Almost 25 years have passed since the Music village Ernen without its founder, the Hungarian pianist and phenomenal pedagogue György Sebök (1922-1999), continued to flourish. Sebök's master classes from 1974 and the Festival of the Future from 1987 play an important role in his life's work and laid the foundations for today's Festival Musikdorf Ernen. Some 25 years later, the festival is celebrating its 50th concert season. The motto is "Milestones". It refers to both the annual program with its national and international artists and the works performed. The Chiaroscuro Quartet, for example, can be heard in seven concerts with works ranging from Purcell to Schubert, as can promising young ensembles from Basel such as the Spirea Quartet with music by Rudolf Kelterborn or the Zeitgeist Trio with bagatelles by this year's Composer in Residence, Helena Winkelman, whose Ghost songs will be premiered.

Handover already planned

According to the program, there were seven milestones that led the festival to its current heyday: the successful continuation of the music village by the association, courageous investments in premises, the purchase of its own instruments, increasing numbers of association members, overcoming crises, important impulses from personalities such as Donna Leon or Sir András Schiff and finally the regulated succession. After a transitional period, Jonathan Inniger will take over the overall artistic direction from the current artistic director Francesco Walter in 2026.

The this year's season began on June 4 and will conclude with a New Year's Eve concert on December 30.

The concert guitar seems to have fallen out of time. In the 20th century, it stood for movements such as folk music, for conviviality around the campfire, intimate recitals in small groups and styles that sailed under the label "world music": Flamenco, bossa nova, jazz manouche. Storms of protest, such as those experienced by the later Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan when he electrified his folk guitar, are unimaginable today. Current music production is becoming more and more digitalized and is increasingly taking place in artificial worlds in which music-making is becoming increasingly disembodied.

The acoustic guitar has almost mutated into a symbol of resistance. In Switzerland, initiatives such as the Förderverein klassische Gitarre Zürich, the Ticino-based Amici della chitarra and the Lucerne Guitar Focus Association high. The latter has organized four classical guitar concerts a year there since 2009 and bundled them into an annual festival during the pandemic, in which the guitar is increasingly shown in combination with chamber music.

This year's program included a trio of guitar, harp and mandolin, a clarinet-guitar duo, a pure guitar duo and a violin-lute duo - in addition to solo concerts, workshops and an open stage. The association has also come up with something special to promote young talent: The concerts in Lucerne's Neubad were always introduced by short performances by students. This is an idea worth emulating.

Plucking to the power of three

It usually takes a moment to adjust your ears to the delicate soundscapes of the concert guitar. But once you are drawn into the filigree sounds, you may be in for a surprise. In recent years, the Brazilian Hamilton de Holanda and the Israeli Avi Avital have opened their ears to a relative of the plucked instrument, the mandolin. Xavier de Maistre has put the "typical female instrument", the harp, in the spotlight.

The trio sixty1strings showed in Lucerne that "man-splucking" is unnecessary in order to give these instruments the respect they deserve. The reason for founding the trio was the study of one of the few original compositions for this instrumentation: Hans Werner Henze's Carillon, Recitatif, Masque. Henze, who was born with the Royal Winter Music who made a singular contribution to the guitar repertoire of the 20th century, is very familiar with the possibilities of the instrument and shows a happy hand here too.

Guitarist Negin Habibi, harpist Konstanze Kuss and mandolinist Ekaterina Solovey, among others, have also played the Aquarium from Saint-Saëns Carnival of the animals arranged for themselves, and allow the highly poetic little work to appear in a completely new light. It would be difficult to listen to the original version after this amazing experience without remembering these perfectly fitting filigree sounds.

A bit of folk spirit

Something of the spirit of the folk movement shone through the duo Zarek Silberschmidt & George Ricci. First there was the story of the discovery of the New Zealand guitarist by the festival organizer Elise Tricoteaux: she had heard him play in the canteen of the Basel Music Academy and was thrilled by his virtuosity and creativity. Silberschmidt has indeed mastered a variety of styles such as jazz manouche, flamenco, blues, country and folk and manages to put his stamp on them without diluting their authenticity. In addition, he uses all the elements of the instrument for the most amazing percussion effects. Ricci complements him on the bass clarinet with Johnny Cash lines. On the Bb clarinet he contributed, among other things, an extremely sensitive, atmospherically first-class version of Kosmas Feuilles mortes with.

The  Lucerne Guitar Concerts are organized by Elise Tricoteaux and Raoul Morat. 

His master classes were special experiences for both performers and listeners. He carried rolls of paper and colored pencils in his luggage like a drawing teacher. Instead of having passages sung, he gave pointers on postures, tensions, positions and corrected misalignments from the top of the head to the sole. The balance of the supporting and free leg, the shift in weight were balanced, the breath was brought into flow; "cantare sul fiato" - singing on the breath - "stare su una barca ancorata" - standing on an anchored boat. "All joints run in circular paths" - the model was Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvius Man. The students were asked to trace the ambitus of their voice in circles. The effect was striking. The singers straightened their posture, leaning their spine and chest: "appoggiarsi alla testa - appoggiare in petto". With a smile of redemption, the intended goal was achieved.

This was the master's art of transmission and the dissolution of fears and blockages. Widmer documented the relationship between movement and sound in 2018 in the large-format book "Gesang ist innerer Bewegung Klang". Salvador Dalí's burning giraffe, this apocalyptic monster in small format, provided the surreal cover image for the bold title: And nobody notices that the giraffe is on fire (Cardamina-Verlag).

From Machaut to Kurtág

Kurt Widmer was a gifted singer on the podium. He premiered 100 works over the course of half a century. His repertoire ranged from Guillaume de Machaut to György Kurtág, who composed Hölderlin songs for the baritone, spanning seven centuries. His discography reveals the stylistic range: from J. S. Bach's St. John Passion to Zemlinsky's Dehmel Lieder, in between Charpentier's Magnificat, Graun's Death of JesusSchoecks PenthesileaSchubert's Winter journey, Zelenkas Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae.

Apart from romantic opera, there are virtually no gaps. One is now filled by his daughter-in-law Cecilia Bartoli, who has taken over the direction of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo together with her son Oliver Widmer. And speaking of family, Kurt Widmer and his wife Ursula Widmer-Bösch were still able to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary. She stood by his side for the rest of his life, took care of the household and drove him by car to performance venues and courses. Four children were born to the couple: one daughter is a doctor, one is in the car industry, the youngest works as a food scout; the son was engaged at the Zurich Opera House.

An omniscient

Widmer's house in Basel's Sankt Johanns quarter was a meeting place for society and music, where singing was accompanied on grand pianos, historically oriented on the fortepiano. He met with the author Hansjörg Schneider at the fountain in front of the gate or, depending on the weather, in the Rosenkranz around the corner. Pub stops like in Schubert's time.

Widmer was a universally informed scholar. He had a lot to say at length about every educational topic and every personality. He liked to interrupt the flow of conversation with the terse remark: "As you know!"

Widmer was also an extremely talented, imaginative calligrapher. Looking at the artfully handwritten and illustrated memories of his family, it was impossible not to be amazed. Every character an inch of beauty; every letter a picture; every word a unit; every letter a precious dedication. Works of art from the rich fund of imagination and drawing skills in color and form. Widmer was a baroque man and a surrealist who drew on the abundance of past and present. He possessed a wide-ranging talent for interpreting words and illustrating music.

A pilgrimage of song

His achievements, awards and importance in Swiss musical life can only be listed in summary. His journey took him from the Tonhalle in his native town of Wil in St. Gallen to the concert halls of the world, on whose stages he performed: a pilgrimage of song, also of cheerful enjoyment at richly laid culinary tables. The harvest of his decades of teaching at the Basel Music Academy, the "Schola Cantorum Widmeriana", was the awarding of over 120 diplomas to singers who were to make a career for themselves. An extension of his teaching until the end were the master classes from Bolzano to Vaduz, from Moscow to Tokyo.

The circle of this truly full life for art singing has come full circle. Half a hundred former students came to the funeral service in Basel's Leonhardskirche to pay their musical respects to the deceased. A life's work has been accomplished.

Music can be an effective means of counteracting neurological impairments. Lucerne stands out in this respect with pioneering projects. The professional association and organization for those affected Aphasia Suisse founded the first Swiss aphasia choir there 15 years ago. People with aphasia have lost all or part of their speech as a result of a stroke, tumor or accident. However, they are still able to sing. The communal experience, which also serves to empower them, makes a major contribution to the mental health of those affected. There are now ten aphasia choirs and even an aphasia yodeling choir in Switzerland.

Another project is currently being steered by a lively working group led by the British music psychologist Dawn Rose from the Lucerne School of Music (HSLU-M). She is researching ways of using music to make everyday life easier for people with Parkinson's disease. A multilingual consultation study co-financed by Parkinson's Switzerland on the use of music by those affected in Switzerland is planned. A web platform called "Playlist for Parkinson's", which is currently being developed, will also provide them with resources on music use.

Technology from the film industry

The development of a measurement protocol at the HSLU-M is an important scientific component of the project. It enables quantitative clinical tests on a pressure-sensitive gait mat and with markers, with which movements accompanied by music can be precisely recorded and analyzed. The method used originates from film production. There, it is used to transfer the movements of people to animated characters. The core is a detailed four-dimensional model of a person, including the way they move. On the basis of these investigations, the Lucerne research team has formulated an intervention protocol designed to optimize music-assisted neurorehabilitation for people with Parkinson's disease. It is being tested in Lucerne, Lugano and London. The project partners in Switzerland are the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital and clinics and neurocenters in Ticino.

A Playlist for Parkinson's has already been realized by the Lucerne project partner, the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). It is based on research by Michelle Phillips from the RNCM, Dawn Rose from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ellen Poliakoff from the University of Manchester and Will Young from the University of Exeter. The list was compiled in collaboration with people with Parkinson's who told us how they use music, what it means to them and how it can be helpful. The list covers different areas of use, ranging from "music to make me happy" to "music that gets me going".

Playlist in concert

Two concerts - one at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2022 and one in Lucerne on May 9 - showed what such a playlist can look like and what benefits it has, with music students arranging and interpreting tracks from the list in original ways. The result was a very unusual and inspiring mix of music that went far beyond the Parkinson's theme. Titles by U2, Ennio Morricone, Sydney Bechet, Giuseppe Verdi, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Antonio Vivaldi, Ludovico Einaudi and Swiss folk music stood side by side as a matter of course. The musical contributions were complemented by interviews with Parkinson's sufferers, some of whom even contributed to the concert by playing music themselves.

Students of the HSLU-M arranged for the concert, for example, Verdi's Prisoners' choir and Ennio Morricone's film music from the spaghetti western Play me the song of death for string quartet and solo soprano. A jazz-rock-pop band switched virtuosically from the U2 track Beautiful Day about John Fogertys Proud Mary to Bechets Petite Fleur. Accordionist Toni Scherrer, who himself suffers from Parkinson's disease, proved to be an extremely charismatic entertainer together with folk music student Dominik Furger on the Schwyzerörgeli. The whole hall sang along to the folk earworm Ramseiers like go graze and at the end of the whole concert he even let himself be invited to the dedicated Country Roads-karaoke.

Listen to what inspires

Toni Scherrer also talked about how making music helps him to deal with the symptoms of the disease. According to Dawn Rose, areas of the brain in which music is processed form islands of integrity, especially in the early stages of the disease. In Scherrer's experience, tremors and balance problems disappear while he is making music and sometimes only return hours or even days later.

The playlist can have an effect far beyond the Parkinson's issue. In music psychology, the term "guilty pleasure" refers to the feelings of guilt that can creep up on you when you enjoy music that does not seem to correspond to the intellectual level you ascribe to yourself - a legacy of the educated middle classes. The musical approach to the illness therefore also has an emancipatory character. Whatever I like to listen to and inspires me: That's fine.

The fact that conductors also excel as composers has become a rare phenomenon. Conductor-composers such as Esa-Pekka Salonen or Peter Eötvös are rare exceptions. Is it because the demands on the conducting profession grew in the 20th century and ambitious young conductors felt they had to choose one of the two careers? It is quite likely that most of them still composed privately and "for the drawer". Because someone "who performs and arranges the music", as Johann Gottfried Walther wrote almost 300 years ago in his Musical Lexicon In practice, they deal intensively with the "order" and style of music and have an enormous amount of know-how, which in itself offers the best conditions for composing. Nevertheless, the people concerned seem to fear the accusation of dilettantism and bashfully withhold their works.

Herbert von Karajan and Sergiu Celibidache, for example, expressed themselves compositionally only in the field of the grotesque and the bizarre. Celibidache's thirteen-part orchestral suite The pocket gardenwritten for children, was at least performed by himself and released on record; The cast-iron stag by Herbert von Karajan, a symphonic poem for alphorn ad libitum and orchestra based on a Salzburg folk tale, only came to public attention in 2009 thanks to the consent of Karajan's widow.

Inspiration from the word

The conductor Mario Venzago, who celebrates his 75th birthday on July 1, 2023, has, like his colleagues, only performed two of his own works in his long career. His cantata Counterspell (1977) for soprano, trombone, orchestra and hidden brass band based on a novel by Adolf Muschg was awarded a prize in a competition organized by British American Tobacco. His Violin Concerto, a life's work that he began working on in his early years as a conductor, was premiered in 2021 in his farewell concert as chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra (https://www.musikzeitung.ch/berichte/2021/07/mario-venzagos-violinkonzert-als-bio-piece). It impresses with its profundity, wealth of material and immediate intensity; the masterful handling of the instruments reflects the conductor's lifelong practical experience. Venzago's distinctive interest and talent for shaping music is also evident in his arrangements - his additions to Schubert's "unfinished" B minor Symphony, for example.

At the time of the violin concerto's premiere, the coronavirus pandemic had caused a turning point in Venzago's working life, which led him to compose in a completely new and fundamental way. Not to symphonic music, which has long been his main professional interest, but to opera. The inspiration came from the texts and content. In just two years, he composed two operas based on very different texts and went about his work with uncompromisingly original and provocative ideas. As he himself often said, if the music could not be performed, it wanted to be expressed with power.

Hotel rooms in keys

The first opera, a one-act play with the title Hotel Windermeris based on a short story by the classic crime novelist Raymond Chandler (I'll be waiting). The location inspired the Schönberg adept Venzago to assign the twelve keys to the twelve rooms of the hotel, the colors of which are used by the characters in the crime story: the hotel detective, the beautiful stranger waiting for her lover, the lover on the run, the concierge, some gangsters, including, surprisingly, the hotel detective's brother.

To further populate the rooms, Venzago introduces card players and an aged violin diva, who is the only member of the ensemble who does not sing but actually plays the violin. In addition, there are two very virtuoso parts for stage pianos, so that it is clear from the outset who has the real leading role in this story: the music. He has no shortage of bizarre and comical ideas: for example, he creates a sound-painting roulette scene that traces the path of the rolling, bouncing ball in the orchestra. For the love duet, he uses verses from the Song of Solomon and turns them into a real rap accompanied by percussion. The "Waiting" from the original title of the original is associated with Penelope's waiting right at the beginning of the opera, quoting Monteverdi. After a ten-part funeral music in vocalises, the ending draws a surprising, half-open conclusion ("I'll never wait again").

Vocal intervals and Far Eastern sound idioms

In the novel for the second opera, The Piano Tuner resp. Her Majesty's piano tuner by Daniel Mason, Venzago found completely different qualities and musical aspects that interested him. The instrument with which he himself found his way to music is the focus here, but not in connection with virtuosity, but with the figure of a "technician": In the late 19th century, this piano tuner travels to the Far East to repair the Erard grand piano of a whimsical military doctor in the jungle. Here, the utopia of bringing peace through music is negotiated and must cruelly fail. The exotic coloring of the ship voyage and the locations in Myanmar lead Venzago, who skilfully condenses the epic breadth of the original into five scenes and two epilogues, to free-tonal, sometimes twelve-tone structures. "Burmese" sound idioms are hinted at with six-tone constructions.

Venzago draws on the ostracized music of the 1930s as well as elements from pop and musicals, but takes a decidedly organic rather than collage-like approach. Musical burlesque characterizes the world of the British military, for example in a polyphonic soldier's song declaimed in semi-voice. Delicately erotic moments arise in the piano tuner's encounter with the doctor's Burmese assistant, who becomes a kind of guide into unknown worlds of sound. As the climax of the opera, Venzago transforms the tuning of the piano into a "symphony of voices", which increasingly interweaves the realistic striking of the intervals with a polyphonic world of birdsong in the orchestra.

Far from the mainstream

These two projects seem extraordinary, and they are certainly bold, also with regard to the question of performance. After all, what artistic director would dare to commit himself so far from the mainstream? Venzago's operas by no means fall into the categories of grotesque and bizarre. Despite comic aspects and eccentric moments, they are serious pieces and deal with the big questions: What can music do? What is music to us? As Venzago's wealth of ideas also guarantees good entertainment, one would very much like to see both operas performed one day. Venzago himself continues to compose when he is not on concert tours: he is now working on a piano concerto.

 

Dorothea Krimm
... is a musicologist and manages the library of the Bühnen Bern.

 

 

To mess something up stands for failure par excellence. As is well known, the term comes from playing something wrong on a violin and in everyday language means messing up, messing up, messing up, in short, making something a veritable failure. Under the title Screwed up The German theater director Herbert Fritsch, who became famous for his absurd slapstick productions - such as Ligeti's anti-opera Le Grande Macabre in Lucerne in 2017 - and the globally renowned Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss master violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who increasingly relies on (heavily) exaggerated characters in her staged concerts, have teamed up for a joint project. At the director's request, they have attempted to translate "Nicht-Beherrschen" into a theatrical or "operatic" version for the main stage of Theater Basel.

The primary means for this was improvisation. According to the program sheet, the aim of this project was to playfully find out where music begins and how it ends. Perplexity is declared to be the scenic motor. Not only sounds and noises, but also gestures, grimaces, body movements and choreographies are to become music here. Kopatchinskaja's long-standing musical partner and clarinet virtuoso Reto Bieri and a top-class four-piece ensemble of renowned actors and actresses plus two singers will be taking part.

"Beautiful"

Everything is supposed to develop from what has gone before - "without any recognizable meaning or purpose", it is postulated. We then see some very minimalist basic gestures, but they come across like a punch in the eye: Kopatchinskaja begins alone on the dark stage with a wild improvisation in which the main sounds are squeaking and scratching.

Only gradually is the violinist illuminated by a red projector, her ever faster movements leading to a violently spinning dervish dance, which suddenly becomes just as visible as her overemphasized, abrupt string movements: Watch out, slapstick! After the end of the performance, sudden silence: watch out, this is music too! Silhouettes of various large, walking human bodies are then projected onto a gauze on the back wall of the stage. Suddenly, real actors emerge from the shadows and cross the entire space without ever bumping into each other. Their walking seems to become more and more rhythmic: Watch out, this is musical too! They all carry briefcases, which in time turn out to be metal sheets that can be used to produce theatrical thunder. Yes, noise is music too!

In between, the clarinettist makes various playing noises, later also with a constantly repeated tone. Unfortunately, nothing more was done with this sonorous, exciting source material. Apart from a short folk music duet between the two star performers and the performance of a Bach chaconne on a large turntable, instrumental music is in short supply in this production, as are vocals or spoken texts. Gratefully received exceptions are the Beatles song performed by the eight-member choir Because the world is round it turns me ona few bars from the hit song Oh Donna Clara, I have seen you dance or the repeatedly uttered exclamation "Schööööön", the trademark of Spanish clown legend Charlie Rivel.

Trimmed failure

Towards the end there are artistic interludes with falls from the ladder, here from a tennis judge's chair, and as a final punchline the rolling of the fallen man into a red carpet as a reference to Christoph Marthaler's theater, who reduced failure in his productions to human dimensions.

What Screwed up lacks wit and musicality, Marthaler's play, which premiered a week later Life department in excess. Billed as a theater in the disused Birsfelden municipal administration building just outside Basel, it turned out to be musical theater at its finest with music from Bach to Wagner, interspersed with hits by Schubert, as well as texts by Marthaler, Jürg Laederach and Gertrude Stein with absurd endless lists in the service of a subtle reckoning with bureaucracy.

 

Performances until June 16, 2023

 

Martin Wettges is taking over from Raphael Immoos and is therefore primarily responsible for the entire choral program at the Basel School of Music, Classical Music. This includes the large choir, the chamber choir, lessons in choral conducting and much more.

The Basel University of Music would like to thank Raphael Immoos most sincerely for his many years of commitment.

Biography and further information on Martin Wettges

Under the direction of Benedikt von Peter, Theater Basel has ambitious plans for the next season. 29 premieres and 10 revivals are on the program for the three divisions of ballet, opera and drama.

The opera is staging Richard Wagner's tetralogy over two seasons The Ring of the Nibelung. The host stands at the director's desk; the British conductor Jonathan Nott at the podium of the Basel Symphony Orchestra. In 2023/24, the one-act Vorabend The Rhinegold and the almost five-hour Valkyrie developed.

Grönemeyer's opera debut

The musical comedy promises a spectacular world premiere Horse eats hat by singer and bandleader Herbert Grönemeyer in a production by Herbert Fritsch. The composition based on Eugène Labiche's A Florentine hat is Grönemeyer's first music theater production.

The Argentinian choreographer Constanza Macras stages Bizet's Carmen and Rachael Wilson in the title role for the first time, while Salzburg's successful director Romeo Castellucci Mozart's Requiem to the stage. Ivor Bolton will conduct the Basel Symphony Orchestra for the last time as chief conductor.

Christoph Marthaler takes on Monteverdi's last opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea with Kerstin Avemo in the title role. With the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and the countertenor Jake Arditti, important roles are prominently cast. The love affair between Nero and the new empress is likely to be another cult production of slowness. The director of the London Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings, and the baroque orchestra La Cetra will ensure a historically informed performance.

Several revivals fill the opera program: Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Webers Freischütz and Verdi's Rigoletto with Regula Mühlemann as Gilda.

Change of style in ballet

The ballet division is radically reshuffled when Richard Wherlock hands over the ballet directorship after more than twenty years. From then on, it is led by dance curator Adolphe Binder and ballet master Tilman O'Donnell. Instead of classical story ballets, the following are performed: the ballet evening Marie & Pierre by US choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, an "abduction into a sensual and dramatic multiverse"; Telling Stories by the Swiss artist Fabrice Mazliah, the ballet Verwandlung - A poetically pulsating two-act play with dance and choir by Saburo Teshigawara and on the subject of metabolism the dance and video piece DIEstinguished by La Ribot. One looks in vain for a choreography by the new dance theater director. Born in Romania, she comes from the Wupperthal dance theater scene as a successor to Pina Bausch. The 30 members of the future ballet company, who come from 16 different countries, are referred to as "Dance/Performance Festivals & Guests". At least a third of the Wherlock ensemble will be taken over.

There were allegedly no applications from dancers from the theater's own professional ballet school. Despite accusations against the director, the canton of Basel-Stadt was still subsidizing the school, whose professional training will be discontinued at the end of the school year in the summer, with 900,000 francs. The external investigation found "that some of the female students interviewed were subjected to humiliation and that the principal intimidated them with her behavior and created a climate of fear"! A harsh accusation and an unpleasant end for the 22-year-old training center.

One bright spot is the opening of the foyer of the main stage to the general public. People from all walks of life and generations engage in conversation, study, dance and song. And all this with free admission and no police presence!

A friendly voice guides you precisely across Heimplatz, past the Schauspielhaus, left into Zeltweg, through a passageway into the inner courtyard of the Escherhäuser and directly into another time. Richard Wagner himself scolds a blacksmith there in almost original Saxon, disturbing his composing peace, whose hammering mingles with Wagner's piano and soon leads into the first act of Siegfried which in part actually originated right here.

What lasts a long time ...

This virtuoso walk through the city and through time is part of the project just presented at the website of the Institute of Musicology of the University of Zurich. Music in Zurich can be downloaded to any smartphone. It was conceived by writer, radio play director, singer and journalist Simona Ryser and editor Roger Nickl. At the vernissage at the Institute of Musicology, it was revealed that the idea had already come up a while ago. As the director of the institute, Laurenz Lütteken, explained, the idea of an auditory tour through Richard Wagner's Zurich was already being dreamt of in 2007, on the occasion of the congress of the International Musicological Society held in Zurich. At that time, however, "only" thematic city tours were created. These were based on extensive research that was initiated between 2002 and 2012 as part of the research project "Music in Zurich - Zurich in Music History", but only reached their conclusion and culmination two years ago.

Music in Zurich. A city guide: people - places - institutions is the title of the book edited by Bernhard Hangartner and David Reissfelder, the second edition of which has already been published by Chronos-Verlag. Not only does it cover "253 people, 14 places and 21 institutions" in lexical terms, as the editors write, but it also contains a section entitled "Walks and maps" with suggestions for just that: Discovery tours through musical Zurich.

... will be really good

And this is where the new audio walk comes in. Ryser and Nickl took one of these suggestions and turned it into a sensory experience. This is important to note, because the aim of such an audio walk cannot be to simply reproduce the information contained in the book acoustically. Nickl emphasized in the discussion moderated by Viviane Nora Brodmann that they had tried to make it possible to experience it scenically. Brodmann, a doctoral student at the institute, acted as project coordinator and musicological advisor and also led through the vernissage as a witness to the complex creation process.

Simona Ryser, who was also responsible for the direction, told us more about this process. Among other things, we learned that the concept includes a framework story: a singer is on her way to the Grossmünster, where she is to perform Bach's Mass in B minor. She has a nice voice (Lara Körte) that guides you and knows a lot to tell. Or how Ryser had to walk the same path again and again, microphone in hand, hoping that at some point no unacceptable noises would disturb the recording. We also learned that the jazz guitarist and composer Philipp Schaufelberger had composed his own "walking music" to accompany us on the way between the stations and hold the whole thing together acoustically.

At the end of the vernissage, the members of the institute showed that musicologists also know how to make music. The in-house Schola even made it into the music samples of the audio walk. - An all-round successful opening, at which a lot of information was skilfully conveyed in a playful way, for a lasting experience that will give you many a surreal moment as you wander through modern Zurich with headphones in your ears, listening to the past.

Table of contents

Focus

Loud and quiet over time
Is the volume part of the work or part of the interpretation?

"A greed for stimulation is getting louder and louder"
Interview with Olivier Spinnler

Chopping with love and respect
Appropriation through fading in and out

Music in the body
Vibration vests in concert

Chatting about ...
Hearing protection when making music

 (italics = summary in German of the original French article)

 

Critiques

Reviews of recordings, books, sheet music

 

Echo

250 years of Hans Georg Nägeli

Radio Francesco - The deep sea

Reflecting on the war
Songs of Wars I Have Seen from Heiner Goebbels 

What songs do to us
The motto "living dangerously" at the 4th song festival in Basel 

Interdisciplinary music therapy approaches
Symposium in Basel

Carte blanche for William Blank
Our maltreated ear

 

Base

Articles and news from the music associations

Swiss Federal Orchestra Association (EOV) / Société Fédérale des Orchestres (SFO)

Konferenz Musikhochschulen Schweiz (KMHS) / Conférence des Hautes Ecoles de Musique Suisse (CHEMS)

Kalaidos University of Music / Kalaidos Haute École de Musique

Swiss Music Council (SMR) / Conseil Suisse de la Musique (CSM)

CHorama

Swiss Society for Music Medicine (SMM) / Association suisse de Médecine de la Musique (SMM)

Swiss Musicological Society (SMG) / Société Suisse de Musicologie (SSM)

Swiss Musicians' Association (SMV) / Union Suisse des Artistes Musiciens (USDAM)

Schweizerischer Musikpädagogischer Verband (SMPV) / Société Suisse de Pédagogie Musicale (SSPM)

SONART - Musicians Switzerland

Swiss Youth Music Competition Foundation (SJMW)

Arosa Culture

SUISA - Cooperative Society of Authors and Publishers of Music

Swiss Association of Music Schools (VMS) / Association Suisse des Écoles de Musique (ASEM)

 

Bang and fall
Puzzle by Torsten Möller

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Order issue for CHF 8.- (+ CHF 2.- shipping costs)

Five years ago was the last time that the European Youth Choir Festival Basel was held in its entirety with international choirs. After a long (corona) dry spell, the time had finally come again: youth choirs from all over the world could be experienced over five days. The crowds were huge, with a total of around 40,000 people attending the events.

"Obviously, after years of doing without, the need is huge," said the organizers. It is also worth mentioning the growing confidence in the high quality of what is on offer since the last festivals, which encouraged people to attend. And last but not least, the excellent organization of this major event.

From Belgium to the Philippines

A total of 19 choirs from Belgium, Finland, France, Georgia, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Switzerland and the Philippines presented their performances. Many of them were not content with just singing. They often included choreography, which added even more expression and atmosphere.

The children's and youth choir Baao from the Philippines presented an exciting mix of rhythm and melody, with stomping on the floor, slapping on the arms or thighs and strangely touching tunes. One girl's solo was reminiscent of a prayer call and, supported by bamboo instruments, the choir transported the audience to a tropical rainforest with deceptively real rain sounds and birdsong.

The performance was part of the "Country Focus", in which youth choirs from Georgia and Finland also presented their musical culture. "This format has always existed," explains festival director Kathrin Renggli, "what is new is that we are placing more emphasis on openness. In the past, these events took place at the Music Academy and were more intellectually oriented. This time, we are forming collaborations with people from the respective country who live here."

Join in yourself

An idea that was well received, with up to 300 visitors having to be turned away. Those who managed to get a seat could not only enjoy the choirs, but also try out short songs, practise dances and taste culinary delights from the respective country. There were plenty of opportunities to join in. The highlight was "Body Percussion en gros" on the "splash-filled" Münsterplatz, where thousands of people moved to the same rhythm.

How should the situation of youth choirs be assessed internationally after the pandemic? Renggli's answer comes immediately: "No choir has broken up at this level. Of course, there were difficulties for them too. A number of young people dropped out because they simply couldn't sing anymore." The children's choir Zvezdice from Serbia, for example, had to cope with a "three-year gap" and therefore arrived with fewer children than planned. The phenomenal Shchedryk choir from Kiev, however, presented choral music from classical and folklore under the direction of Marianna Sablina with around 40 girls selected from the local choir school.

From the Zäuerli to contemporary music

The Jutz youth choir is dedicated to interpreting traditional yodel songs. The high standard and fervor with which the ensemble dedicates itself to this music, which is often considered old-fashioned, was demonstrated in St. Peter's Church. The story of Maiteli and Büäbli, who meet at the Chilbi, was told. A Zäuerli started things off, then Müntschi and Heimetli were sung. Finally, there was also a little dance.

The variety of musical styles and the number of high-quality musical performances was enormous. Most of the choirs were invited, explains Kathrin Renggli: "I know the choirs and have visited them, and a large network helps me with recommendations." But there are also applications, such as from the boys' choir Mdzlevari from Georgia.

The Chœur national des jeunes de France offered a taste of its skills at the lunch concert in the Clarakirche. The opening with the Chanson triste by Henri Duparc in sustained, polyphonic singing and the garland-strong piano accompaniment by Hervé Noirot made the listener sit up and take notice. With flawless diction, Mendelssohn's Grant us peace. The undisputed highlight was Seán Doherty's (born 1987) very difficult Under-SongThe young women and men, standing in a semi-circle around the pews in the church, each voice on its own, developed a differentiated and compelling singing. They were professionally led by their renowned Swiss conductor Dominique Tille. "Without excellent choirmasters, such performances would not be possible," concludes Kathrin Renggli. The festival has shown how fascinating and appreciated choral music is for performers and visitors alike.

We are in the large hall of the LAC Luganoon the stage the Orchestra 900presente of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana with its conductor Francesco Bossaglia. Most of the orchestra members are female, with men only sitting at the back on percussion, harpsichord, trombone and trumpet. Between the players in the foreground there are numerous lamps, as you would find in any household: Floor lamps, bedside lamps, desk lamps and other lamps. Together with the discreet, color-changing stage lighting, this creates an almost private atmosphere, completely atypical for a public concert. And at the end, the lights slowly go out and you sit in the dark.

The dispositive - half music theater, half pure concert performance - is characteristic of what Heiner Goebbels calls a "scenic concert". The lighting he used for his full-length composition Songs of Wars I Have Seen based on texts by Gertrude Stein, is intended, in his words, to create an atmosphere "like an evening reading before you go to bed. You could also play it as a late program at 10 pm." He came to Lugano to attend the final rehearsals with the young performers and is full of praise:

They are very open and extremely grateful and immediately understood how to deal with these texts. For example, the absence of theatricality, which is so important to me. Sometimes you have to push it through against resistance. That was no problem at all here. The collaboration was super pleasant.

The texts by Gertrude Stein are not sung, but spoken by the female members of the orchestra in turn, sometimes in a small choir. The non-theatrical, quasi private speaking and the domestic intimacy of the light sources emphasize the character of the texts as personal notations and lend this scenic concert an air of familiar closeness. But the coziness is deceptive. The texts are about war. The discrepancy between content and form that emerges is rooted in the literary source and is a fundamental aesthetic feature of the work.

The war in your own home

The American Gertrude Stein, writer, publisher and art collector, wrote her notes in 1943-44 in Paris, which was occupied by Nazi troops at the time. The war as a concrete horror is far away, but omnipresent in the writer's consciousness. Her thoughts, written down as if in passing, revolve around everyday experiences. Thoughtfulness is paired with precise observation, uncertain assessment of the situation with literary memories and the feeling of an existential limbo. This rubs off on the music. The transparent and seemingly weightless orchestral writing is thinned out by instrumental solos as an expression of individual reflections and by moments of silence in which the recited texts are embedded. The listener's attention is kept permanently alert. In addition Heiner Goebbels:

Gertrude Stein basically wrote all of this from a private, female perspective, and that is quite provocative. She looks at things from different angles. As a listener, you should also consider this and then decide what your own opinion is. It is a highly subjective text, written in an attempt to put the perception of war into words. And it was precisely this subjectivity that aroused my interest.

Wars I Have Seen, the title of Gertrude Stein's book, refers to the general character of her reflections; it is not about a specific war, but about war as it always was and always will be - an eternal shadow of human existence. Goebbels illustrates this idea in a paradoxical way with a banality. The composition begins with the statement that honey is now added to all desserts due to the lack of sugar, and ends with the assumption that people will have had enough of honey by the end of the war: "That's how it was in the last war, and that's how it is in this war. That's how wars are. Funny, actually. But that's how wars are." A fatalistic tone is unmistakable. But so is her humor.

Appeal to critical reason

Goebbels wrote the piece back in 2007 without any specific external reference, and at the time he could not have imagined that a situation like today would suddenly arise in which it would become topical. Today, he is all the more concerned that the composition does not degenerate into a ritual of consternation. Distance from the text is important to him. He does not want to appeal to emotions, but to critical reason and give room for reflection.

He found access to Gertrude Stein's text not through the content, but through the structure. He was interested in the casual and sketchy nature of the thoughts, and was particularly fascinated by the frequent repetition of individual words and phrases, signs of spontaneous writing. He translated these rhythmic qualities into precisely notated musical structures. Of course, these composed speech rhythms can only be understood in the English original, and by having the text excerpts read by the musicians in their respective mother tongues in Lugano, some of these speech rhythms were lost. Instead, a personal relationship between the speakers and the text came into play. This is entirely in the spirit of the composer, who wants to activate the performers and audience with his pieces.

Dialogue between different layers of time

Several quotations from the English baroque composer Matthew Locke (1621-1677) are incorporated into the musical progression. Goebbels came up with the idea because Gertrude Stein also referred to cruel rulers from Shakespeare's plays such as Richard III. and Macbeth and because the premiere took place in London in 2007. In addition to the London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which plays on period instruments, also commissioned the work. The latter had Goebbels play in the somewhat lower historical tuning and the Sinfonietta in the modern tuning used today. The confrontation was very much to the composer's taste.

I generally find it interesting when different times are in conversation with each other. Also in Stifter's things For example, there are different layers of time that run in parallel or catch up with each other. I find dealing with the phenomenon of time in this way more exciting than just settling in the here and now.

Since London, Goebbels has repeatedly had two differently tuned orchestras at his disposal, most recently in Stockholm this February. The 900presente orchestra now played in the same tuning and on modern instruments. This did not stand in the way of a successful performance. The work, in which text and music, the inner and outer worlds, scenic elements and different time periods combine to form a multi-layered whole, also found an enthusiastic audience in Lugano.

(Editor's note: The concert took place on April 18, 2023).

According to the ZHdK, Theo Bleckmann is one of the most sensational and innovative jazz musicians of our time. As a singer and composer, he pursues a stylistically broad concept of music and moves in artistic areas whose conventional understanding of jazz goes beyond the traditional genre boundaries.

The multi-award-winning artist has made numerous recordings and collaborated with renowned musicians, artists, actors and composers. He has experience as a lecturer at several US universities.

http://theobleckmann.com

The narrative is persistent: the pandemic was a lean period for the "most professionally fulfilled people", the musicians. They were barely able to pursue their profession and, especially as freelancers, had to struggle with great existential fears. But now all that is over and the good life is returning to them. They can turn their wonderful hobby back into a profession, as people who - unlike those who are usually dying - can reconcile their personality with their everyday working life.

Music psychology has long doubted the idea that music strengthens positive emotions and helps us to have a fulfilling everyday life. The renowned music psychologist Patrik N. Juslin, who teaches at Uppsala University in Sweden, warned back in 2013 that we should be "more open to the possibility that much of what makes musical experiences unique is in fact non-emotional aspects", such as the intellectual interest in musical structure or form. The emotional impact of music is largely disconnected from this.

Current studies seem to indicate that the opposite of what previously seemed to be a cliché is actually true: making music not only means exceptional professional and social stress, which causes quite a few people to break down. It also seems to fascinate personalities who have a higher genetic risk of emotional imbalance. At least this is what studies conducted by an international research team with the participation of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main suggest. Their conclusion: on average, musically active people have a slightly higher genetic risk of depression and bipolar disorder.

 

Music and mental health problems

According to the MPIEA, in 2019 the team was able to prove a connection between musical engagement and mental health problems for the first time in a large population study: Around 10,500 Swedish test subjects had provided information about both their musical activities and their mental well-being. In addition, the data was linked to the Swedish patient register so that psychiatric diagnoses could also be evaluated. It was found that musically active people actually reported depressive, burnout and psychotic symptoms more frequently than those who did not make music. The results were published in the open access journal Scientific Reports published.

The team subsequently expanded its research to include methods of molecular genetics. They discovered "that genetic variants that influence mental health problems and those that influence musical commitment overlap to some extent". Individual indicators for the genetic risk of mental illness and the genetic predisposition to musicality could be calculated.

The analysis of the data showed that people with a higher genetic risk of depression and bipolar disorder were on average more musically active, practiced more and performed at a higher artistic level. Interestingly, the MPIEA writes further, "these correlations occurred regardless of whether the individuals actually had mental health problems".

Flow experiences (states that are felt when you are completely absorbed in an activity) appear to play an important role in overcoming such predisposition-related psychological stress. According to the institute, initial results show that they can have a positive influence on the psyche, even when family and genetic risk factors are taken into account.

 

Literature

Patrik N. Juslin: "From every day emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions", Physics of Life Reviews 10 (2013), Elsevier.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Lu Y., Karlsson, R., Ullén, F., & Mosing M. A. (2023). "A Comprehensive Investigation into the Genetic Relationship between Music Engagement and Mental Health", Translational Psychiatry 13, Article 15. DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02308-6

 

Various activities are planned under the heading "Follow-Ups" in order to deepen the competition experience of award winners. The weekend with hundreds of live performances and just as many consultations with the various expert juries is a thing of the past. This year's jazz and pop competition also took place on April 16, and in three weeks' time, the actual conclusion of the 2023 competition will take place in Lugano with the finals and live performances of the Free Space and Composition competitions. However, this is by no means the end of the youth music competition's activities for 2023. Under the heading "Follow Ups" on the competition website, there are various activities that have become increasingly important in recent years and make a decisive contribution to the sustainability of the competition.

New projects

An innovation in this area is that these activities will be carried out for the first time in 2023 together with the Loc.Artium association (www.locartium.ch) are offered. The non-profit association serves to promote and support young musical talent. In collaboration with partner organizations, it organizes artistic projects with a special focus on interdisciplinarity. The organization is still under construction. The direction in which future projects can go is shown by the three activities about which the homepage already provides information: From August 28 to September 2, a workshop for contemporary music and music technology entitled "Inventions - Out of the Box" will take place at the Zurich University of the Arts. 36 participants will explore various aspects of contemporary music creation in an interactive way.

From August 2 to 4, the "Worlds Beyond Orchestra" will be working on the cross-style concert project "The Jazz Symphony" under the direction of Daniel Schnyder. From August 4 to 10, the string players will perform in clubs and at festivals in Switzerland and Austria.

The third project that Locartium is organizing this autumn is also under the direction of Daniel Schnyder. It is called "The Other Concert" and is aimed at young musicians, composers, improvisers, actors and dancers who are researching creative new forms for concert formats. The workshop will conclude with an original concert on September 7 at Moods in Zurich.

The projects "Inventions" and "The Other Concert" are supported by the Fondation SUISA and the Accentus Foundation, the project "The Jazz Symphony" by the Hirschmann Foundation. All projects are organized by the Loc.Artium association and take place in collaboration with the Swiss Youth Music Competition and the Association of European Music Competitions (EMCY). Selected young people between the ages of 17 and 24 are eligible to take part. The participation fee is moderate. The registration deadline is April 16. However, there are still a few places available for those who are quick to decide.

Proven activities

The existing range of "Follow Ups" will largely continue in 2023: There is the Ruth Burkhalter Foundation, which enables selected prizewinners to take part in the Junior Baroque Academy in Gstaad and awards an associated scholarship. The Hirschmann Foundation has been supporting participation in European masterclasses for years, and in 2023 will be supporting Daniel Schnyder's workshop.

In the European environment, there is also the opportunity to obtain an EMCY profile. EMCY, the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth, publishes on its homepage www.emcy.org The festival raises the profile of selected prizewinners and paves the way for them to perform at home and abroad.

The prizewinners also greatly appreciate the many opportunities to perform, including as part of the Herbst concert series at the Helferei, at the Lucerne Festival, at the Swiss Music Schools Association's Forum for Musical Education, at the Arbon Cultural Center and at the ESSE-Bar jazz club in Winterthur.

In the jazz and pop category, individual prizewinners are also given the opportunity to make a professional studio recording at the Jazz Campus Basel or the Zurich University of the Arts. Further activities for winners of the music competition can be found on the homepage www.sjmw.ch.