Steff Signer, alias Infrasteff, has never cracked a hit parade, nor filled stadiums or otherwise sent the box office into raptures. At least his opera Late afternoon in paradise at the Rossini Opera Festival on the island of Rügen, after which conductor Wolfgang Danzmayr praised the work as "ravishingly wacky". And once the experimental rocker, composer, poet and painter, who was born in Hundwil in the canton of Ausserrhoden and is now 74 years old, even found himself in a key position: from 1989 to 1994, he was head producer for the "Musikszene Schweiz" series run by Migros Culture Percentage.

It is precisely the unexpected (lateral) leaps that make Hanspeter Spörri, the former editor-in-chief of the CovenantThe chronicle, written by a friend of Signer's since his school days, is such an enjoyable and nourishing "deep dive" into the musical and social history of Eastern Switzerland. Signer's archive is now maintained by the Cantonal Library of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. "As a contemporary testimony, the diverse materials document a period of Appenzell's history that was previously inaccessible in museums, archives or libraries," writes library director Heidi Eisenhut. "The Signer private archive is a testimony to a subculture at home; characterized by 1968 and Frank Zappa, 'alternative', 'freaky', different from the usual and yet deeply connected to Appenzell in many reference points."

Thanks to a generous selection of QR codes, the book does full justice to Signer's multimedia work. The sounding examples begin with youthful "piano jazz" and range from early "beat" combos, Zappaesque experiments (Signer never got rid of the title "Appenzell Frank Zappa"), jazz-rock big bands, occupations with new music and a pop phase in the 1980s to the satirical and loving exploration of the Appenzell environment in recent times. An exemplary book.

Hanspeter Spörri: Steff Signer. The musical biography. A piece of Swiss rock, pop and highmatt history, 400 p., Fr. 48.00, Appenzeller Verlag, Schwellbrunn 2024, ISBN 978-3-85882-888-0

The last few years have proven that it is always possible to be surprised by new, previously little-known or forgotten repertoire. A large number of string quartets have come to light that were unjustly kept in the dark for a long time, such as those by Franz Xaver Richter, Peter Hänsel, Adalbert Gyrowetz or Carl Czerny, to name but a few. However, it is extremely rare for a quartet - and indeed the only quartet - by a world-famous composer to suddenly become available in a version that differs considerably from the much-performed work.

Verdi is said to have been bored; a long break from rehearsals is said to have driven him away from singing and towards purely instrumental music, which he had not turned to until then and would not do so for the rest of his life. Verdi himself was surprised by the success of the "occasional work", which was premiered in a small circle in 1873. He located the string quartet as a genre in the German cultural sphere and considered it a foreign product to the Italian palate. Nevertheless, he studied its DNA secretly and very thoroughly, as the first published edition of 1876 impressively proves. The essence and character of the quartet are originally Mediterranean in coloration, while the underlying architecture is based on the products of the best masters of the guild, which the Italian considered a sanctuary.

Very few connoisseurs and interpreters are aware that the first-performed version was a completely different piece to the printed version. In their apology, it should be said that Verdi's manuscript drafts from the first period of composition - 41 pages of hard work - have only been accessible to researchers since 2019. The urge of the first listeners to make the famous opera composer public as a master of chamber music was initially met with brusque resistance from the composer, until he gradually warmed to the idea.

What followed was an effort that he would probably have preferred to avoid. After all, playing with the idea of being on a par with the best in creating a string quartet is one thing, putting it to the test internationally is quite another. It was clear to him that the feuilletons would be full of malice if he did not meet the demands from the north. The national concept of music at the time was also reflected in the exclusion and disparagement of other composers. As a Norwegian string quartet exotic in 1878, Edvard Grieg could sing a sad song about how he was reviled in "professional circles" for his gross incompetence. So Verdi, who had an impeccable reputation to lose, had to be careful. His composition, which he coquettishly called "senza importanza", kept him busy for a total of seven years.

However, it would be unfair to accuse the first draft of lacking quality. Verdi's approach there is less sophisticated and methodical, relying above all on his brilliant inventiveness to produce a fresh and very appealing work of alert genius. One might miss something of this irreverence in the published quartet, which is almost a third longer, if one had the opportunity to hear the two pieces side by side.

For me, who know the work from my earliest ensemble days, it is almost amusing to see how two of the most feared passages for the second violin in the entire string quartet literature vanish into thin air in the first movement: The theme in the first movement, somewhat awkward to play on the G string, intoned by the first violin, and the tricky scherzo fugue beginning in the finale, pianissimo leggerissimo articulate, there is none at all. Incidentally, there is no fugue at all. The whole thing is highly exciting ... The study score contains the first performance version as well as the printed version.

A big compliment to the G. Henle publishing house for working out the development of Verdi's masterpiece in such a comprehensible way!

Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E minor, edited by Anselm Gerhard; Parts: HN 1588, € 25.00; study score: HN 7588, € 14.00; G. Henle, Munich

Aris Bassetti is something like the sun of the Ticino music scene. Twenty years ago, he formed the experimental rock band Peter Kernel with Barbara Lehnhoff, which has lost none of its original adventurous spirit to this day. His own record label, On the Camper Records, followed shortly afterwards. In addition to Lehnhoff's alter ego Camilla Sparksss, his current circle includes harpist Kety Fusco, the psychedelic band Monte Mai and yé-yé archaeologist Julie Meletta. With Mortòri, Bassetti is now embarking on his solo project. An urgently needed undertaking to explore the dark feelings associated with "love", he writes, citing Ornella Vanoni, Gino Paoli, South America, Italian-Swiss folk music and "Arabic music" as influences.

The first results, compiled on an EP, reveal their Italian roots above all in the vocal melodies and the lyrics, which Bassetti wrote in the endangered Ticino dialect. It sounds so peculiar that you could almost think he invented this language. Bassetti gives free rein to his experimental tendencies in the instrumentation without ever losing touch with palatable melodies. Thus O'l Amur driven forward by a vibraphone and bass riff, flute and hyperactive bongos. With GDC we are dealing with a kind of (electronic?) woodwind/cello combo and La Gata would have won the San Remo Festival in a better world. We look forward to more!

Mortòri: A Mort l'Amur. On the Camper Records

With their extraordinary CD Songs of the homeland from 2019, the renowned Lucerne soprano Regula Mühlemann not only showed courage in her choice of repertoire, she also triggered a new trend (Review by Verena Naegele). It is dedicated to the careful selection and revival of partly forgotten works by Swiss composers. Recently, a number of new recordings have appeared that are dedicated to such settings, some of them dialect poems, and thus shed light on the theme of home.

Swiss Love

Franziska Heinzen (soprano) and Benjamin Mead (piano) have created the "New Year's Piece" for the year 2025 at Zurich Central Library. Under the title Swiss Love. The sorrow and lust of love love stories of all shades are presented in a program in which the duo artfully interweaves songs by Lothar Kempter, Johann Carl Eschmann, Yvonne Röthlisberger and Wilhelm Baumgartner, some of them recorded for the first time, with newly arranged folk songs.

Hei cho

The second recording presents under the title Hei cho Settings of poems by Josef Reinhart, a well-known educator and writer from the Solothurn region in the first half of the 20th century. They were composed by Richard Flury, Ernst Honegger, Emil Adolf Hoffmann, Walter Lang, Friedrich Niggli, Heinrich Pestalozzi and Karl Schell. Soprano Stephanie Bühlmann - this is not her first dialect work either - has been able to recruit tenor Daniel Behle and pianist Benjamin Engeli, both proven specialists, for this project.

Forgotten songs, forgotten love

The third CD focuses on the work of Willy Heinz Müller, a violinist, conductor and composer from Vienna, who was active in the St.Gallen area until the 1970s and cultivated an international network of contacts. His songs, however, remained undiscovered for almost 100 years until the soprano Mélanie Adami, his great-granddaughter, finally took the time to study these forgotten works in detail during the coronavirus crisis. Convinced of their quality, she found equally curious fellow musicians in pianist Judith Polgar and baritone Äneas Humm, and together they made the recording entitled Forgotten songs, forgotten love to record. The compositions were complemented by works by other composers who had either made a great impression on Müller or with whom he had a personal relationship, such as Ernst von Dohnányi, Franz Ries or Carl Götze.

The musical level and recording quality is so high on all three recordings that you occasionally forget that you are not listening to standard or even master repertoire. For example, the fact that Daniel Behle is not a dialect speaker is only noticeable at the beginning. Overall, this feature also contributes to a certain ennobling of the overall sound. And even if there are occasional long stretches, the three recordings nevertheless invite listeners on a domestic voyage of discovery that will also reward a wider audience.

Swiss Love. The sorrow and lust of love. Solo Musica SM 477

Hei cho. Dialect songs on poems by Josef Reinhart. Solo Musica SM 464

Forgotten songs, forgotten love. Forgotten Songs by Willy Heinz Müller. Prospero Classical PROSP 0087

If the war-torn homeland becomes a threat to life or there is no longer enough money to live on, fleeing is often the only choice. But what happens in the other country? In other words, where refugees are cut off from their own culture? And in even worse cases, where they are not welcome?

These are extremely important questions of cultural policy that Music and migration is treated. Music has always been a defining identity factor. It is therefore not surprising that migrants or refugees continue to listen to and cultivate the music of their homeland - be it folk songs, rap in their own language or pentatonic tunes from their own cultural area. If you read the essays in this extensive anthology, there is something else: music alleviates suffering and helps people to deal with trauma. On page 215, Anna Papaeti and M. J. Grant report on a Syrian refugee. When he arrives by boat in Greece, he sings "a mixture of lament and prayer", addressed to the sea, which "may it stop killing children in its waves".

Such drastic situations are only a Aspect of the highly complex topic Music and migration. In addition, there are questions and problems of the "multicultural society", aspects of cultural appropriation, including the currently strange field of post-colonialism. The editors of the thick, 746-page anthology did well to explain "key terms" in lexicon style, not only "postcolonialism", but also many terms borrowed from ethnology or sociology, such as "agency", "embodiment" or "liminality". The field of research is fundamentally dependent on interdisciplinary cooperation, and therefore tends to be located more in "cultural studies" than in the more solid field of musicology. This makes it challenging to read in places. On the one hand, due to problems that are difficult to grasp and, on the other, due to research methods that are barely established.

Nevertheless, there is a lot to take away after reading it. Among other things, the insight that musical acculturation processes, i.e. the interpenetration of different cultures, are completely normal. Concepts of "own" and "foreign" are only auxiliary constructions - and this also exposes those patriots, nationalists and sometimes overly self-confident Europeans whose calls for a "dominant culture" or cultural "purity" are at best nonsensical abbreviations. As Katarzyna Grebosz-Haring and Magnus Gaul write on page 25? Plato already discussed the phenomenon of acculturation. And that was in the 3rd century BC!

Music and Migration, Volume 3, a book on theory and methods, edited by Wolfgang Gratzer, Nils Grosch, Ulrike Präger and Susanne Scheiblhofer, 746 p., € 69.90, Waxmann, Münster 2023, ISBN 978-3-8309-4630-4, open access

The new Köchel directory (KV or KV²⁰²⁴) represents the current knowledge of Mozart's individual compositions and justifies its high purchase price in every respect. It not only offers current research results, but also refers critically to the information in earlier editions from 1862 (Köchel), 1905 (Waldersee), 1937 (Einstein), 1964 (Giegling et al.).

The numbering of Mozart's works is based on the earliest in each of those editions, e.g. 314, but dispenses with the inconvenient double entries, e.g. 314/285d, and accepts that two entries are necessary for 314, namely for the flute concerto and the oboe concerto. This simplification means that the naming of the works in the chronological order of their presumed composition no longer plays a role, but this is done in a separate, concise overview with the greatest possible differentiation.

The music examples are simplified and do not provide a piano score of the first bars, but only the opening monophonic themes of individual movements. The appendices are also an asset: They contain the spurious works, Mozart's arrangements of other compositions as well as the scattered cadenzas and ornaments that have survived. The instructions for using the index even refer to future additions on the Internet. Unlike the new Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, the Köchel-Verzeichnis is not stingy with references, but lists the origins of all findings in a clear bibliography.

With the Köchel-Verzeichnis, the editors Neal Zaslaw and Ulrich Leisinger, their main collaborators and an army of informants and helpers have achieved a milestone in decades of work, a starting point for future study of Mozart's work, behind which there is no way back. Hopefully the delicate spine binding of this 1391-page single volume will survive its frequent use.

Köchel-Verzeichnis, Thematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, new edition 2024, edited by Neal Zaslaw, presented by Ulrich Leisinger with the assistance of Miriam Pfadt and Ioana Geanta, BV 300, CXXV + 1263 p., € 499.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2024

Theodor W. Adorno, the great music philosopher of the 20th century, was famously not a fan of jazz and pop music. His remarks about them are evidence of a defensive attitude rather than a fundamental openness towards different musical cultures. Adorno had his reasons (keyword "culture industry"). But the philosophy of music would do well to set aside its skepticism with regard to jazz and pop music and examine their respective aesthetic potentials more closely.

This is exactly what the philosopher - and trained jazz pianist - Daniel Martin Feige does in his new book Philosophy of music. Music aesthetics as a departure from Adorno. Using eight basic philosophical categories, he argues that terms such as "composing", "interpreting" or "improvising" should not be used as rigid, predefined measuring instruments derived from classical music, but should be rethought from the perspective of each musical work - dialectical conceptual work, in the spirit of Adorno.

Feige examines the aesthetic characteristics of Western art music, jazz and pop music with a lot of philosophical theoretical reference, for example the aspect of jazz improvisation with the help of G. E. M. Anscombe's theory of action, as well as against the background of the hermeneutics of Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer and John McDowell. Although the thoughts remain mostly on an abstract level (you can count the musical examples dealt with in more detail on one hand), Feige comes to some fundamental insights, especially with regard to jazz: for example, that the artistic production process is already inherent in the music itself or that the incalculable is included in the improvisation and that the meaning of an entire performance can only be established retrospectively and as a whole. Feige thematizes pop music primarily through the aspect of the medium by ascribing to it - in contrast to "art music", for example - primarily an existence as "non-documentary[...] recordings" (p. 143).

Overall, the book is a successful and illuminating opening of Adorno's aesthetics with regard to previously neglected musical traditions and offers numerous possibilities for connection - not least for studies that focus even more closely on the musical subject.

Daniel Martin Feige: Philosophy of Music. Musikästhetik im Ausgang von Adorno, 216 p., € 24.00, edition text+kritik, Munich 2024, ISBN 978-3-689-30028-9

The volume Thumb position is "a systematic, progressively structured collection with well-known songs and pieces as well as simple technical exercises for the high registers on the double bass". Charlotte Mohrs successfully summarizes what the edition has to offer with this first sentence in the introductory text.

The booklet is clearly structured, contains easy-to-follow explanations, easy-to-follow exercises and catchy melodies that invite double bass players to explore the thumb position from an early age. The focus is always on the joy of playing. The varied literature examples come from the solo and orchestral literature. In addition to excerpts, there are also longer pieces that musically summarize what has been learned. A detailed introduction is followed by eight chapters including diagrams of the basic patterns of finger positions; a piano accompaniment is available for download. The texts are written in German and English.

The third chapter, which deals with the 2nd upper register, is particularly successful. The pieces and exercises are easy to play thanks to two harmonics serving as a reference and fewer accidentals. The inhibition threshold of moving in this high register is overcome in a playful way. The fourth chapter, which is devoted in detail to harmonics, is also worthy of special mention and is usually a pleasure to play.

In a revision, it would be helpful to add a keyword index in the appendix. The volume also deals with bowing technique, which needs to be adapted in the high registers. An additional chapter with an overview of this would be valuable.

This booklet definitely belongs in the classroom of double bass teachers, and it is to be hoped that Thumb position will be a standard work of double bass literature in the future!

Charlotte Mohrs: Thumb position. Exercises and pieces to introduce the thumb position on the double bass, piano accompaniment to download, EC 23581, € 23.50, Schott, Mainz

Heinz Schütz: The name was previously unknown to me. However, he appears prominently in this history of the Electronic Studio of WDR Cologne. Dawn is the title of his short, concentrated tape piece from 1952. At times it even refers to Stockhausen's epoch-making Song of the youths (1955/56). However, Schütz did not see himself as a composer, he was a technician and had worked out a demonstration piece on behalf of studio boss Herbert Eimert. But with a lot of feeling.

This example shows how much creative potential there was in that studio, not only among the composers, but also in the technology. They were all curious and involved in the creative process. Electronic music, still incomprehensible to many listeners at the time, was a terra incognita that was explored as a team. Key works were created there until the studio was closed in 2001. The studio had a charisma that made it legendary - Miles Davis and the Beatles were inspired by it - above all, of course, by Stockhausen himself, who at times rose to the position of director. But there were also other innovations and highly exciting trends.

This becomes clear again and again in this publication, edited by former WDR editor Harry Vogt and radio producer Martina Seeber. It is a formative piece of music history that is documented and reappraised here in essays by various authors. The five enclosed CDs with more than six and a half hours of music are particularly valuable. In addition to the masterpieces, they also contain forgotten or untraceable pieces. From a Swiss perspective, the Dialogs from 1977, in which Thomas Kessler combined European and non-European instruments with electronics. When he arrived there, the recently deceased Kessler explains, Stockhausen had just finished his galactic Sirius had already finished. "I found that more interesting than any technical introduction, because I could imagine that my body could become an intergalactic antenna just by touching a device." The result is a rich compendium, highly informative, easy to read and peppered with delightful anecdotes.

Radio Cologne Sound. Das Studio für Elektronische Musik des WDR, ed. by Harry Vogt and Martina Seeber, 287 p., German/English, ill., with 5 CDs, € 39.00, Wolke, Hofheim 2024, ISBN 978-3-95593-259-6

While Elizabethan music for keyboard instruments by composers such as Byrd, Gibbons, Farnaby and Bull has found its way into the concert repertoire, the extensive corpus of surviving organ music from the Tudor period, composed around 1520-1560, has hardly ever been heard. With two volumes Early Tudor Organ Music the editors John Caldwell (*1938) and Danis Stevens had already made the essential sources for this - primarily MS 29996 held in the British Library - available for practical use in 1966 in a pioneering achievement. Almost 60 years later, a magnificent two-volume new edition of this repertoire has now been published, again edited by Caldwell, which meets the latest scholarly standards and the current state of scholarship in every respect.

It is exclusively liturgical music, which was performed in connection with the Sarum Use practised form of Gregorian chant, but also with polyphonic "faburdens" (some of which are printed in the appendix) or "composed" vocal movements alternatim: Versettas for hymns, antiphons, for the Te Deum or the Magnificat as well as for the Ordinary of the Mass. An extensive preface provides a wealth of information on performance practice, Tudor organ building, the composers (the best known, alongside many Anonymi, are probably Thomas Tallis, Thomas Preston and John Redford) as well as editorial and source-critical questions.

The more than 100 pieces - each introduced by detailed critical reports, explanations and indications of the vocal models - provide an insight into a world of sound that at first seems somewhat strange, characterized by a strict setting and fascinating rhythmic complexity. If you would like to find out more about the tonal realization, you will find a number of new recordings online (including on the few instruments of this period that have been reconstructed to date) as well as liturgical and musicological "re-enactments" of church services from this period, e.g. as part of the "Experience of Worship" research project at Bangor University.

Conclusion: Anyone wishing to study this largely unknown repertoire in depth will find here a publication that meets the highest standards and whose high price is justified by the extraordinarily careful preparation of the two volumes.

Early Tudor Organ Music, Vol. 1 and 2, ed. by John Caldwell, (Early English Church Music Vol. 65/66), EECM65/EECM66, 246/210. p., £ 100/85, Stainer & Bell, London 2024

If there is one work that all harpists have in their repertoire, sometimes loved, often feared, it is Louis Spohr's Fantasia in C minor. In 1805, he gave his future wife Dorette Scheidler, a pupil of Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, an impressive performance on the harp. In his memoirs, he writes how moved and moved to tears he was after this concert. Soon afterwards, he asked her to marry him. The couple married in 1806 and he composed the Fantasia in C minor the following year. It quickly became a permanent fixture in the harp repertoire.

Harp types and keys

In addition to the strict rhythmic introduction and the metrically very precisely notated Allegretto section, there are free cadenzas without bar lines with echo-like arpeggios and a recitative-like character, which are intended to sound quasi-improvised and are to be freely arranged. It can be assumed that Backofen's fantasy inspired Spohr. Dorette Scheidler frequently performed both works in her concerts.

She played a single-pedal harp with a smaller range of strings and keys than our modern double-pedal harps. Although Spohr was still considering buying one of these new instruments for Dorette in 1820, this never happened in the end. The single pedal harp has a basic tuning in E flat major, so the parallel key of C minor is obvious. Despite this harp-motivated choice of key, the sombre and heavy C minor fits wonderfully with the Adagio molto opening with large chords, which later transform into melodies and arpeggios, almost to the point of whispered passages.

Scientific and practice-oriented

The Fantasie was first published by Spohr's publisher Simrock in Bonn in 1816 - almost a decade after its composition, probably to prevent other harpists from performing the work in public. Numerous new editions appeared after Spohr's death, in many of which the original musical text was modified. Unfortunately, the autograph sources have been lost. The edition most widely used today was edited by Hans Joachim Zingel for the double pedal harp (with added notes, altered dynamics and much more) and was published by Bärenreiter in 1954.

The new edition by harpist and musicologist Masumi Nagasawa, also published by Bärenreiter, impresses with well-founded research, precise markings and a clear score. It is nice that the introduction (en/dt) deals with many important questions such as playing techniques and harp indications and thus offers not only a scholarly but also a very practical basis. The edition also includes fingering suggestions and historically informed performance markings. Details and comments on style, tempo, arpeggio, fingerings, staccato, ornaments and slurs are detailed and informative (in English only). The frequently recurring question of trills and how they should be played is also addressed without being dogmatic. It is also left to the freedom of the interpreter, who can make well-founded decisions thanks to the many explanations. It is also welcome that no pedal markings have been printed, as every harpist has an individual pedal technique and marking.

A very nice bonus: Backofen's fantasy is included in its entirety in the appendix: a free introduction, a small, metrically notated part and then free arpeggios and chords - left entirely to the free interpretation of the player.

Louis Spohr: Fantasy in C minor for harp op. 35, appendix: Fantasy by Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, edited by Masumi Nagasawa, BA 10954, € 19.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel

Sergei Rachmaninov composed his 3rd Piano Concerto in the summer of 1909 in preparation for his first concert tour to America. He did not have much time to practise, so he helped himself with a silent keyboard during the crossing. The premiere took place in New York on November 28 of the same year. The New York Symphony Orchestra played under the direction of Walter Damrosch. Shortly afterwards, the work was performed again in New York, this time under the baton of Gustav Mahler. Many would have liked to have been there ...

The enormous demands of the solo part are said to have prompted Rachmaninov to describe it as a "concerto for an elephant". It is also considered by many to be the piano concerto with the "most notes". (Busoni's would be a serious contender, however).

In view of all these superlatives, it is sometimes forgotten how economically and artistically this Opus 30 is constructed. Almost all the themes and melodies can be traced back to a few core motifs. This applies not only to the piano part, but also to the orchestra, which is closely interwoven with the solo part. This is probably why Mahler spent a great deal of time on this during the rehearsals for the aforementioned performance, which obviously impressed Rachmaninov very much.

The network of relationships that binds all three movements together is also artfully crafted. For example in the finale, where the first theme of the first movement reappears in an impressive way in the middle. The connection between the first and second movements is also achieved with the help of a complex modulation section that leads from D minor to D flat major. Incidentally, Rachmaninov also proceeds in a similar way in his other piano concertos.

Dominik Rahmer has now republished this 3rd piano concerto with G. Henle, and the result is more than satisfactory. The print is clear and easy to read and gives the many notes considerably more space than in the old Boosey & Hawkes edition, for example. The fingerings by Marc-André Hamelin are sensible and cleverly placed sparingly. The orchestral part (piano II) was taken from the original by Rachmaninov and only slightly modified by Johannes Umbreit to make it easier to play.

After Rachmaninov, only a few pianists dared to tackle this enormous work. First and foremost among them was Vladimir Horowitz, who virtually "inherited" it from the composer. Nowadays, it is an integral part of the concert repertoire, even if the demands have of course not diminished as a result. Vladimir Ashkenazy is someone who has often worked on this concerto, both as a pianist and as a conductor. He has made several recordings, the most notable of which is probably the one with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink (Decca). A recording that could perhaps convert even those who despise Rachmaninov ...

Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor op. 30, edited by Dominik Rahmer, piano reduction by Johannes Umbreit, HN 1452, € 29.00, G. Henle, Munich

The beginning of the CD is somewhat strange, as an intro to the tuning of the string instruments, and even more so the program: Max Reger's first string trio from 1904 is heard between the works of three later composers. This doesn't seem particularly coherent, rather contrived, but after all, this is a recording debut, and the musicians probably wanted to present their own musical versatility in addition to their stylistic versatility - which they succeed in doing beautifully. The three from the Triologie string trio met in 2019 while studying for a master's degree at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and have been performing together ever since.

There is a lot to discover on the CD, not only Reger's trio, but also two early modern composers: Emmy Frensel Wegener (1901-1973) from the Netherlands composed mainly in the 1920s and 1930s, but then had to give it up due to illness. Her entertaining five-movement work from 1925 is wonderfully light and is performed nimbly by Triologie, as is the charming string trio by Australian Miriam Hyde (1913-2003). She was nineteen years old when she wrote it. It marks the beginning of a rich compositional and, incidentally, literary oeuvre for which Hyde was honored several times. The main work on the CD, however, is the one-movement piece A tres voces by the Cuban Tania León, born in 1943. Created in 2010, it combines elements of new music with Afro-American rhythms. But by no means in a bold crossover manner. The drive is subtle, but carries the tension, the music reflects, goes astray, breaks the flow with soloistic interludes and always has surprises in store. The three musicians also do justice to this world premiere recording of the music with their precise, sensitive and extremely transparent playing. It gets to the point.

A tres voces. Triologie String Trio (Elodie Théry, cello; Meredith Kuliew, viola; Nevena Tochev, violin). Prospero PROSP0101

The Northern Irish coastal region produces similarly rough characters as the American prairie. Does Liam Neeson in the movie In the Land of Saints & Sinners As he roams the vast Irish countryside with his gun, he is strongly reminiscent of Clint Eastwood, who once roamed the imaginary Wild West as a solitaire in spaghetti westerns.

So it is hardly surprising that the soundtrack, composed by the Swiss-Australian siblings Diego, Nora and Lionel Baldenweg, picks up on many typical western music elements. The musical cosmos of Ennio Morricone was the inspiration for what feels like every second note. A harmonica (sensuously played by Pfuri Baldenweg) is also a must. This instrument runs like a red thread through the score, which is characterized by leitmotifs. And yet: not only western sounds play an important role in the soundtrack of director Robert Lorenz's film, specially composed Irish folk music is also subtly integrated into the sound structure.

Great wealth of ideas

The trio of composers use a wealth of ideas from their film music bag of tricks to score the film, which is set in the turmoil of the Northern Ireland conflict: Rhythmically propulsive clusters of sound (The Grand Showdown), similarly familiar from Hans Zimmer's composing factory, alternate skillfully with lyrical themes (Finbar's Theme) and palatable Irish western sound (Irish Western Ballad).

The score, masterfully orchestrated by Diego Baldenweg, was beautifully recorded in the Belgian Galaxy studios under the direction of Dirk Brossé. The Galaxy Symphonic Orchestra, made up of musicians from various Central European countries, received vocal support from members of the Vlaams Radiokoor. It was epic how the austere Irish landscape was captured musically. Great cinema for the ears!

In the Land of Saints & Sinners. Music Composed by Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg & Lionel Baldenweg. Galaxy Symphonic Orchestra, Conducted by Dirk Brossé; Feat. Pfuri Baldenweg. Caldera Records C 6058

Peter Benary (1931-2015) was clearly not what you would call a "simple person". In his seminars at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, he sometimes made mocking and sarcastic remarks to his students. In this newly published anthology, long-time friend and conductor Peter Gülke speaks of a "difficult friendship". And then there are the reviews that Peter Benary wrote for the NZZ wrote. They were sometimes biting, because the commitment to the music could tip over into hurtfulness - especially when it was not his was music.

His All 17 authors in the volume agree that the music was not that of the avant-garde after 1950. The names of Benary's fixed stars Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Bruckner and Paul Hindemith are mentioned. Michel Roth, composer and professor at the Basel University of Music, mentions Benary's essay The rejection of new musicwhere "a perverted understanding of technology" is criticized and Benary complains about a "loss of language in music", which is due to the fact that "technology" has taken the place of "content, linguistic meaning, expression" (p. 116).

Benary was moderately successful as a composer. His works were hardly ever performed at new music festivals; he himself once complained that he no longer wanted to compose "for the drawer". Nevertheless, he produced an extensive oeuvre with many choral works, three symphonies, four string quartets and a considerable amount of chamber music. (The anthology concludes with the list of works compiled by David Koch, p. 212 ff.) Benary was also productive as a music publicist, be it as a critic of the NZZ or as an author for the Swiss Music Newspaper and the Swiss music education journals. Many musicological essays testify to a broad horizon: fundamental aesthetic considerations stand alongside thoughts on interpretation and specific discussions of individual works and composers in music history.

After reading the book, which was published by Schwabe Verlag in Basel in 2024, the feeling remains that Benary has somehow fallen out of his time, despite his creative urge. His time as an essayist and program booklet author for the Lucerne Festival ended in 2007 because the author simply refused to write with a computer and insisted on the good old typewriter. Incidentally, the composer, musicologist, publicist and lecturer also wrote haikus, poetry and aphorisms. Including the cheerfully amusing motto: "A fly walks across the music paper to the fermata."

Peter Benary, composer, musicologist, publicist and lecturer, ed. by Niccolò Raselli and Hans Niklas Kuhn, 229 p., Fr. 46.00, Schwabe, Basel 2024, ISBN 978-3-7965-5109-3