His music is full of wit, sparkling ingenuity and rhythmic sophistication: We are talking about Jean Françaix, a unique figure of the 20th century. Born in Le Mans in 1912, the French composer was anything but an avant-gardist; his music is based on Stravinsky's neoclassicism, but also internalizes the elegance and finesse of Francis Poulenc and the Groupe des Six in general. Françaix remained true to his line until his death in Paris in 1997.

While he achieved his international breakthrough in 1936 in Baden-Baden with a Concertino for piano and orchestra, he is particularly distinguished by his extensive oeuvre for wind instruments. The unusual instrumentation of his entertaining wind music is probably the main obstacle to its widespread distribution. Examples of this are his well-known Neuf pièces caractéristiques which were composed for ten wind instruments and are therefore rarely heard in the concert hall.

The wind section of the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne under the direction of Nicolas Chalvin now remedies this, at least on CD. One marvels at the rhythmic accuracy of the motoric progression of the introductory Presto and the profundity of the elegiac, charming Amoroso that follows. It is a strong plea for music that is little known to the public.

The program sequence is cleverly structured, which sensibly begins with a Musique pour faire plaisir by Poulenc-Françaix, which puts us right in the middle of this rare, witty and eloquent "musical idiom" with two flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns. Many of the pieces presented are arrangements, such as three Écossaises by Chopin or the Cortège burlesque by Chabrier.

The recording ends with Trois marches militaires by Schubert-Françaix, which are sometimes reminiscent of wind serenades from the early Classical period, but also seem somewhat lengthy, although the ensemble is stylistically confident in its use of the pieces. As a caveat, it should be noted that the "miniatures", most of which do not last longer than two minutes, can be tiring for an audience that is not exclusively affine to wind instruments.

Parents have to be, but they are not always the best advisors. There are helicopter fathers and mothers, there are doubters and worriers who sometimes deprive their children of their own experiences. This is what comes to mind when you listen to the wonderful CD Struwwelpeter - a (hairy) story listens. Four members of the Basel Chamber Orchestra have often played history and music in classrooms.

The children's book Struwwelpeter by the psychologist Heinrich Hoffmann was published in 1845. Hoffmann originally intended it as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son. But lo and behold, by the time the author died, the book had already sold 950,000 copies and become an evergreen. Who doesn't know them, the sometimes cruel Tales of the Soup Punch, from Hanns peek-in-the-air or from the Thumbsucker?

Eva Miribung (violin), Georg Dettweiler (violoncello), Konstantin Timokhine (horn) and Jan Wollmann (trumpet) not only tell stories. They also choose and play the music with great taste. Story of the evil Friederich excerpts from the sombre cello concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich. The story of the black boys accompanied by tongue-in-cheek reggae and ska rhythms. To the Fidgety Philipp the quartet intones chamber music arrangements of passages from Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's funny pranks.

Parents and their admonitions come off badly on the CD. Hanns looks up in the air, but the parents - no better - stubbornly look at their cell phones. At least that's what the children say, who also have their say. Their refreshing comments show that the parents don't need to worry about the potential cruelty of the stories. Perhaps they shouldn't put them on for a four-year-old to fall asleep to. But for all children from first to fourth grade, it's a great CD, especially musically educational. "Scary, but exciting," comments one girl The sad story of the lighter.

Last year, three clarinettists and a pianist made a virtue of the coronavirus emergency and recorded a concert with works by four Swiss composers from the Romantic period to the present day. It is extremely entertaining and stimulating to listen to because they use six different instruments of the clarinet family, plus a piano in three pieces. And: all the musicians are masters of their craft.

The very first work, Fantasy and Capriccio op. 13 for clarinet and piano by the forgotten Romantic composer August Walter is captivating: The Fantasy is reminiscent of Carl Maria von Weber, the Capriccio to Schumann. In this premiere recording, they are presented by Bernhard Röthlisberger (clarinet) and Benjamin Engeli (piano).

Röthlisberger also plays the beautiful Canto for bass clarinet (2012) by David Philip Hefti (*1975), where multiple sounds reminiscent of medieval polyphony appear. His internalized trio shows how Hefti skilfully combines baroque elements with contemporary ones Counterpoints on Come, Sweet Death (2000, after Bach's chorale Come, sweet death), sensitively interpreted by Röthlisberger, Nils Kohler and Ernesto Molinari. Two bass clarinets in dialog allow Röthlisberger and Kohler to play in Hefti's (T)raum-Ze(n)it (2008), whose complexly interlaced title already hints at what the composer is concerned with here: the connections between space and time, which can lead to unreal dream images.

Othmar Schoecks Andante E flat major WoO 35 for clarinet and piano is presented by Röthlisberger and Engeli as a premiere recording. It is astonishing that such a fascinating work from 1916 had to wait so long to be recorded. The repertoire, on the other hand, includes Schoeck's Sonata op. 41 for the same instrumentation from the border area between late Romanticism and extended tonality, excellently interpreted.

The Bernese composer Jean-Luc Darbellay (*1946) is represented with two characteristic works: Sentences, written in 2009 as a compulsory piece for the Concours National d'Exécution Musicale de Riddes and arranged for basset clarinet in 2020, nine pieces, some of them very short, that encourage listeners to reflect and think about music. The same applies to Darbellay's Chant d'adieux (1998), which he premiered as a clarinettist with his wife Elisabeth at Wartburg Castle near Eisenach: wonderfully calm, delicate music that one would like to hear again and again.

"Never waste a good crisis" - this Churchill quote was the response of one of the musicians involved when Dutch jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis asked him to join his trio (with Nigel Clark on guitar and Roy Percy on double bass) for this production. The project was created during the first lockdown in spring 2020, when the musicians' agendas emptied and all their gigs were canceled. The album was produced in studios in the Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland, largely using the playback method. The Five Elements is a reflection on how we treat our planet and an expression of the hope that we can preserve the earth as a habitat for ourselves and our descendants. The fifth element, the "quintessence", stands for culture, especially music, which reaches our innermost being and teaches us to live in harmony with our vulnerable environment.

Anyone who dismisses this program as esoteric stuff fails to appreciate the sincere commitment of the musicians involved and their high level of professionalism. Using the vocabulary of jazz, minimal music and classical elements, they have created music that captivates the listener for its entire duration. Ostinate tutti passages alternate with imaginative solos and groovy riffs. Tim Kliphuis, also known in Switzerland as an inspiring teacher through his workshops at ESTA, ZHdK, Konsi Bern and Swiss International Music Academy, moves very skillfully in this crossover area and constantly discovers new ways of combining classical, jazz and world music to create stimulating compositions. The fact that he is a virtuoso violinist and surrounds himself with equally outstanding musicians only enhances his musical message. The piece Threnody (Lament) is an improvisation on Bach's Chaconne with string quartet, which essentially follows the original and reflects on it again and again in a predominantly baroque style. Here, too, the playing is virtuosic and spotless.

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the passing on of fire." - A quote that is attributed to Gustav Mahler as well as Thomas More. On the cover of the first recording of Joseph Lauber's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, the Swiss composer is depicted adding twigs to a fire with a pitchfork. Conductor Kaspar Zehnder discovered Lauber's symphonic works in the Lausanne University Library and has now released a technically exemplary recording with his Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra (sound engineer: Frédéric Angleraux) on the new Schweizer Fonogramm label. Two more albums with Symphonies Nos. 3 to 6 will follow in the course of the year. No ashes are unearthed here, but blazing embers. Although Joseph Lauber (1864-1952) does not present himself as an innovator in the symphonies composed in 1895/96, his approach to tradition certainly has its own character.

Musically inspired by his teachers Joseph Rheinberger and Jules Massenet, he combines German late Romanticism with French refinement in the use of color. His symphonies are characterized by elegance, fine differentiation and a rather two-dimensional structure. And occasionally also Swiss local color, when he begins the first symphony with a two-part alphorn melody in the horns, which two flutes repeat as an echo and continue symphonically. The first symphony unfolds many lyrical points of calm and lacks any real drama. The warm string sound of the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra, as in the fine unison opening of the Andante espressivo, is the basis of Zehnder's coherent interpretation. Agogic flexibility and dynamic nuance are further quality features. In the fast repetitions, as in the finale, Felix Mendelssohn also looks around the corner. The Second Symphony in A minor combines enchanting themes, for example in the opening movement, with more dramatic developments. The Andantino, quasi Allegretto is reminiscent of Antonín Dvořák in its sweet melancholy. Bohemia in Switzerland - this can also be discovered in Joseph Lauber's music.

Büchelbox. Balthasar Streiff and Yannick Wey. Zytglogge, EAN 7611698043694

The music book for the CD is published by Müllrad-Verlag in Altdorf (Art.Nr. 1064, Fr. 34.00).

Luciano Berio was an exceptional composer. As early as the 1960s, he caused a sensation with his "open aesthetics", which led to such key works as the quotation composition Sinfonia (1968/69). "I borrow quotes from the museum," he once said, "and mix them with my own music." The CD recorded by the Basel Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ivor Bolton with the simple title Transformation now offers special insights. Berio is indeed "open" - open to Johann Sebastian Bach, to Gustav Mahler, but also to Beatles classics such as Michelle, Ticket to Ride or Yesterday.

One could argue for a long time about the terms arrangement, orchestration or instrumentation. In any case, Berio does not engage in the deconstruction typical of the avant-garde in his rearrangements. Bach's Contrapunctus XIX from the Art of the fugue he embeds in a warm woodwind arrangement. The voices now come across elegantly, not with the "X-ray vision" that was still dear to the structurally oriented Schönberg school. In other adaptations, Berio also shows himself from an undogmatic, completely joyful musical side. Fiery Spain is reflected in the transcriptions of Manuel de Falla's Siete Canciones populares Españolas echoes. He orchestrates the sometimes brash, sometimes very intimate songs with tremendous sensitivity to sound, leaving the mezzo-soprano part untouched.

The Sonata op. 120 No. 1 for clarinet (or viola) and piano, written by Johannes Brahms in 1894, sounds like it was written off the cuff. In 1986, Berio orchestrated the five-movement chamber music into a veritable romantic symphony. The Beatles adaptations must be classified as quirky and funny occasional works. However, the strangely baroque, very much in the spirit of the Brandenburg Concertvalues Beatles classics. It is probably more of a private matter than a special contribution to the noble history of music. Cathy Berberian, the American singer and then wife of Luciano Berio, was "crazy about the Beatles" - so why not a baroque love greeting with "I love you, I love you, I love you" from Michelle? Well, all in all an enjoyable double CD, which incidentally also tastes good while cooking.

As a teacher of theory and composition, he influenced several generations of musicians in Switzerland; as an author of choral works, he created something lasting; his equally independent chamber music has yet to be rediscovered: Paul Müller-Zürich (1898-1993) was a gifted teacher and, as a composer, a master of counterpoint. His early works for string instruments bear witness to this.

Trained in Zurich, Paris and Berlin by Philipp Jarnach and Volkmar Andreae, among others, and familiar with the music of his contemporaries, he distanced himself from the avant-garde, preferring to orientate himself towards Brahms and Reger rather than Schoenberg or Webern. Paul Müller-Zürich went far as an advisor and organizer, joining the Pro Helvetia Foundation Board in 1957 before being appointed President of the Swiss Association of Musicians in 1960.

The expressive beginnings of the composer, who was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Zurich in 1953, are impressively demonstrated by the Casal Quartet with Razvan Popovici (viola) in three differently scored works. The String Quintet op. 2 in F major (1919) jumps out at the listener from the very first bar, when a fortissimo chord is followed by an initial ostinato motif pianissimo and the main theme, which soars upwards full of tension, is heard. Disturbingly buzzing presto interjections cloud the gentle flow of the slightly melancholy music in the third movement, an intermezzo that begins sweetly. Ostinati also characterize the finale, which is condensed by fugato interjections and ends abruptly in D minor.

The String Quartet in E flat major op. 4 (1921) is also dominated by highly expressive pushing and storming, with the chromaticism in the Adagio forming the greatest contrast to the less complicated harmony in the folk-dance-like rondo finale.

The String Trio op. 46, composed around 1950, is calm from the outset, with its lyrical first movement leading from C minor to C major. The members of the Casal Quartet charge into the powerfully gripping finale with great intensity of sound and musical esprit.

Paul Müller-Zürich: String Quartet op. 4, String Trio op. 46, String Quintet op. 2. CasalQuartet (Felix Froschhammer, Rachel Späth, Markus Fleck, Andreas Fleck), Razvan Popovici, viola. Solo Musica SM 287

The melancholy melody of the opening prelude on this CD is almost like a minimalist film score. A waltz hints at Chopin, but is also imbued with a completely different, idiosyncratic color. The later impressionistic play of colors in Deux estampes permeated by a hitherto hardly known, very individual personal style ...

During his studies in the USA, Swiss pianist Christian Erny came across the oeuvre of Arthur Lourié, whose name sounds as "un-Russian" as his music. Is this precisely why Lourié, who was born in what is now Belarus in 1891, lived for a long time in Paris and later in the USA, where he died in 1966, has largely disappeared into obscurity?

On his second solo CD, Christian Erny's playing takes on this world of sound and thought in the most unagitated way possible. Erny knows how to subtly mix the registers and colors as if they were human voices. This is no coincidence, as Erny is very ambitious as the director of his Zurich Chamber Singers and, by his own admission, this brings with it many synergy effects for the pianistic interpretation.

Thus, certain neoclassical traits unfold in Lourié's music in an emphatically weightless and detailed manner, as well as a meditative Intermezzo and later a worn Nocturno touch deeply. But Lourié and his committed contemporary interpreter can also do things quite differently: a furious Gigue becomes an unleashed rhythm and sound study that is much more reminiscent of a rebellious Stravinsky and not at all of baroque models. The ambiguity of Lourié's circumstances is symbolized by a LullabyA lullaby: although still deeply rooted in Romanticism, a second writing unmistakably anticipates the beginning of modernism.

He is the comet in Winterthur's classical music sky: Roberto González-Monjas, concertmaster of the local Musikkollegium since the 2013/2014 season, who also performs as a conductor. He also works in the same capacity in Rome with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and as a professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. A jack-of-all-trades who has been shaking up concert life in the all-too-often overshadowed city of Zurich since taking up his post.

Now, with the Musikkollegium on the Swiss label Claves, he presents a CD that sparkles with verve and lightness. Recorded are the famous Haffner Serenade KV 250 by Mozart and the Serenade op. 1 by Othmar Schoeck, with González-Monjas acting both as conductor and solo violinist. It is astonishing how easily and accentuated the orchestra, which at times seemed rather ponderous under the former chief conductor Douglas Boyd, is now able to play.

The eight-movement Haffner Serenade is both a masterpiece and the conclusion of Mozart's serenade oeuvre. Magnificently scored (with the entire wind section) and thus colorful, it combines symphonic ambition with the entertaining lightness of this genre. As an ingenious special feature, Mozart designed movements two to four as a veritable violin concerto full of song-like quality and virtuosity, a "found food" for the violinist González-Monjas. With his filigree style and wonderfully singing violin sound, he dominates the serenade for long stretches, with sound engineer Andreas Werner emphasizing his art even more. This is a bit of a shame, because the orchestra has a lot to offer, as the witty Schoeck Serenade shows. Once composed as a final thesis in Zurich and reworked in Leipzig, the work pleases with its craftsmanship, humor and sensuality of sound: from the dance-like opening to the magnificent middle section, this eight-minute gem makes a convincing case.

Even 14 years after the Ramée label was founded, every CD is still a feast for the eyes and ears. Specializing in early music (in this case defined as up to just over the turn of the 19th century), Ramée does not focus on quantity, but rather brings to light many rarities from the depths of music history in consistently outstanding interpretations, which are then played again and again with lasting enthusiasm.

These treasures also include the chamber music of Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750-1817) - a composer who was widely known as a pianist during his lifetime, whose numerous sonatas and piano trios were held in high esteem by enthusiasts and yet (like so many of his generation) was forgotten far too quickly with the rise of musical romanticism. In addition to an artistic journey through Italy, it was of course not Vienna, Berlin, Paris or London that were the stations of his work, but rather Mainz, Regensburg, Aschaffenburg and Würzburg - places where Sterkel played a decisive role in establishing a lively musical life, but where he also remained true to himself despite the stylistic changes that he was well aware of: Sterkel thus despised the supposedly "unworthy arts", instead seeking "noble simplicity", "pure rhythm" and "harmony and melody" (1808).

This selection of sonatas, which appeared in print between 1785 and 1817, demonstrates that he succeeded in doing so in a remarkably unique language. They combine refreshing inventiveness with a pronounced sense of chamber music dramaturgy (both tonally and harmonically). Els Biesemans (fortepiano) and Meret Lüthi (violin) show just how much creative scope there is in their perfectly executed interpretation. They make it fascinatingly clear what Sterkel's works really contain.

The title of Lisette Spinnler's latest CD, Sounds Between Falling Leavesseems to be a clear reminiscence of autumn. The melancholy mood of the seven songs would also fit in with this. In an interview with the Badische Zeitung however, the jazz singer has let it slip that the album title refers to something else - to a period of searching and going into silence: "The album title is actually a metaphor for the time in which I wrote this," she explained.

Anyone listening to the CD will encounter the Basel native's most introverted work to date. The songs sound like contemplation set to music, but some of them also turn out to be contemplations of nature. This applies not least to The Sun Has Setbased on a poem by Emily Brontë (1818-1848), which talks about grass swaying dreamily in the evening breeze. The 41-year-old uses this template to use her voice sparingly, but very effectively. She stretches her vocal parts, tends to whisper and knows how to lend the words additional weight with her nuances.

Pieces like The Night Is Darkening Around Me or Silent Dream seem calm, almost entirely gentle and quiet. Only the piece penned by Mongo Santamaria Afro Blue, the only cover on the record, scores the prevailing contemplation with finely spun rhythms from Latin jazz. The playful melodies, one of Spinnler's trademarks, are no longer quite as dominant as they used to be. Instead, the musician and her three accompanists on piano, bass and drums now indulge in a sound that aims to be virtuosic and balanced. This succeeds and makes that Sounds Between Falling Leaves not just improvisationally, but presented in an almost artistic manner.

The Fribourg Institute of Music Medicine has published an extremely informative DVD-ROM. Not only is the actual vocal apparatus examined in clear and well-structured short presentations, but many related details are clearly presented in short film sequences. Seeing the processes involved in breathing, singing and speaking on film is much clearer and easier to understand than studying physiological drawings and illustrations, which can only show the complex, three-dimensional model of the respiratory tract and larynx to a limited extent and, above all, not in its function.

The DVD-ROM is essentially divided into three main sections: The first deals with the "instrument voice". Here there are subsections on breathing, the larynx and the vocal tract. Each of these sections is again divided into several sub-chapters. All relevant processes are illustrated in detail and vividly using magnetic resonance imaging and animated 3D models. We can observe singers singing while various aspects are commented on and explained, we learn details about consonant and vowel formation as well as their sound propagation in space. Information about speech and singing breathing, messa die voce, subglottic pressure and many other interesting details associated with vocal production are also presented in a realistic way.

The next chapter is dedicated to "vocal forms of expression". Here we learn more about prosody (the musical elements of speech), different vocal genres and different singing styles from yodeling and art song to pop and musical singing. We find sub-chapters on children's and choral singing, as well as on vocal expressions when laughing or crying.
In a final chapter, voice science has its say: it presents examination methods, voice measurement processes and computer programs.

This DVD-ROM is a helpful tool for interested singers and amateurs as well as singing teachers and students of didactics, providing comprehensive and clear information in either German or English in 160 minutes!

The voice. Insights into the physiological processes involved in singing and speaking, Freiburg Institute for Musicians' Medicine (Bernhard Richter, Matthias Echternach, Louisa Traser, Michael Burdumy, Claudia Spahn), DVD-ROM, 160 min., Fr. 45.40, Helbling, Esslingen, ISBN 978-3-86227-258-7

The term "altfrentsch" refers to a folk music instrumentation: the trio of violin, dulcimer and basset (string instrument between cello and double bass). The Bernese cabaret artist Franz Niklaus König depicted this ensemble as a vignette in the "Sammlung von Schweizer=Kühreihen und Volksliedern" in 1826. The same collection also contains two Appenzell dances for this ensemble. "Altfrentsch" means "old-fashioned" and literally comes from the expression "old Franconian".

In 1998, a manuscript containing 54 dances from the late 18th century was discovered in Gonten (Appenzell Innerrhoden), which the Center for Appenzell and Toggenburg Folk Music published in 2008 under the title Altfrentsch published. This collection of dances, now available in a new edition, also contains foreign melodies that were undoubtedly contributed by traveling fiddlers and other traveling musicians.

On the new album Altfrentsch on the road the six musicians of the Landstreichmusik under the direction of violinist Matthias Lincke chose only half of the 16 recorded dance melodies from the aforementioned manuscript. The remaining pieces are recordings of alpine dances that have been preserved on shellac records from the first half of the 20th century. Not only the old pieces, but also the historical playing styles (instrumentation, tempi, voice leading, intonation, phrasing and final turns) were adopted. The result is astonishingly vital and differs from the monophonic, specially arranged older Swiss folk dances, which have become fashionable in new folk music.

But you also enjoy listening to this recommendable recording because Dide Marfurt mixes up the melodies with the Jew's harp and other historical musical instruments, Christine Lauterburg contributes her violin playing and voice and the Austrian folk musician Matthias Härtel (double bass), Elias Menzl (dulcimer) and Simon Dettwiler (Schwyzerörgeli) add to the atmosphere.

The Swiss pianist Timon Altwegg and the Moscow-born violist Hana Gubenko, who are known for their love of discovery, have a new publication to their credit, which surprises exclusively with unknown works by Jewish composers. From the undated Sephardic Poem Apart from Aaron Yalom (1918-2002), they were all composed in the short period from 1972 to 2012 and are committed to sonata form in very different ways.

The two most recent compositions, the 2nd Sonata by Frank Ezra Levy (born 1930) and the Sonata ebraica by Graham Waterhouse (born 1962), bear dedications to the two performers, who are to be praised for their commitment to all the pieces with the same dedication and conviction.

The opening track of the CD, released this year by Edition Kunzelmann, is already a great success, Sephardic Poem by Yalom, has great potential to surprise. The composer, who was born near Geneva as the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants and died in New York, created a bravura piece of strong individuality based on a lyrical theme and enriched with a great deal of pianistic brilliance. The sonorously austere 1st viola sonata by the Basel-born composer, pianist and teacher Ernst Levy also exhibits this, as there are no verbal tempo indications or performance markings in any of the four movements.

In the Sonata ebraica by Waterhouse, which gives the CD its name, presents the Yiddish folk song quoted in the kaddish-like middle movement Oyfn Pripetshik the most clearly audible Jewish reference to the title of the work.

The two compositions by Ernst Levy's son Frank Ezra prove to be particularly rewarding additions to the repertoire. From the one-movement Sonata Ricercare with its frequent changes of meter, the 2nd Sonata differs in its French-like elegance, the smooth flow of the catchier melody and greater contrasts: sonorous organ dots and relentless martellato attacks alternate effectively with wonderfully delicate repetitions of notes in the viola and wittily interspersed jazz rhythms.

Sonata ebraica (compositions by Aaron Yalom, Ernst Levy, Frank Levy, Graham Waterhouse). Hana Gubenko, viola; Timon Altwegg, piano. Guild GMCD 7419