival fans who were enjoying a few days of adventure vacation, curious day tourists and a few business professionals; there were few locals. They were one big family, surrendering to the magic of the landscape and curiously following the sound events placed in it. Of course, this was not possible without personal contribution. For example, three hours of hiking were planned for the Onsernone day, and those who were not good on their feet had to pass. Thanks to the secure financial cushion, the festival can afford the luxury of small numbers of participants. The concert on Brissago Island was subject to a numerus clausus due to the small number of passengers on the ship.

Focus on Monte Verità

"Rümlingen" is an experience festival; it is less about the artistic excellence of what is on offer and more about its unconventional perception and also about a more intensive self-perception. So with the group Trickster-pwhich didn't offer any sounds, just lottery tickets with the instruction: "Choose a sound to play in your head. Play it with the following accompaniment: Forest in spring at 5.00 am." The conceptualist gag was part of the opening day on Monte Verità. A similar silent movie experience was provided by the installation Graces by Lukas Berchtold, in which a female dancer moved in circles to paper garlands gently unfurling from above.

There was an intervention with a cultural-critical punchline in the Elisarium can be seen. The inside of this temple-like circular building is populated all around with naked boys, which the Baltic aristocrat Elisar von Kupffer painted on the wall in a paradisiacal pose in the 1930s. The Norwegian Trond Reinholdtsen - a gifted ironist who attracted attention in Darmstadt in 2014 with the beautiful phrase "O old sick Europe, I love you!" - provided a gaudy counterpoint to this slightly stale homoeroticism with a video in which he lets his well-known, brightly colored trolls crawl around and declaims cheerful pseudo-philosophical nonsense.

The forest beckons the eavesdroppers

In the extensive, hilly terrain, you could spend a day exploring the unknown, the surprising and sometimes quite incidental. On the Valkyrie rock - a name coined by the founders of Monte Verità - a singer, backed by electronics, sounded out the surroundings with a Laurie Anderson-Verschnitt. Somewhere in the bushes stood a lonely vibraphone, on the music stand "Der kranke Mond" from Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire.

In a clearing in the forest, there were a few deckchairs for walkers to sit on. Then, at a certain time of day, the scene suddenly came to life. Students from the Conservatorio Lugano stood behind the relaxed recliners with their instruments and gave them a gentle sound massage with soft tones and noises. And when the branches of the surrounding trees began to sway at a secret command, accompanied by the sound of distant bells, it was as if the enchanted forest was peacefully beckoning to the people. The trees from Manos Tsangaris The precisely timed, subtle sound situation was one of the best of the day.

The venture was worthwhile to bring the two composers out of the shadows of politics, the English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) in the time of the decline of a world empire, and the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) in the terrifying Soviet era. Their acquaintance, which came about rather by chance in 1960 and developed into a friendship across the almost insurmountable border of the Cold War, is portrayed in the most diverse facets of artistic and human relationships. Despite all the adversity, they were able to meet six times, both in Aldeburgh and Moscow and on their joint trip to Armenia (summer 1965).

The author endeavors to incorporate major political events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact states in 1968 and the heated discussion in Great Britain about the 1972 festival of Soviet music into the debates about the development of New Music, without neglecting the focus on the two artists as threatened existences. For from this point of view, they were judged as composers in a completely controversial manner before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the discussions in East and West continue unabated today, as both could hardly ever be counted among the avant-garde and their works were therefore often judged and condemned below their worth.

An overabundance of quotations from English and Russian sources - listed in well over a thousand annotations - often replace an opinion expected from the author. His primary concern, however, is not to reassess the works, but to shed new light on the sometimes comparably difficult circumstances under which the works were composed. Since both composers had to deal with the political events and thus often, but not always, became unintentionally involved, this required extensive research into their private lives. The "Changing Meanings of Values and Words" or details of the cultural exchange agreement between Great Britain and the USSR in 1959 go far beyond this, but often provide an insight into forgotten events during the Cold War.

However, such overviews harbor the danger that the geopolitical aspects, understood from a narrow cultural perspective, do not always stand up to an overall historical assessment. On the other hand, it is commendable that the author also attempts to shed light on the problematic aspects of the individualists who were forced into outsider roles.

Meinhard Saremba: Keeping the cultural door open. Britten and Shostakovich. Eine Künstlerfreundschaft im Schatten der Politik, 518 p., € 28.00, Osburg-Verlag Hamburg, Eimsbüttel 2022, ISBN 978-3-95510-295-1

It seems almost impossible to summarize an era like the 18th century, which is not really an era at all, in one book. The political, ideological, artistic and musical arc it covers is too broad. Elisabeth Schmierer - who researches and teaches at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen - therefore does not focus on individual personalities, but rather follows the developments of various genres, which she in turn illuminates against the respective social background. How did church music develop during the Enlightenment and the emergence of the concert business? How does the song appear in front of the "mirror of bourgeois musical culture"? Above all, again and again: where does music theater stand? This is highly informative because Schmierer also compiles a wealth of material on side areas such as ballet pantomime or program music.

Sometimes almost a little too much, so that one is in danger of losing the overview while reading. The absence of footnotes (instead there are lots of brackets) makes the text even less easy to read. There are almost no pictures or musical examples. Although a glossary in the appendix explains the most important terms, this does not prevent the book from being rather unclear.

I will pick out a favorite example, the Passion poem by the Hamburg writer and city councillor Barthold Heinrich Brockes, which was set to music by some of the most important composers such as Handel, Telemann and Stölzel, and which Bach also used. These names and a few more are mentioned, as well as the fact that Brockes reintroduced the Gospel text into the Passion Oratorio, albeit with a few rhymes. And that is all. Nothing about the highly individual and exciting solutions to which the highly expressive text inspired the musicians. No, the enumeration continues at breakneck speed.

Ultimately, the volume, which features three women making music on the cover, cements the impression that female composing played no role at all in that era. Only Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre appears as a female composer. Juliane Reichardt is missing, as is Madame de Montgéroult, who was one of the first female teachers at the Paris Conservatoire. Despite such omissions, the volume provides a good overview and is certainly useful for all those who teach music history and would like to link it within a wider framework.
Elisabeth Schmierer: The music of the 18th century, 345 p., € 32.80, Laaber, Lilienthal 2022, ISBN 978-3-89007-858-8

The author of this podcast, Matthias Droll, is himself a versatile musician: after studying classical percussion and elementary music education, he completed a jazz master's degree and plays in a trio that makes electronic music. He also climbs. He would also like to make his future professional life versatile. That is why he is trying to explore versatility. As part of his master's thesis at Bern University of the Arts, he has now created a series of acoustic portraits that can be listened to online. In x-voiced he talks to musicians who play several instruments, in several genres, in several roles, from performer to university lecturer, and who are also often active in sport or in organizations. He asks them how they came to this multitude of activities, starting in childhood, and wants to know whether they ever had to give up areas of interest, how they had to decide how to reconcile everything and how they managed to find creative phases in this diversity.

Listening to the contributions, which are between 39 minutes and just over an hour long, there is a pleasant tension between the calmly conducted conversation, which also has time for follow-up questions and longer explanations, and the sometimes dizzying amount of activities to which the interviewees devote themselves. Is this patient and careful approach one of the answers? However, it is not really a question of how different activities can be managed alongside one another, but whether and how they are mutually beneficial.

Anyone who has questions about their own versatility or simply wants an insight into the lives of inspiring musicians (although - in keeping with the versatility - you can also prepare vegetables or do the washing up) should listen in. There are nine episodes so far, with more to follow in the fall.

x-stimmig - (not) only music