The 30 New Studies for Solo Clarinet by the well-known English composer James Rae are a series of short, varied pieces in styles ranging from swing, blues, bossa nova to waltz. Titles from Another Planet to Molecules make them accessible as character pieces and thus promote musical expression.

The first «studies» are exclusively in the lower register and can be used as a supplement to a clarinet school. This also gives younger or less advanced pupils the opportunity to experience stylistic variety and create musical images at an early stage.

The pieces then become technically more demanding in small steps, while the keys and time signatures remain manageable. This allows for a clearly structured structure and supports continuous learning without excessive demands. At the same time, important technical aspects such as articulation, rhythm and phrasing are specifically addressed. Metronome markings for all pieces can be accepted as a challenge and are an ideal complement to the characteristic playing. The tempi encourage you to consciously deal with stylistics and pulse.

The booklet is practical and can be used directly in lessons and is ideal for building bridges to classical etude booklets. It motivates through musical variety and at the same time offers a solid basis for further development on the clarinet.

James Rae: 30 New Studies for Solo Clarinet, UE 21 850, € 18.95, Universal Edition, Vienna

 

Top performances usually go hand in hand with specialization. But violinist Sini Simonen and cellist Alexandre Foster are taking a different approach. They have opted for a combination of neoclassical sounds, two-part motets by Orlando di Lasso and contemporary sounds from different countries, each with its own style.

Variety is thus ensured. But Foster and Simonen achieve much more. In their foray through the ages, they discover various gems, which they present with more than just polish. Maurice Ravel's Sonata for violin and cello takes center stage. Roman Brotbeck rightly points out in the booklet that it «sometimes sounds like a string quartet». In addition to the astonishing sonority, the brilliant four-movement homage to Claude Debussy, who died in 1918, impresses with its elegance, polyphonic density and rhythmic finesse, which sound like modern Béla Bartók.

Moser and Winkelman

Switzerland resonates in the subtext: Alexandre Foster teaches as a cello professor at the Basel Music Academy. Bohuslav Martinůs Duo II was written near Basel, when the composer was a guest of Maja and Paul Sacher. Works by Roland Moser and Helena Winkelman also contribute to this wonderfully entertaining production: Moser's Three dedications are highly concentrated studies in which semitones, flageolet worlds and natural tones leave special sound impressions. In her early work Rondo with a Janus head already foreshadows what characterizes Basel-based Helena Winkelman to this day: a polystylistic openness with lively folk music and some jazz rhythms. Winkelman's lively Rondo is rightly written at the end of a CD on which Simonen and Foster hit the tone of the very different music at every point. We can only recommend it: Please listen in one go!

Bicinia. Works by Orlandi di Lasso, Bohuslav Martinů, Maurice Ravel, Helena Winkelman, Roland Moser, György Ligeti, Kaija Saariaho. Sini Simonen, violin; Alexandre Foster, cello. Claves Records CD 3134

«Nous ne savons rien sur l'origine de cette pièce qui constitue la première composition de Ravel pour le piano.» Arbie Orenstein wrote this in the preface to the first edition of the Sérénade grotesque, published by Salabert in 1975 to mark the centenary of Ravel's birth. The prominent Ravel scholar, whose monograph on the great composer is still probably the measure of all things, was not only the discoverer of the autograph, which had long been considered lost. He also arranged the premiere in the same year.

Fifty years later, Andreas Pernpeintner has now republished the short piano piece with Henle. The differences to the French first edition are minor. In Pernpeintner's foreword, however, we learn some fascinating details about how Ravel himself judged this work, which he had written almost as a teenager. Apparently he never kept it completely under lock and key.

The Sérénade grotesque is characterized by strong contrasts between percussive passages («très rude, pizzicatissimo») on the one hand and longer cantilenas («très sentimental») on the other. The numerous echoes of Spanish guitar music are not the only thing that makes the far more famous Alborada del gracioso from the Miroirs (Arbie Orenstein even felt like she was Scarbo recalls). As in these later masterpieces, the piano writing here also lives from orchestral associations. Although it is not overly demanding, the Sérénade has its pianistic pitfalls. In order to overcome these obstacles as elegantly as possible, the French pianist Cédric Tiberghien has contributed some fingerings that are really very practicable.

All in all, a worthwhile new edition! For Ravel fans anyway. But also for anyone who would like to look over the shoulder of a young genius as he develops.

Maurice Ravel: Sérénade grotesque, edited by Andreas Pernpeintner, HN 1590, € 8.00, G. Henle, Munich

Born in 1987 in the canton of Thurgau, Andreas Häberlin now teaches at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, USA. He has won numerous prizes in Switzerland, where he studied composition and theory at the ZHdK, and internationally, including a sponsorship award from the Canton of Thurgau in 2016. In the USA, Häberlin has worked with greats such as Michael Bublé and Barbra Streisand and has made a name for himself as a film music producer.

Now he is publishing his first book with the promising title A Music Transcription Method - Notating Recorded Music by Ear before. The title only partially lives up to its promise. In the four parts «Preparation - Process - Interpretation - Resources», the author meticulously and scientifically addresses the predominantly digital approach to music transcription, with a large number of references to the relevant literature. Online, he provides an extensive collection of self-recorded music and score examples for the book - but the assignment to the individual chapters is not immediately obvious.

You could say that writing down existing music requires outstanding skills in ear training, understanding rhythm and harmony. However, the proposed methods do not go into any depth, but presuppose the aforementioned skills. The chapter on «Orchestration» remains very general; Häberlin presents the Creative Software Sampler Cube and at least mentions the instrumentation teachings of Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov in the corresponding bibliography. Numerous technical aids, from midi devices and notation software to digital audio workstations, are presented. In addition, there are rather banal instructions to adhere to the deadline set by the client - and to make sure that you don't disturb the neighbors when playing music.

Andreas Häberlin: A Music Transcription Method - Notating Recorded Music by Ear, 178 p., € 50.99, Routledge, New York and London 2025, ISBN 978-1-032-84254-7

Guitar

January–June 2026

• Women Composers, A graded anthology for guitar, ed. Eva Beneke and Heike Matthiesen, Book 1, Grades 1–4, ED 2375, €15.00, Schott, Mainz
• Armin Kulla: Once Around the World, 37 Folk Songs from 17 Countries, easy to advanced arrangements for two guitars, D 829, Dux, Manching
• Robert Morandell: Guitar Gold, Guitar Method, D 647, with videos in 3 tempos, Dux, Manching
• Iris Maucher/Meike Schlegtendal: We Sing with Children, The Christian Guitar Songbook for Preschool, Elementary School, and Family, D 840, Dux, Manching

July–December 2025

• Wieland Harms: Guitar Chord Colors. Modern Harmony for Guitarists Who Really Want to Know, 400 pages, $49.95, order no. 2291G, Alfred Music, Cologne
• K. Mertz – Guitar Works, Vol. 11, 12 Studies & Works, ed. by Graziano Salvoni, ECH 1428, €16.50, Edition Chanterelle/Zimmermann, Mainz
• K. Mertz – Guitar Works, Vol. 12, Seven Opera Fantasies, ed. by Graziano Salvoni, ECH 1429, €24.50, Edition Chanterelle/Zimmermann, Mainz

July-December 2024

• Michael Langer: Acoustic Pop Guitar Solos 6, sheet music and tab, with audio download, D 927, Dux, Manchin 
• Michael Langer and Ferdinand Neges: Play Guitar Powersteps 1, the ideal continuation for every beginner's school, with audio downloads, Dux 3519, Dux, Manching
• Michael Langer and Ferdinand Neges: Play Guitar Powersteps 2, the ideal continuation for every beginner's school, with audio downloads, Dux 3520, Dux, Manching
• Martin Tanner: Simply beautiful - beautifully simple, Beautiful guitar music from the first lesson, self-published, www.einfach-schoen.ch

January-June 2024

• Sami Kajtazaj: 5 shapes for guitar, em 1212, Edition Margaux, Berlin

July-December 2023

• Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances, for guitar arr. by Dario Bisso Sabàdin, UE 38137, € 16.95, Universal Edition, Vienna
• Armin Kulla: A little journey, easy to medium ensemble pieces for 3 to 4 guitars, D 826, with audio stream, Dux, Manching
  >>> Review by Werner Joos
• Christmas carols from all over the world, for guitar solo, VHR 13510, Holzschuh, Manching
• Martin Kuhnle: The campfire guitar without sheet music, 75 indispensable songs, D 810, Dux, Manching

January-June 2023

• Franz Schubert: Serenade, Minuet, Waltz, German Dance and Ecossaiseedited and published by Jury Clormann, first edition, BP 2883, Fr. 19.50, Amadeus, Winterthur
  >>> Review by Werner Joos
• The José Tomàs Guitar Anthology, Arrangements for Guitar solo by José Tomàs edited by Pedro Jesus Gomez, ECH 2725, € 22.50, Edition Chanteresse (Zimmermann), Mainz
  >>> Review by Werner Joos

Ukulele

January–June 2026

• Iris Maucher/Meike Schlegtendal: We Sing with Children, The Christian Ukulele Songbook for Preschools, Elementary Schools, and Families, D 331, Dux, Manching

July-December 2024

• Andreas Lutz and Bernhard Bitzel: The ukulele thing, 200 Lieder and songs (lyrics and chord figures), D 342, Dux, Manching
• Martin Rube: The ukulele school for children of pre-school and primary school age, order no. 140, Schuh-Verlag, Gärtringen

July-December 2023

• Circle of fifths for the ukulele, D 1216, Dux, Manching

Mandolin

January–June 2026

• Manuela Frescura: Merhaba, Impressions from a Trip Through Southern Morocco, Duets and Trios for Mandolin, Mandola, and/or Guitar, rhythm instruments as desired, Edition Grenzland, full score and parts, PAN KM 2161, €35.00, PAN, Kassel

January-June 2025

• Carl Stamitz: Sonata op. 16 No. 6for two mandolins and mandola (guitar) arranged by Jean-Pierre Yraéta, score with parts, PAN KM 2155, € 22.00, Edition Grenzland, Pan-Verlag, Basel

E-Bass

July–December 2025

• Philipp Rehm: Slap fit, Your slap bass workout for fat grooves, strong technique, and creativity, book and online audio, item no. 20315G, $23.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

July-December 2023

• Philipp Rehm: Bass Matrix. Unlock the secrets of bass grooves, for beginners, advanced and pros even without knowledge of sheet music, book, CD, online audio, art. no. 20281G, Alfred Music, Cologne
• Thomas Grossmann: Walking ABC. Bass playing in jazz, rock and pop for electric bass and double bass, Edition Hug 11789, with audio files for download, Hug Musikverlage, Zurich

Harp

January–June 2026

• Claude Debussy: Dances for harp and string orchestra, edited by Peter Jost; full score, HN 3440, €20.00; string part, HN 3442, €45.00; G. Henle, Munich

July–December 2025

• Sergei Prokofiev: Complete Works for Solo Harp, Edited by Sophie Gneissl, HN1649, €15.00, G. Henle, Munich

January-June 2024

• Louis Spohr: Fantasy in C minor for harp op. 35, appendix: Fantaisie by Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, edited by Masumi Nagasawa, BA 10954, € 19.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel
  >>> Review by Sarah O'Brien

January-June 2023

• Claude Debussy: Danses, for harp and bridge orchestra, edited by Peter Jost, study score, HN 7584, G. Henle, Munich
  >>> Review by Sarah O'Brien

Percussion

July–December 2025

• Gerwin Eisenhauer: Boom Boom Chack; Technique & Reading, D 421; Grooves & Fills, D 422; Jazz & Latin, D 423; each with online audio and video links; €19.80 each, Dux, Manching

January-June 2025

• Peter Eötvös: Speaking Drums, Four poems for percussion solo, BAT 60, € 21.00, Schott, Mainz
• Christin Neddens' Creative Flow, The Ultimate Drum Practice Workout, Order No. 20314G, € 22.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

January-June 2024

• Olaf Satzer: Guaranteed drum learning - for children from 5-6 years, 136 p., with online audio tracks, No. 20286G, € 21.95, Alfred Music, Cologne
• Sperie Karas: A Tribute to Charley, 50 rudimental Solos, In honor of my studies with Charley Wilcoxon, 64 p., € 14.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

July-December 2023

• Drumming for beginners, by Rosy, African drum & vocal loops - step by step, D 419, Dux, Manching
• Gerwin Eisenhauer: The Christmas Drum Book 2, D 420, with audio download, Dux, Manching
  >>> Review by Daniel Maggi

January-June 2023

• Jost Nickel: Beginner Book for drums, Book and audio online: Art. no. 20292G, € 24.95, Alfred Music, Cologne
• Elisabeth Amandi: Drumset Safari. With 144 solos around the world, booklet for beginners to professionals in German/English, 136 pages, plus mp3 download, € 24.00, Leu-Verlag, Neusäss
• Marco Kurmann: Step by Step on Drums, Guide for drum lessons, Volume 1, 98 p., € 24.00, Leu-Verlag, Neusäss
  >>> Review by Daniel Maggi
• Sperie Karas: Rock-o-Pation for Today's Drummers, 50 exercises for sight-reading in rock, German/English, 84 p., art. no. 20309G, € 16.95, Alfred Music, Cologne
• Tom Pold: Guaranteed to learn Kalimba, The instruction book for kalimbas with 17 notes in C major, with more than 100 songs, 104 p., art. no. 20294G, € 19.95, Alfred Music, Cologne
• Luigi Nono: Extracts for percussion ensemble, edited by Bernhard Wulff, ED 22904, Schott, Mainz

Handpan

July-December 2024

• Daniel Giordani: Practice pieces for handpan, for slightly advanced players, with online videos, D 920, Dux, Manching

Accordion

July–December 2025

• Slavko Avsenik: 12 Oberkrainer successes for accordion and Bb voice; Volume 1, WILD 20085; Volume 2, WILD 20086; Volume 3, WILD 20087; €21.80 each, Walter Wild, Manching

January-June 2025

• Marion Suter: 30 original compositions for piano or accordion (22 piano solos and 8 arrangements), self-published www.marionsuter.ch (partly recorded on CD: Pianist Marion Suter Vol. 2)
  >>> Review by Yolanda Schibli Zimmermann

July-December 2024

• Songs for Freedom, well-known pop songs arranged for accordion by Waldemar Lang, VHR 1869, Holzschuh, Manchin
• Hans-Günther Kölz: Reflections, well-known classical pieces and original compositions arranged for accordion, VHR 1859, Holzschuh, Manching

January-June 2024

• Sami Kajtazaj: Follow me 1, Music for accordion, self-published, Thal, samikaj.com
• Sami Kajtazaj: Follow me 2, Music for accordion, self-published, Thal, samikaj.com
• Sami Kajtazaj: Follow me 3, Music for accordion, self-published, Thal, samikaj.com

 

It seems a strange topic for someone who is starting out. But the hyphen in «auf-hören» already indicates that it is not simply a matter of ending, of calling it a day. Reto Bieri, clarinettist, conductor, lecturer in chamber music in Munich, long-time director of the Davos Festival and passionate programmer, is conducting the Whitsun Concerts at Ittingen Charterhouse for the first time. Heinz Holliger and András Schiff began this tradition exactly thirty years ago; after twenty editions, Graziella Contratto, Oliver Schnyder, Maurice Steger, Nicolas Altstaedt, Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout took over successively.

How does hearing come into cessation?

And now Reto Bieri «stops». In the program booklet, he explains how he understands this: «Hardly any other word says »no« so decisively and at the same time offers an opening. One says: »Stop it« and means standstill. But there is something else hidden inside the word: a listening ... » So to stop is like listening. This interpretation makes sense to someone who is interested in music. But is it correct? Kluge's Etymological Dictionary confirms that «aufhören» was synonymous with «hören» in the Middle Ages and infers: "When someone focuses their attention on something, they simultaneously cease their activity." Ceasing as being ready for the new that is about to come.

Reto Bieri explains this choice with the first impression the Charterhouse made on him: «You come through this portal and find yourself in a new, closed world. The most open space is heaven. That was also the case for the Carthusians, who withdrew behind these walls and created a paradise.» The entire festival program opens up from here.

Radical leaving behind

It begins with the ultimate form of ending: death. To kick things off on Friday evening, there is a three-part «Final Farewell» that stages precisely this arrival, farewell, and rebirth. A few hundred meters from the Carthusian monastery, a detachment of the Weinfelden Music Society forms up, then marches off deliberately, playing the funeral march «Teure Mutter.» Then they come to a halt; silence. They continue, same music, same slow pace. Silence again. At the very back of the funeral procession of festivalgoers, restlessness spreads. Someone complains that the loudspeaker, which is being carried on a cart, is positioned incorrectly—you can’t hear a thing. There is nothing to hear, as gradually becomes clear. There is slow marching to the funeral march—at half-step!—and silent pauses. Not so easy to endure. At the third pause, I notice that my eyes are closing; I’m surrendering to the situation. Bieri would later confirm «that it’s almost unbearable—these repetitions, this marching in place.» And he would recount what a unique experience it was for the participating music students to march alongside musicians with a completely different musical background. The drum major had to explain to them how to stand in formation: heels together, feet at a 45-degree angle. Bieri, too, took his place in the clarinet section and paid his respects to the «dear mother.» The march must be played five times before reaching the Carthusian monastery, and as the pace slows, the scent of mint begins to waft from the path.

Corpse feast, acted and completely true

In the baroque garden, Vox Clamantis has positioned itself around the round water basin and greets those arriving with Gregorian chants, including the Pentecost sequence. In the subsequent concert in the Remise, this Estonian vocal ensemble sings with its somnambulistic homogeneity The Deer's Cry by Arvo Pärt, the composer to whom it is very close and who almost quit, only to find a new voice years later. Finally, Henryk Górecki's Little requiem for a polka, here, too, repetitions, stepping on the spot and a sudden burst of nostalgic, exaggerated exuberance. Actor Jürg Kienberger, who has already given a somewhat disparate speech outside as the «priest» between quotes from Gotthelf and automatic telephone announcements, also provides amusement. There, these tragicomic-parodic intermezzi alienated me somewhat; on stage, I like them. It's good to laugh between this concentrated music. When asked whether this «theater» does not meet with opposition, Bieri will tell of a priest who wrote to him angrily. In the meantime, it has become a very stimulating exchange.

The evening concludes, as befits a funeral service, with the funeral meal. Everyone is seated in the Charterhouse restaurant: soup, people begin to chat hesitantly, main course, Mark Padmore accompanied by Anthony Romaniuk sings Schubert's Farewell to the earth, Dessert, ice-skating waltz. The festival musicians stand between the tables where there is space and play, the guests sing-hum-mumble along in several repetitions until the sadness has melted away and everyone is sure that something will begin again after the end. «... the end is the beginning from the other side», Karl Valentin is quoted in the festival program.

Unrelated in the horizontal

A feeling of togetherness spreads. Long-time festival-goers find that they have been missing something like this in the past. A community? Is music taking on the role of the church here? For Bieri, the proximity to the liturgical and religious is, on the one hand, strongly autobiographical: «As a child, I naturally took part in the Good Friday procession, thirstily walking four hours up the slope. At the Catholic teacher training college, we sang Gregorian chants every morning. On the other hand, I seem to be losing the roots of many things that have shaped us. Today we suffer from a gigantic cultural amnesia. Even when it comes to music, we often can no longer make connections and no longer know where something comes from or where it is going. Here we encounter the background of this monastic way of life, a comprehensive care, a verticality. In everyday life, we often only move horizontally and forget that there is also something above and below us.»

Stopping and blossoming

This year's program includes seven concerts. They mix music from the Middle Ages to the present day, less as a sequence than as a consequence. In the process, the procession, the making, is increasingly omitted, making way for the essence. The end point is Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet op. 115, which he wrote after he had actually finished composing. Listen, again and again! In the matinee on Whit Saturday, Vox Clamantis first sings the Gregorian antiphon Ubi caritas et amor and then, after a single breath, moves into Maurice Duruflé's motet on this theme, giving the impression that the monophonic melody breaks into an untenable polyphonic colorfulness. Later on The Righteous in the same way to Bruckner's motet. Listen up! Next year it will be about «getting back».

This Whitsun, the line-up ranges from soloists to a 14-piece ensemble, with Vox Clamantis, Trio Gaspard, the string quartet Meta4 and many others performing at the Charterhouse. Bieri says that he insisted that the performers be here the whole time. Many never go out at all. There is also no town nearby. But the old roses - the Charterhouse is famous for its extensive collection - are coming into bloom these days. These historic varieties only bloom once a year, after a few weeks they are over, but they have a unique fragrance.

They came together through their shared soft spot for k-punk aka Mark Fisher, an English music critic and cultural theorist who died in 2017. And what did pianist Stefan Kägi and composer Michael Emanuel Bauer make of it? They took Othmar Schoeck's late song cycle Reverberation, Kägi and Bauer looked at it «from the spirit of Derrida's hauntology» and reworked it. The starting point is as unusual as the resulting mix: Kägi interprets the cycle together with bass-baritone Robert Koller; alongside the original is a textual and musical update, Bauer's «Afterimages». Finally, the German experimental musician Gunnar Geisse remixes some of it. The whole thing is given an English title: Schoeck vs. Bauer Or What Futures are you Longing For? Where are we?

The emotional state is sentimental: a return, a reflection is central, as the title Reverberation clarified. Schoeck was aware of his position as a late-born, post-romanticist, even to a certain extent as an epigone. And he rediscovered it in the poems of Nikolaus Lenau and Matthias Claudius. Resignation resonates - and then spills over to Bauer, who breaks it in many different ways. Stylistically surprising, there are echoes from the history of music. There are always echoes. This refraction is absolutely necessary, as Koller's tone, who can be such a shrewd mediator, occasionally slips into the sentimental and maudlin in Schoeck. But perhaps this is precisely what belongs in such an assemblage. Afterwards, however, Geisse's remixes seem contrived and not integrated, which are probably intended to represent an echo of the longed-for future.

Schoeck vs. Bauer Or What Futures are you Longing For? Othmar Schoeck: Nachhall; Michael Emanuel Bauer: Afterimages; remixes by Gunnar Geisse. Robert Koller, bass-baritone; Stefan Kägi, piano. aDevantgarde records, online only

Thomas Fortmann is a very unusual composer and his career is also unusual. Born in 1951 in the canton of Bern as the son of soprano Greta Saar and entrepreneur Rudolf Fortmann, he wrote his first pop/rock hit at the age of 17, which was released in many countries. In the following years, over 100 titles were released on various international labels. He also composed the music for the musical Tell!, in which Udo Lindenberg played the leading role. Apparently he then felt the desire to reinvent himself. In any case, at the age of 26 he turned to studying classical music and went on to compose mainly chamber music, but also two symphonies, an oratorio, songs and several stage works.

From lively to deeply dark

One of his most recent compositions is the Three mazurkas‚ which were recently published by Edition Kunzelmann. The first with the Polish title Mazurek dla Anny is a lively piece that is full of joyful playing and sounds like a free-tonal development of Karol Szymanowski's Mazurkas. In the Mazurek dla Arii‚, the second piece of the triptych, alternates meditative passages with slightly upbeat ones. Overall, a lyrical note dominates. What is striking here are the sometimes extremely low pianissimo registers, which make the piano sound like a murmur from a hidden underworld. The third Mazurka, Mazurek dla Arianki, initially leads us back to the joy of playing of the first. As the work progresses, however, the dark colors reappear and lead to a surprisingly clear tonal climax (Allargando). On the last pages, the two other mazurkas are also quoted, in part quite literally. The ending, which fades away in the most delicate pianissimo, is impressive!

The three pieces lie quite well in the fingers. Only in the last one are there some virtuoso passages. It is not the harmony that takes some getting used to, but sometimes the way in which Fortmann notates chords. For example, in the third mazurka at bar 23: this is quite obviously a pure A flat major chord. Why the «g sharp» in the bass? I'm sure Thomas Fortmann would have an original answer to that ...

The Three mazurkas were recorded on CD by the client Anna Kijanowska (21st Mazurkas, Dux Recording Producers), with brilliance and a great deal of empathy.

Thomas Fortmann: Three Mazurkas, MS-2631, Fr. 24.00, Müller & Schade/Edition Kunzelmann, Adliswil

Frank Martin is one of the most important Swiss composers. As the son of a Calvinist pastor in Geneva, he was influenced early on by Bach's Passions, Schumann's Lieder and César Franck's modal harmony. Under the influence of Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, he broke away from functional tonality and developed his own tonal language, which is characterized by singability and transparency.

His Mass for double choir contains many of these influences and is one of the most popular a cappella works of the 20th century. It was composed in 1922 (Rome) and 1926 (Zurich). Martin's manuscripts from the 1920s (now in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel) then disappeared into a drawer for 40 years. As he himself emphasized, they were never intended for publication, but were «a matter between God and me».

The German composer Michael Ostrzyga has published an exemplary Urtext edition with Bärenreiter-Verlag. It reassesses the composition and performance history of the mass and for the first time takes into account all sources, including a previously unknown radio recording from 1970 with the composer present. We have been waiting for such a scholarly and practical edition for a long time. Highly recommended!

Frank Martin: Messe pour double Chœur a cappella, edited by Michael Ostrzyga, score, BA 11315, € 16.50, Bärenreiter, Kassel

Last November, the media announced the (re-)premiere of two chaconnes as a «world sensation», which musicologist Peter Wollny now attributes to the young Johann Sebastian Bach after years of research and which have therefore also been given two BWV numbers.

Bach pupil Salomon Günther John

This edition, published by Breitkopf & Härtel as a supplement to the 4th volume of the latest complete edition of the organ works, is impeccable as usual. The preface describes the meticulous, almost «detective-like» search for traces of the two works. By means of complicated script comparisons, an anonymous manuscript kept in Brussels could be traced back to the cantor, teacher and organist Salomon Günther John, born in 1695, who indicated in a job application in 1727 that he had «initially attended lessons with the former organist in Arnstadt» (without giving his name). As it can be assumed from another copy of a work by John (BWV 951) that was certainly written by Bach that he was indeed Bach's pupil during his time in Arnstadt (1703-07), it is also possible to assume Bach's authorship of the two anonymous chaconnes in the Brussels manuscript. (NB: These had previously been attributed to another composer, J. C. Graff, under whose name they were even occasionally performed).

Style features

Wollny further underpins his theory with stylistic comparisons with other early works by Bach, the characteristics of which the Swiss organist Jean-Claude Zehnder described in his seminal work, published as part of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Scripta published by Schwabe in 2009. In addition, certain figurations are reminiscent of Bach's organ passacaglia BWV 582, which, like BWV 1178, is then continued in a fugue.

Fascinating evidence

As was to be expected, the «premiere» triggered further discussions about Bach's authorship. Without being able to go into the various arguments for and against here: The two works, which can also be easily realized on smaller organs, show a composer who has a solid craft, knows how to write with virtuosic joy of playing and occasionally (if not always) lets a personal signature and «genius» traits shine through. If this really is the (18 to 22-year-old) Bach, then a further stage in his development as a composer has been opened up here. In any case, the path to this attribution is fascinating!

Johann Sebastian Bach: Two chaconnes BWV 1178 and 1179, (Complete Organ Works, Supplement to Volume 4), edited by Peter Wollny, EB 9648, € 16.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden   

Under the title My piano - all the way - at the beginning the pianist, piano teacher and concert organist Ji-Youn Song presents 15 character pieces and exercises with new playing techniques for piano. Through her own intensive involvement with new music, the author has discovered through teaching children how beneficial it can be, especially at the beginning, to work with experimental music-making techniques. In the carefully written foreword, it is expressed that it is very important to her to make the awareness of arcs of tension and proportions, but also the development of graphic notation and the experience of basic musical phenomena such as high-low, long-short, loud-quiet tangible and understandable through gestures and physical movements.

With the spelling of the title, Ji-Youn Song indicates her intention to play with the pupils on and with the whole piano from the very beginning, to give free rein to the desire to experiment and thus to enable essential experiences in personal and musical terms. A video recording made by children can be accessed for all pieces via a QR code. The author also provides valuable tips on additional educational literature and suitable compositions by Cage, Cowell, Lachenmann, Dinescu and others.

The famous quote from Rumi comes to mind spontaneously: «Beyond right and wrong lies a place. That is where we meet.»

Ji-Youn Song: My piano - completely - at the beginning, character pieces and exercises with new playing techniques, BA 10879, € 16.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel

The first work in this issue, Canzona prima per canto solo by Girolamo Frescobaldi, comes from his collection Primo Libro delle Canzoni The arranger Frank Scheuerle takes the melody part in the 1st mandolin and realizes the continuo with the other parts. As he explains, he dispenses with chords in the guitar part and a double bass part in favor of transparency.

Lachrimae antiquae by John Dowland was probably composed in 1604. Scheuerle's arrangement is based on the version for viol consort, whereby the mandolin, mandola and double bass parts are each based on the viol parts. The guitar is divided into two groups here: The 1st guitar takes the quintus and parts of the lute part and the 2nd guitar takes the remaining lute part. Scheuerle rewrites the piece in 4/4 time, which is certainly an advantage for legibility. The «arco» marking of the double bass is reminiscent of the original instrumentation, whereby the «pizzicato» marking in the last bar takes over part of the lute part, which fits in well with the plucked sound.

The Chaconne Two in one upon a Ground from Henry Purcell's semi-opera Dioclesian was written for two flutes and continuo. Scheuerle places the two melody parts in canon in the two mandolin parts and the basso continuo with an ostinato in the mandola and guitar parts. The continuo is also varied during the piece.

The arranger's decisions in all the arrangements create lightness and show how well suited the plucked string orchestra, with its natural transparency, is to this music. Scheuerle ensures playability, but retains enough respect for the original text to leave room for interpretation by a plucked string orchestra.

Girolamo Frescobaldi, John Dowland, Henry Purcell: Canzona prima, Lachrimae antiquae, Chaconne, arranged for plucked string orchestra by Frank Scheuerle, score, ZO 1115, € 15.00, Pan, Kassel

 

The Zurich quintet Black Sea Dahu, led by sisters Janine and Vera Cathrein, have come a long way since their debut album was released in 2018 White Creatures and the wondrous catchy tune it contains In Case I Fall For You. Their success has meant that hardly any other band from our latitudes has performed live throughout Europe more often than they have in recent years. And this has naturally had an effect on our mutual musical understanding. Long story short: a subtlety so powerful and intimate, so complex and playful can only be achieved by a band whose members are able to respond to each other with telepathic sensitivity.

Her fourth album Everything (including the live album) doesn't immediately jump out at you like the cult hit from back then. The magic of these chansons is not based on «instant», rather it draws its power from delicately knitted vocal melodies that blow in the wind like the bows of a kite; from instrumental arrangements that are bursting with subtle surprises - enhanced, incidentally, by the warm sounds of the string quartet Amours Sur Mars, with whom they have also given concerts.

And then, of course, from the voice of Janine Cathrein and her songs, which, inspired and made necessary by the death of her father, revolve around the cyclical waves of life. «I didn't make an album,» she says, «I built a place to endure this grief.» A wonderful album that combines folk-pop conventions with chamber music moods and, like the most beautiful blues, brings uplifting music to deeply sad themes.

Black Sea Dahu: Everything. Mouthwatering Records

Writing a biography of Klaus Huber is not easy. The personality of the composer, who died in 2017, was just as, shall we say, problem-oriented as his work, which was riddled with productive contradictions and ruptures.

Corinne Holtz was the first to make the attempt and chose an unconventional form for her biography. Four of the eight chapters are written from the composer's first-person perspective, which places him in an almost intimate proximity to the reader. At first glance, this looks like literary fiction, but it is largely documented correctly with countless footnotes. The composite ego that emerges is a puzzle of written and oral statements by Huber, letters, diary entries and conversations with his descendants, much of it unpublished.

Corinne Holtz's meticulous research also brought many private details of Huber's life to light. His daughter Katharina Rikus willingly opened the family archives for this purpose. The part about his childhood and youth, which were dominated by a strict and by no means exemplary father, is revealing - a classic superego from which the late starter as a composer was never quite able to free himself.

Unfortunately, the works are somewhat neglected in the detailed biography. Only the opera Black earth whose production at the Theater Basel in 2001 the author accompanied as a journalist. In an entire chapter, apparently a by-catch of her research at the Sacher Foundation in Basel, she searches for traces of Sacher and the Nazis, which smells somewhat of the moral socialism so eagerly cultivated among the Swiss cultural left and seems like a foreign body here.

The extensive documentation with notes, sources and bibliography takes up over a hundred pages, a third of the book. A tremendous feat of diligence with a claim to completeness, but one that can probably never be fully realized in a case as complex as Huber's.

Corinne Holtz: World in the work. Klaus Huber (1924-2017), Biography, 309 p., Fr. 54.00, Schwabe, Basel 2024, ISBN 978-3-7965-5148-2

More detailed version of this review: beckmesser.info/klaus-huber-biographisch-seziert/