"As you know, I carry a deep sadness in my heart; it has to break out here and there in notes." With these words, Franz Liszt himself provided the key to understanding his late piano works in a letter in 1883, which dispense with any virtuoso flourish and instead explore the limits of tonality. His contemporaries only shook their heads in disapproval. Even Richard Wagner spoke of "germinating madness" and "dissonance", which he could not get anything out of. And as late as 1976, Klaus Wolters, in his comprehensive Handbook of piano literature stated that this music was neither suitable for teaching nor for concerts: "Nothing more of the brilliant firebrand, just dull, joyless, shadowy shapes ..." This assessment has changed considerably in recent decades. Nowadays, these works are admired for their radical simplicity and bold harmonies and are increasingly finding their way onto the podium.

The Bärenreiter publishing house has now published some of these piano pieces from the years 1880 to 1885 in an anthology. Among them is the incredibly sombre Unstern! the mysterious Nuages gris and At the grave of Richard Wagnera work that also exists in a chamber music arrangement. Also included are the two versions of the rarely performed Romance oubliée and - last but not least - The mourning gondolaalso in both versions. The second version of the latter is one of the few more extensive works and impresses with its subtle structure, which culminates in a dramatic outburst. This piece in particular can be wonderfully combined in a recital with earlier works by Liszt, such as the Sonata in B minor.

In the foreword to this new edition, editor Michael Kube provides a great deal of interesting information about the genesis of the individual pieces. And in the detailed notes on interpretation, Steffen Schleiermacher, a pianist who has obviously grown fond of this music, gives his opinion. His instructions may sometimes be a little personal. But they are certainly welcome as suggestions.

Incidentally, Béla Bartók was one of the first to really take Liszt's late works seriously and appreciate them. In general, he was convinced "that Liszt's significance for the further development of music was greater than Wagner's".

Franz Liszt: Piano Pieces from the Years 1880-1885, edited by Michael Kube, BA 10871, € 20.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel  

In front of me is a beautifully illustrated folder filled with six colorful, humorously drawn booklets that invite children to discover them. The two harpists Franziska Brunner and Sabine Moser are experienced teachers. Their school encourages active exploration of the harp and creates a connection between music and life. The authors have succeeded in creating an extremely well thought-out structure from the ground up, i.e. not only introducing harp technique, but also incorporating all aspects of music at the same time. There are suggestions for improvisation, pictures inspire you to tell stories, exercises are combined with associations, music theory is introduced in a very playful way, there is plenty of room for imagination and finally there are carefully selected beautiful songs. A teaching aid full of special ideas - a rainbow of possibilities.

Focusing on the child and its world of experience also led to the idea of aligning the harp school with the annual cycle. Each booklet, divided into learning units of six to eight weeks, has a seasonal focus, which is reflected in the improvisations and the choice of songs. If a child starts playing the harp in the new school year, they will go through summer, fall, winter and spring and should be able to master the first four to five booklets within a year. The booklets are only eight pages thick and can therefore be mastered quite quickly. This has a very motivating effect on the children, as they have the impression that they are progressing quickly.

I find it striking how airy the pages are designed, not at all overcrowded and yet there is space for everything essential.

Teachers can use this teaching aid as a varied source of inspiration for freer lessons, while at the same time it meets the objectives of Curriculum 21. As music theory is constantly integrated, it is also the starting point for games, discoveries and creation. A conscious decision was made not to fill the teaching material with lots of pieces. This gives children and teachers the opportunity to add or replace songs themselves as required. If the concept of seasonal booklets would be a hindrance for slower children, the teacher would of course have to be freer with the school. The school is primarily aimed at children between first and fourth grade.

It is very pleasing that after the huge response to the first volume, a sequel with a further seven booklets will soon be published. Once again, the design has been tested by harp teachers in lessons over a long period of time, and changes and suggestions have been incorporated. This future teaching aid is also a joint effort in many respects with the following content: great songs, intervals and triads including their inversions, arpeggios, scales, harmonics, triplets and sixteenths, improvising on tonics and dominants, extended note reading, keys and parts.

The Harp School Rainbow is a contemporary, educational enrichment that I can only recommend.

Franziska Brunner and Sabine Moser: Harp School Rainbow, booklets 1-6, illustrated by Ruth Cortinas, 80 p., additional material online, Fr. 34.80, kontakt@cordialharfenspiel.ch, ISBN 978-3-7252-1045-9

The revival of Othmar Schoeck's last opera Dürande Castle at the Stadttheater Bern by conductor Mario Venzago and musicologist Thomas Gartmann has once again reminded us that the Swiss music scene could - or should - pay more attention to its most important opera composer of the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, however, it was not Armin Rüeger who turned the Eichendorff text into a libretto, but, after his refusal, the Nazi German Hermann Burte. Rüeger's three libretti for Schoeck, Don Ranudo, Venus and Massimilla Doniprovided a reliable basis for the setting, even if the composer already had some passages from the concept "in the pot" and had to ask for the text to be supplied as quickly as possible.

Excerpts from letters written by Rüeger and Schoeck, as well as contributions from authors of the following generation, provide a clearer picture of the contours of the pharmacist from Bischofszell, who was also active as a graphic artist, and his friendship with the composer, which lasted over fifty years, and complement Chris Walton's major biography of Schoeck (Atlantis 1994) in a sympathetic way. Attractively illustrated with sketches, paintings and photos, this, together with the book accompanying the 2021 festival, could be the start of a meaningful series of publications on the subject of Othmar Schoeck.

Drama and Opera. Armin Rüeger - Librettist and Friend of Othmar Schoeck, book accompanying the Othmar Schoeck Festival 2022, edited by Alvaro Schoeck and Chris Walton, 156 p., Fr. 15.00, Müsigricht, Steinen 2022, ISBN 978-3-9525658-0-3

Schwyzer Heft 113 pursues various objectives: The centerpiece is the annotated edition of ten letters containing Joseph Joachim Raff's reports from two trips to Switzerland (1867) and the southern German Alps (1873). This enabled the Schwyzer Hefte to cooperate with the Raff Society - on the occasion of the 200th birthday of its namesake - without having to forego a minimum of local color. At the same time, this has provided a platform for the publication of a previously unknown part of Raff's extensive correspondence, which is kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. In addition, the two editors and the editor take the opportunity to draw attention to those works by Raff which have Swiss in their title.

In all of this, it remains unclear whether the composer did not rather use such geographical titles to facilitate the saleability of his works by knowing how to profit from his rather coincidental birthplace in times of increasing tourism in Switzerland. An overview of the development of the Alpine country of Switzerland as a tourist destination by the historian Joseph Jung, intended as a contextualization, turns out to be the focal point of the entire publication, to which Raff, with his reference to Switzerland in letters and compositions, is no more than a case study, albeit a particularly complex one.

Although this richly illustrated and informative volume - more than just a "booklet" - would have deserved critical editing, it represents a further milestone in the development of research into Joachim Raff, the composer so important for the understanding of 19th century music.

Severin Kolb, Franziska Gallusser, Lion Gallusser, Joseph Jung, Heinrich Aerni: Unterwegs mit Joachim Raff im Alpenraum, Schwyzer Heft Vol. 113, 137 p., Fr. 25.00, Kulturkommission Kanton Schwyz, 2022, ISBN 978-3-909102-75-4

The Duo Praxedis is here to stay. Harpist Praxedis Hug-Rütti and her daughter, pianist Praxedis Geneviève Hug, have been performing together for years and continue to surprise with original recordings. Just think of the Piazzolla double CD or the grand duet with original works for harp and piano, also a double album.

In fact, the harp has always flourished as an instrument, for example at royal courts and in the salons of the 19th century. Or with the French, when Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel set off into new, "liberated" worlds of sound. The duo combination of harp and piano was also celebrated in the concert hall, for example with the pianist Carl Czerny (1791-1857) and the harpist Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849), who was the "Liszt of the harp" for Berlioz.

Researching interesting but forgotten literature for their duo is part of the job for these two passionate musicians. On their current CD, for example, you can hear a Grand Duo du Couronnement by Henri Herz (1806-1888) or listen to the Six Nocturnes by Charles Oberthür (1819-1895). In these trouvailles, the pianist knows how to subtly hold back the sound in order to give the harp its acoustic space.

However, this CD also documents three of the commissioned works that Duo Praxedis regularly gives to renowned Swiss composers. In 2018, the stylistically very accomplished and versatile Rudolf Lutz La Folia for the duo, whereby, in his own words, he "meanders through the most diverse stylistic countries". Lutz skillfully combines Renaissance elements, romantic sounds, tango and jazz variations to create a varied but coherent piece.

Coucher du soleil (2016) is the title of the work that Rolf Urs Ringger dedicated to Duo Praxedis at an advanced age. He was inspired by Marc Chagall's painting Sunset inspire. In no other piece on this CD is the dialog between piano and harp explored as masterfully as here. Ringger's use of the pedalized bass register of the grand piano is particularly striking, lending the delicate harp an original aura of sound.

Xavier Dayer, the youngest composer in the group, is also known for his subtle sense of sound. For Duo Praxedis, he has varied a melody from the popular polyphonic songs of the French province of Béarn. Here, the two musicians reveal their perfected sound balance, their subtle ear for each other and their delicate virtuosity.

Duo Praxedis: Signature. Praxedis Hug-Rütti, harp; Praxedis Geneviève Hug, piano. Ars Production ARS 38 628

The Swiss-French Wind ensemble Astera consists of Coline Richard (flute), Yann Thenet (oboe), Gabriel Potier (horn), Moritz Roelcke (clarinet) and Jeremy Bager (bassoon), who are all former students of the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne. They came together from all over Europe straight after their studies to form this ensemble and cultivate their shared passion for chamber music. Their different personal experiences have enriched their cohesion, their sound and their musical affinity within the wind quintet.

They are members of or work with renowned orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig or the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

According to Andreas Sundén, chairman of the jury and principal clarinettist of the Swedish Radio Orchestra, "the sound of this ensemble is refined and precise. With a balanced energy, convincing both as a group and individually, their playing is characterized by reflection and a deep expression for the composer."

Held every four years, the Carl Nielsen Chamber Music Competition is aimed at young string quartets and wind quintets. After a video pre-selection, it goes through three rounds; from a large repertoire, the ensembles also present a commissioned work that was composed especially for the competition.

It is a piece of wonderful music that still surprises in several ways today. First of all, this nocturne sounds nothing like the Dvořák, whom we think we know from his all-too-present American period. The genesis alone makes one curious. The movement originally comes from an early string quartet in E minor (1869/70). It was then incorporated (with extended instrumentation) into the String Quintet in G major op. 77 (here already with double bass), was removed again - and finally took on a life of its own as the Nocturne in B major with a revised second part.

The movement also leaves a lot of scope for the interpreter. Even an initial overview of the available recordings reveals an astonishing result: the Nachtstück, with its total of 51 bars, can be played very quickly and fluently in under six minutes or celebrated almost standing still in over nine minutes. As always, the truth lies in the middle, whereby the flow of the 12/8 time signature should be maintained. Even if the violoncello plays for what feels like an eternity on the fifth F sharp This movement has it all, is challenging and will make the auditorium revel, whether in a simple chamber music setting or more palatable with a choral ensemble. The five crosses may seem daunting at first, but they create a sound effect of enchanting luminosity.

The current Bärenreiter edition can draw on a newly discovered engraver's model of the piece and thus corrects some readings. Above all, however, the edition (score and a string section 4-4-3-2-1) is very clean, clear and beautifully set. A worthwhile addition to the repertoire.

Antonín Dvořák: Nocturne for string orchestra in B major op. 40, edited by Jonáš Hájek, score and set of parts BA 11564, € 29.50, Bärenreiter, Prague  

Jewish music has a rich history spanning over 3000 years. It has been significantly shaped by the diaspora, life as a religious minority in different countries, and the resulting incorporation of a wide variety of national musical styles and practices.

With the Hebrew choir book Berlin-based choral conductor and arranger Ohad Stolarz has now published a remarkable collection with a high repertoire value with Breitkopf und Härtel. In two volumes, he presents sacred, paraliturgical and secular classics from the core repertoire of Israeli cultural history. His colorful arrangements for a cappella choir are easy to perform and perfectly capture the mood of the songs. An informative preface, singable transliterations of the Hebrew texts, translations, pronunciation aids and detailed introductions to the works in the appendix make the Hebrew choir book a real recommendation.

Hebräisches Chorbuch for mixed choir a cappella, edited by Ohad Stolarz; Volume 1: Sacred repertoire, ChB 5375; Volume 2: Secular repertoire, ChB 5376, € 19.90 each; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2022

It's Rachmaninov time, as his 150th birthday is being celebrated everywhere. The Russian composer spent several years of his exile on Lake Lucerne in the Villa Senar, which is currently being renovated and will then be opened to the public. All the more reason for the Basel Symphony Orchestra to present two of his important works on CD.

This is also made possible by the successful Swiss label Prospero, run by Martin Korn. The following were recorded Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini op. 43 and the Piano Concerto No. 3 op. 30 at the Stadtcasino Basel. A Swiss production that has it all, also thanks to the excellent pianist Irina Georgieva. The Romanian has had close ties with Basel for years, having studied here with Rudolf Buchbinder. Her piano playing is phenomenal, delicate, always wonderfully audible and never "thick", not even in Rachmaninov's chordal force. She already shows this calling card in the Paganini Variations, which she performs in a chamber music style with a gentle touch and wonderful phrasing. The Basel Symphony Orchestra under Sascha Goetzel provides attentive and restrained accompaniment. It begins with the orchestra's introduction of the theme with short, soft accents, an ideal preparation for the pianist's interpretation. This puts the listener in the mood for the 3rd Piano Concerto, the second work on the CD program, right from the start.

In this piano concerto, Rachmaninov is more diverse in his instrumentation, more varied and less concerned with pure effect than in the second. And it is precisely here that one is amazed at what the Basel Symphony Orchestra, this time under the direction of Pablo Gonzáles, has to offer in terms of audibility, subtlety of sound and finesse. A red carpet for Irina Georgieva, who masters the extraordinarily difficult piano part as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Only in the spectacular finale would one wish for a little more courage to make a grand, sweeping gesture.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Irina Georgieva, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Sascha Goetzel/Pablo Gonzáles. Prospero Records Prosp0025

It is written in large letters on the cover: Stage fright. The full title reads: Master your stage fright - With mental training to a successful performance. This is the shortest possible summary of this practical and enjoyable book by Renate Publig. Her writing is light and clear, with graphic elements and drawings that get to the heart of the matter and motivate readers to tackle the problem with hope.

Theoretical information mostly remains in the background, the focus is on practical exercises from A for affirmations to Z for touching toes and breathing, all clearly arranged in a register at the end. On the one hand, these are instructions for "acute interventions" when stage fright chokes the throat immediately before the performance or even on stage. On the other hand, "long-term interventions" help to systematically practise a positive way of dealing with stage fright over an extended period. The guide is ideal for self-therapy. However, anyone who is plagued by panic attacks over a longer period of time should seek help from a specialist instead of resorting to beta blockers. A "middle word from actor Max Müller" right at the beginning and a closing word from José Cura form a harmonious framework.

Renate Publig: Master your stage fright. With mental training to a successful performance. Singing, speech, acting, 197 p., € 29.80, Doblinger, Vienna 2021, ISBN 978-3-902667-84-7

In the middle of the historic center of Münster (Goms), not far from the Rhone Glacier and Finsteraarhorn, the "Mebu" an art space for contemporary music. The name is short for "Münster Earport by UMS 'n JIP" and is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the neighboring Münster Airport. But it also makes it clear that the focus at Mebu is on playing and listening to music. It was founded and is run by New music duo UMS 'n JIP (Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Javier Hagen), which as a result of the pandemic - rehearsal and work spaces were no longer available during the lockdowns - has pitched its tents in Münster and set up a permanent production and performance venue there.

A unique feature of the Mebu is a permanently installed 16-channel acousmonium for the reproduction of electro-acoustic (acousmatic) music - one of the few of its kind open to the public in Europe - as well as a remarkable collection of historical keyboard instruments for the historically informed reproduction of early music. UMS 'n JIP is one of the most active ensembles for contemporary new music, with guest performances at the Venice Biennale, the Liceu Barcelona, the Colón Buenos Aires and the Shanghai New Music Week, and has been awarded over 30 international prizes.

At Mebu, they will next give concerts by the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis Selection 2022/23 with acousmatic music: on March 10, 11 and 12, 2023 as part of the Festival for New Music Forum Valais.

When was the last time I heard such intimate music? The loving togetherness is, as it were, the prerequisite for most of the pieces on this CD, because the composer often writes for the cellist with whom he has shared his life for a long time, Roland Moser writes for Käthi Gohl Moser.

However, there is nothing representative or wanting to be representative about it, no sound photo album. Rather, two people give us an insight, Einhorch into their musical dialog. Gladly in two voices, whereby the cello solo becomes a duo. Here together with the violin of Helena Winkelman, there together with the recorder player Conrad Steinmann, the oboist Matthias Arter or the pianist Anton Kernjak. There are also short soliloquies in which Gohl sings and hums to the cello. There are other guests around him, composers such as Schubert or Offenbach, poets such as James Joyce, Paul Éluard or Arthur Rimbaud, sometimes well hidden, sometimes obvious. Moser's music loves allusion, she likes to deal with words, thoughtfully and carefully, without haste. She subtly begins to sing from time to time, with romantic sentiment, even subtle, yearning devotion. And in ... like a waltz on glass ... the cello dances "intricately simple" in the harmonics, as Roman Brotbeck writes in his beautiful booklet text. Other pieces lead onto the borderline paths of microtones.

As short as most of the pieces are, each has its own character. Only one composition from 1998 is given greater weight here, which can be heard in two versions: first in the newer version for violin and cello, and at the end in the original version with oboe d'amore and cello. ... e torna l'aria della sera... is based on an inaudible ballata by Pier Paolo Pasolini and also changes character slightly with the instrumentation. Sometimes this evening song sounds Arcadian, sometimes almost Tristan-like. It moves freely and persistently, yet without stubbornness, and in doing so it escapes any all-too-common pressure to innovate. The music breathes naturally in these interpretations.

Roland Moser: Violoncello solo e in duo. Käthi Gohl Moser, cello; Anton Kernjak, piano; Helena Winkelman, violin; Conrad Steinmann, flute, aulos; Matthias Arter, oboe d'amore. Olinard Records

Even many professional musicians are unaware that the BWV numbers used to identify Bach's compositions date back to the Bach year 1950. At the time, Wolfgang Schmieder classified Johann Sebastian Bach's works by genre and assigned the numbers according to the order of the individual pieces in the old Bach edition (1851-1899). Schmieder's epoch-making achievement was updated in 1990. As early as 1998, Bach researchers Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi presented their condensed alternative.

A lot has happened in Bach research since then: new sources have emerged, doubts about authenticity have been raised or dispelled, dates have been confirmed or corrected, and so on. The Bach literature has grown immeasurably, and the Internet provides full texts, bibliographies and even original prints and manuscripts. A newly revised and updated BWV could no longer be produced by a single person; an entire institute, the Bach Archive Leipzig, stood behind the three main authors, and the work took more than ten years. The result is an 880-page volume that still follows Schmieder's genre categories, adopts the long-established numbers and places newly discovered works in consecutive order where they belong according to their function and instrumentation. Also new are a systematic overview of Bach's entire oeuvre, which does not consistently follow the BWV numbers, and various concordances and catalogs, for example of Bach's (reconstructable) music library. A new feature of this index is the division into different versions of a single work. The work history of the cantata is thus divided into Swing joyfully upwards into stages 36.1 to 36.5, and the two versions of cantata 82 for bass and soprano respectively are designated 82.1 and 82.2. This is intended to put a stop to the uncontrolled growth of the addition of a, b and r designations to BWV numbers.

This procedure reaches its limits when certain purely written "Brandenburg" concertos are to be designated as BWV 1046.2, for example, because an early version 1046.1 exists for them, while for others a four-digit number simply applies, such as BWV 1047. What has been completely omitted are the references to individual works, as the online catalogs are now able to step in here. Nevertheless, the scarcity of explanations worth knowing goes so far that in more complicated and therefore also more interesting cases, detailed knowledge is required to be able to understand them at all. It is doubtful whether any progress has been made in terms of user-friendliness. It is not clear how the "integration with the relevant online databases" announced in the publisher's advertising has been achieved.

So this BWV also remains³ In view of its purchase price, it is probably a matter for a few specialists, while practitioners today can easily identify the works with the help of the Internet or the usual editions of works.

Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, Peter Wollny: Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. Third, expanded new edition (BWV³), XLIV + 835 p., € 459.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2022, ISBN 978-3-7651-0400-8

Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836) is regarded as a the Swiss singing father. The music world has been confronted with this idea for almost two centuries. The dubiously patriotic attribute was given to him by the Swiss singing associations, creating an image of the bustling Nägeli that does not stand up to serious scrutiny. For many years, people have been waiting for a biography, for a correction to this one-sided, untruthful portrayal of the "pioneer in all alleys".

As part of a National Science Foundation project, the young musicologist Miriam Roner has taken on the almost impossible task of shedding light on the darkness. Her dissertation, which was accepted by the University of Bern in 2016, has now been thoroughly revised and published as a book of over four hundred pages. After just a short read, it becomes clear what a mammoth task lies behind it, because apart from a few lexical articles and commemorative publications, nothing comprehensive exists on Nägeli.

Roner does not present a biography, but it shows impressively how many weddings Nägeli danced at: He was a publisher, ran a music (lending) library, composed popular music, founded and ran a singing institute that was intended to contribute to education according to Pestalozzian rules and also gave girls and women a chance to participate.

This diversity alone shows how comprehensively Nägeli thought. Roner tries to unravel how the "Nägeli system" worked in this thicket. Around 1800, there were no distribution channels, no banks through which payments could be processed. Nägeli therefore developed various procedures: he sold sheet music from French or German publishers as a countertrade for the acceptance of his own works, he ordered scores for sale, as a commission publisher or on a loan basis in order to lend them on to citizens.

Nägeli never received comprehensive training as a musician, composer or businessman. In addition to the Napoleonic wars, it was probably due to this circumstance that he inspired much, but also failed - his publishing house went bankrupt and he sold it to Adolf Hug. The Hug publishing house was born.

Nevertheless, the pioneer Nägeli achieved impressive things, as Roner points out. In the field of education, he systematically introduced young people to music with cleverly structured textbooks, also taking into account the lower classes. It is also often forgotten that Nägeli paid just as much attention to women as he did to men.

The most interesting parts of Roner's research are the second part, which is dedicated to "Nägeli as a music dealer and music publisher", and the third part on the "Sing-Institut". The extensive appendix with a detailed chronicle and a comprehensive index of sources is invaluable. The foundations have been laid for further research and revitalization of this pioneer.

Miriam Roner: Autonomous art as social practice. Hans Georg Nägeli's Theory of Music, 427 p., € 73.00, Franz-Steiner-Verlag, Stuttgart 2020, ISBN 978-3-515-12701-1