Within the permanent exhibition Cosmos Klee. The collection illuminate in the Paul Klee Center Each year, several focus exhibitions focus on a specific aspect of his work or world of thought. The current show Klee musically was organized by Fabienne Eggelhöfer, Chief Curator, and Marianne Keller, Archive Manager at the Zentrum Paul Klee, and runs until 1 June. A eight-part podcast and a Video deepen the few objects on display.

The focus is introduced with the much-quoted sentence from a letter the artist wrote to his fellow student Hans Bloesch in 1898: "My lover is and was music, and I embrace the oil-scented brush goddess simply because she is my wife." Klee's lifelong love was the music of Bach and Mozart. These two favorite composers are clearly evident both in the particularly revealing sheet music, which is displayed in a showcase and on a music stand, and in the shellac records that cover an entire wall.

Not an avant-gardist when it comes to listening to music

Surprisingly, Klee, an outstanding avant-gardist as a visual artist and innovative to the very end, only had very limited access to the music of his contemporaries. He almost completely ignored the Second Viennese School and the New Music of the 1920s, which was inspired by jazz and American fashionable dance. Thus, the only pieces on display in the exhibition are excerpts from Petrushka (1911) can be heard alongside symphonic works from the Viennese Classical period.

As the son of Hans Klee (1849-1940), a music teacher from Thuringia, Paul Klee learned to play the violin at the age of seven. For a long time, he found it difficult to decide whether to become a musician or a painter. During his training as a painter with Heinrich Knirr in Munich, he played in a string quintet whose partners included Fritz Stubenvoll. Whose Four songs from Stieler's "Wanderzeit" bear the handwritten dedication "Meinem lieben Paul Klee/unserem trefflichen Primgeiger. Munich May 15, 1901".

Among the exhibits, they lead to the personal relationship that Klee later had with the Swiss composer Albert Moeschinger (1897-1985), who taught at the Bern Conservatory at the time. In 1934, Moeschinger dedicated to Klee a Con grandezza titled piece for string quartet and was found in the painting The young Moe (1938), which today belongs to the Philipps Collection in Washington. With his piano piece The flower eater based on Klee's lost oil painting of the same name from 1927, Moeschinger created one of the first of more than 400 compositions inspired by works of art or ideas by Klee.

Critic and cracking Bach player

From 1903 to 1906, Klee wrote numerous concert reviews for the Berner Fremdenblatt & Verkehrs-Zeitung and for the Tourist gazette for Bern and the surrounding area. They have been Writings. Reviews and essays published by Christian Geelhaar (Cologne 1976), but not included in the exhibition. In those years, Klee was also a violinist in the Bern Orchestra Society. He learned to play the viola in 1904, but made little use of it.

Even before he married the German pianist Lily Stumpf in 1906, he played music with her passionately. He wrote to his mother Ida Frick (1855-1921), who was trained as a singer, in 1900: "We play Bach so much that it just cracks." Klee owned two violins. He kept the precious one by Testore at home, where he made music with his wife. He played the other instrument in his studio.

Bauhaus Week in Weimar

The legendary "Bauhaus Week" in August 1923 included several works by contemporary composers who came to Weimar for the performances themselves. On this occasion, Paul and Lily Klee got to know Béla Bartók and Ferruccio Busoni as well as Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky personally. Apart from Stravinsky, whom Klee held in high esteem, but without playing anything by him, none of these composers found their way into Klee's extensive record collection.

He wrote in his diaries: "Parallels between music and the visual arts are becoming increasingly apparent to me." These are visualized in a very vivid way in the exhibition under various aspects in Rhythm and beat and Polyphony titled groups of works. Does the pen and ink drawing Sailing ships, easily moved the movements of a baton, the drawing is Mirror canon (on 4 levels) as a visual realization of a four-part, polyphonic composition. Klee included graphic realizations of Bach's music in his pedagogical texts.

As a frequent visitor to opera performances, he often expressed his impressions with irony. In the group of works Stage and podium lithography, for example The singer of the comic opera (1925) or allusions to compositions by Offenbach.

As neither a guide nor a flyer or advertising card has been published for the exhibition, please refer to the book Paul Klee and music on the exhibition of the same name at the Schirn, Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung Beuermann, Berlin 1986). The Zentrum Paul Klee is also making eight ten-minute podcasts and a six-minute video available online.

Link to the podcasts 

Link to the video

Table of contents

Focus

I like playing with all these codes
Interview with Svenn Moretti-Golay - drag queen, opera singer, communicator

Hidden feelings
How did homosexual composers live in a society that suppressed them for a long time?

(Editor's note: A concert series will be held in fall 2025 to mark the 125th anniversary of Robert Oboussier's birth, and a book and CD with works by Robert Oboussier will be published. Further information: https://www.oboussier.ch)

You might be tempted to think that making music is not for me
"Big Ensemble" is an inclusive stage project by Tabula Musica for 40 musicians with and without disabilities.

Carte blanche: The ESC and its contradictions
Uta Christine Fischer writes, among other things, that the ESC has become a forum for the broad dissemination of diversity policy

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

Critiques

New releases Books, Sound carrier, Websites, Notes, Movies

Echo

Casanova at the Albergo Svizzero
Richard Flury's opera Casanova e l'Albertolli and Diego Fasoli's recording of the work, which celebrates the political situation of its time and the spirit of democracy.

Gradual lignification
World premiere of the musical theater The weather gets me at night by Andreas Neeser and Alfred Zimmerlin

Uprooting in unheard-of sounds
Beat Furrer's latest opera The great fire at the Zurich Opera House

Bleak prospects for club culture
In addition to concerts, the 27th edition of "m4music" once again offered panels and workshops.

Serbia's musical life under pressure
The weekly, sometimes daily protests continue unabated and the situation is devastating for the cultural life of the Balkan country.

Entre viole d'amour et ballet contemporain
Jasser Haj Youssef signe la musique d'"Ihsane", la nouvelle création mondiale de Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui présentée en ouverture de la saison 24/25 du Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève. Entretien

Enseignement des musiques actuelles
Two studies, one Swiss, the other French, have analyzed the teaching of contemporary music. The occasion to make the point between the similarities and the differences.

Éclipses : une œuvre musicale au cœur du cosmos
Cyprien Lengagne, young French composer and violoncellist, invites us to think about space-temps, relations between nature and man, nature and cosmos, musicians and interpreters.

 

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)

 

Obstructive lightness
Puzzle by Pia Schwab

________________________________________

Order issue for CHF 10.- (+ CHF 2.- shipping costs)

The Echo organization comprises 17 cities, 14 of which have developed local projects under the "Echo for Peace" label. The aim is to send a symbolic message of peace and convey a message of hope. This link  leads to the programs of the individual cities.

In Switzerland, the Fondation Académie d'Orgue de Fribourg organized concerts and lectures on the theme "Da pacem" on 26 and 27 April. The detailed program of events in Fribourg can be viewed via this link: https://www.academieorgue.ch/de/echo-for-peace

 

Independently of this, the "Stand up again" association is organizing an event in Zurich's Augustinerkirche on 27 May. Concert for peace under the direction of Gabriella Carli.

This year's Guggenheim Fellows were selected through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 3,500 applicants based on their past professional achievements and exceptional potential.

For 100 years, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has been awarding the Guggenheim Fellowship, currently to 198 outstanding artists and scholars from 53 disciplines.

Original message: https://www.zhdk.ch/meldung/david-virelles-zum-2025-guggenheim-fellow-ernannt-8315

The current flood of news from the US is so overwhelming that it is overshadowing almost everything else. In view of the current tariff war, even the war in Ukraine has faded into the background. It is therefore understandable that the political events in Serbia have also received relatively little attention. The Western media did report on the deaths of several people in the collapse of the renovated railroad station in Novi Sad last November, which led to massive protests against corruption in the government. After that, however, Serbia disappeared from the front pages and only reappeared occasionally, for example when the prime minister resigned at the beginning of the year or when the government allegedly used a kind of "sound cannon" (as described by the NZZ) against its own population. However, the protests continue unabated and are now having a devastating effect on the country's cultural life.

Protests at the universities ...

In fact, it was students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade who got the ball rolling after the protests in Novi Sad. When they protested in front of their faculty, they were attacked by provocateurs. The students then began a blockade of their buildings, which soon spread to all higher education institutions, including the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Since then, there have been no classes or exams at most institutes; the academic year may have to be canceled altogether. In order to prevent individuals from being targeted, the General Assembly of Students is making joint decisions on the blockades and protests by means of direct democracy.

... theaters and orchestras

Members of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra joined the street protests early on, but a car crashed into them, sending four of them to hospital. (The latest news from Belgrade is that three of them have since recovered, while the fourth is still recovering from his injuries).

At the beginning of March, before the protests on the 15th, when over a quarter of a million people demonstrated on the streets of Belgrade, theaters and orchestras also went on strike. In addition to the current political malaise, artists are also complaining about inadequate working conditions and poor pay. The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra has been working under interim management for over three years and, according to its own figures, its members earn around 660 euros a month, which is below the national average. Judging by my recent visit to Belgrade supermarkets, while baked goods are still relatively cheap, staples such as coffee and milk now cost as much as in Switzerland. According to my contacts, families often rely on their relatives in the countryside to deliver cheap food.

State blackmail

The strikers' demands were not met, but Serbia's musicians have since returned to their jobs out of sheer economic necessity. However, the financial situation continues to deteriorate. The lecturers at the University of the Arts in Belgrade are unable to enter their buildings because of the blockade, but my conversations on the ground leave no doubt that most of them feel solidarity with the students. But the authorities are also aware of this and have cut salaries accordingly. The paycheck in March for some professors in the music faculty was 230 dinars - about two euros, enough to buy two liters of milk.

The stalemate continues. At the time of writing, President Vučić has just appointed a new government - but the protests continue. Like everywhere else in the world, fake news is making matters worse. For example, strange websites of dubious origin have popped up calling academics and other protesters "eco-terrorists". Every evening at 7.30pm, cars honk their horns in Belgrade - a form of protest that I am told dates back to the Milošević era. And regular night-time protests continue to take place on Republic Square in front of the National Theater.

Training shortage in a music-loving country

The long-term consequences of all this could be devastating. The Music Faculty of the University of Arts - still blocked - is of crucial importance for Serbia's musical life. According to its website, "more than 90 percent of the members of all major ensembles in the country" are its graduates. I can well believe that. A few days after watching a protest by high school students and their parents against the government on Republic Square, I attended a performance of Tosca in the National Theatre opposite, where almost everyone on the cast list had studied in Belgrade (and presumably most of the orchestra members too). The artists' strike did not dampen the local audience's enthusiasm for music. Tosca was performed to a sold-out audience, and even a less popular repertoire can draw a crowd. A concert by jazz composer Giovanni Di Domenico at Radio Belgrade just a few days earlier was also sold out, with several interested parties having to be turned away due to lack of space.

Serbia's cultural significance is far greater than one would expect from an economically depressed country with just over six million inhabitants. You only have to look through a few concert or opera programs here in Central Europe to realize how many singers and instrumentalists are of Serbian origin. But a country whose universities do not function has no future. The most talented of the younger generation - those who can afford it - are now looking abroad for opportunities to study. This is bad news for the future of Serbian music institutions.

The two-day pop music festival organized by the Migros Culture Percentage on March 28 and 29 attracted around 1600 industry professionals in addition to 6000 visitors. More than 40 acts presented themselves on the five stages around Zurich's Schiffbau. "The Swiss music scene has shown that it is lively, diverse and innovative," said festival director and co-founder Philipp Schnyder. In addition, the event, which primarily sees itself as a platform for up-and-coming national and international artists, once again succeeded in making an important contribution to networking the music scene.

Good songs find their audience

The second day of the festival was not blessed with good weather, which is why the crowds of visitors were hardly forced outside. As a result, the audience tended to congregate in the Schiffsbau. The well-attended panel "Where should we go, we musicians?" dealt in particular with the question of the extent to which independent artists can still finance themselves at all.

Zurich-based presenter Meng Tian was active as a singer/songwriter herself until 2017. She has since switched sides and now advises brands and companies. When asked what role music promotion still plays today, Sebastian Król, founder of the Hamburg-based music agency, replied Backseatthat this is still relevant for music creators. "But music promotion is becoming less and less important," he continued. What made the entrepreneur realize that having a direct channel to their fans is more important than ever for music creators. This can be quite time-consuming, singer/songwriter Hilke Ros pointed out. "I now make a huge effort to visualize my music - and for free." She can only afford this because she works as a software developer on the side.

Digital expert Marcel Hunziker, who has been based in London for several years, took a more relaxed view of the situation: "I am and remain optimistic. Accordingly, I believe that good songs will always find an audience." At the same time, he was convinced that musicians should take care of their fan base to the extent that their own business plan provides for. "We never push our artists to create content for their followers."

Holes in the coffers

The panel "Clubs in crisis - new paths or old patterns?" met with even greater interest. Alexandra Götz, who has been the manager of the Winterthur club for almost seven years Force field referred to a survey from Zurich at the start of the discussion. It shows that the turnover of a club in the canton before the pandemic was 45 francs per guest. "Today, this is said to be 15 francs less on average." This is mainly due to the fact that the older crowd no longer found their way into the clubs after coronavirus, while the younger crowd never followed suit. As a result, Kraftfeld's finances have deteriorated rapidly. A downward trend that only had no fatal consequences for the club thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign.

The outlook is also gloomy for the Fri-Sun in Fribourg, said its Secretary General Léa Romanens. The French-speaking Swiss woman attributed the malaise of the renowned concert venue not least to the fact that the evenings when a DJ plays are no longer profitable, which has led to a hole in the cash register. In addition, millennials - unlike previous generations - were hardly willing to work for free in clubs. This led Romanens to the realization that Fri-Son needed to reinvent itself.

Diversified or subsidized

A completely different approach was taken by the Bierhübeli in Bern. The concert and event location, which has been co-run by Dave Naef for nine years, consciously focused on corporate events early on and took over a booking agency last year. From July 2025, All Blues Konzert AG will also join the Bierhübeli family. "This will make us less dependent on international concert promoters such as Live Nation," says Naef happily.

Unlike the Bierhübeli, which has never received any subsidies, both the Kraftfeld and the Fri-Son are partly dependent on public funding. And in cities such as Winterthur and Fribourg, which are both plagued by deficits, it is not easy to conjure up additional funding. The situation is different in the canton of Basel-Stadt, which benefits in particular from its flourishing pharmaceutical industry. This is why the city canton can even afford to appoint Sandro Bernasconi as its commissioner for club culture and provide funding specifically for this purpose - thanks to a referendum won in 2024. The Fri-Son representative recognized that "her" situation cannot be compared with that of Basel. "I don't have a solution either. Perhaps all the clubs in the country should get together and call for a strike to draw attention to the endangered existence of pubs like the Fri-Son."

The 10th Ars Electronica Forum Valais Selection Concerts are curated and performed by Simone Conforti (IRCAM Paris). They will take place on May 28 and 29, 2025 as part of the Forum Wallis festival at the MEbU in Goms. The jury was made up of Kotoka Suzuki (JPN), Jaime Oliver La Rosa (PER), Reuben de Lautour (NZL) and Javier Hagen (Festival Director Forum Wallis).

Results

Concert Selection (26 works)
Alvarez Tobias, Paralelismos (MEX)
Bangun Setyawan Candra, Idrak (IDN)
Behrens Marc, L'écrit fantome (GER)
Bordin Matteo, Symbols (ITA)
Borrel Stéphane, The Favourites (FRA)
Cappelletti Nicola, Parallaxe.Parataxe (ITA)
Castro Pinto Joao, Circumsphere: to bounce and rebounce (PRT)
Cheung Chris, Casting light (HKG)
Curgenven Robert, Across Country (AUS)
Dall'Ara-Majek Ana, Mare Buchlae (FRA)
Delgado Gustavo, Strin[G]i(n)[Mi] (ARG)
Duchenne Jean-Marc, L'énigme des objets (FRA)
Fumo Frattegiani Nicola, Hybris (ITA)
Karkatselas Theodoros, Lacuum (GRC)
Koszolko Martin, Tympan (AUS)
Kubaczek Benjamin-Alan, Impromptu 8 (AUT)
Kuehn Mikel, Dancing In The Ether (USA)
Nguyen David Quang-Minh, Texture Arc The Points (USA)
Oliveira Joao Pedro, Pulses (BRA)
Orlandini Valerio, Jeu de Bruits (ITA)
Perez Simon, Las cifras y las palabras (ARG)
Sambucco Dominic, Sink (ITA)
Sintaratana Tanid, Fragments (THA)
Sismann Valentin, Morphaime (FRA)
Talebi Shahrzad, WatchTheOnlyWayHomeDisappear (IRN)
van der Loo Ernst, Void Population (NLD)

Special Mention (14 works)
Argento Cristian, Diviso in Due (ITA)
Gintas K, Crunchy (LTU)
Guzman Roy, Guasábara (PRI)
Harper Nathan, Nutria No. 4 (USA)
Hernández Elliot, Leviathan (MEX)
Hernandez Omar, de tu piel supura... tristeza /from your skin exudes... sadness (MEX)
Huerta Concepción, somos de los lugares... (MEX)
Magnien Léo, dans la plaine incertaine (FRA)
Moyers Timothy, On the Rim of Conciousness (USA)
Polymeneas-Liontiris Thanos, Tettix 'A (GRC)
Quint Ursel, Es (GER)
Sintaratana Tanid, Phi Fa (THA)
Soria Edmar, PostAnthroposRecord1 (MEX)
Turcotte Roxanne, Alibi des voltigeurs (FRA)

Forum Valais

The Forum Valais is an annual international festival for new music in Valais. Since 2006, Forum Wallis has co-produced over 300 world premieres and presented works by over 500 composers from all over the world, including Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet together with the Arditti Quartet, André Richard and Air Glaciers as well as Cod.Acts Pendulum Choir. Regular guests at the festival include ensembles such as recherche, Zafraan, UMS'nJIP, dissonArt, Steamboat Switzerland, Klangforum Wien, ensemble für neue musik zürich, Contrechamps and Ensemble Modern.

Addendum on April 7, 2025 - Interview

In the annual publication Carol from arttourist.com (a brand of Art Cities in Europe, "a niche between the newspaper, the magazine and the pure organizer catalog" according to https://www.arttourist.com/about.html) features a portrait of Forum Wallis (pages 48 and 49). Publisher Kai Geiger conducted the following interview with Javier Hagen.

Kai Giger: What is the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis?
Javier Hagen: The Ars Electronica Forum Wallis (AEFW) has been a program track for acousmatic music within the Festival for New Music Forum Wallis since 2015. Its repertoire is drawn year after year from an international Call for Acousmatic Works, and in 2025 it will celebrate its 10th edition.

How did you come to establish these in the Valais Alps?
Acousmatic music (editor's note: music exclusively for loudspeakers) can rarely be experienced live in an appealing quality because the technical requirements are complex and the instruments are expensive. At the MEbU in Goms, however, we have a permanently installed state-of-the-art 16-channel acousmonium. This was designed and set up by Simone Conforti, who teaches at IRCAM in Paris and worked for the Biennale Musica in Venice. This means that we can offer the best possible conditions for acousmatic music - and with this program we also have a unique selling point. (smiles) In view of the splendor of the Valais Alps, acousmatic music is also a thought-provoking statement.

It is noteworthy that there are no registration fees for the AEFW Call for Acousmatic Works, nor is there a ranking, what are the reasons for this?
There are numerous competitions whose costs are financed to a considerable extent by composers' registration fees and whose prize money is symbolic in comparison. We are of the opinion that the organizer should not pass on the funds for such a concert series to the majority of composers - who have not been selected - but should generate them independently.

On the ranking question: Our aim is to give visibility to as many works as possible. We find it presumptuous to select just three works from hundreds of submissions in a ranking. Our principle is more of an activist one. Let me explain this in a little more detail using the following comparison: 40 years ago - in the days before the Internet - there were, let's say, a dozen independent bubbles worldwide in which new music was played, received and also honored in competitions. In each bubble, around 20 composers regularly made it into the ranks, which, extrapolated to the global scene, means that over 200 composers made up the top rankings worldwide.

In our globalized world, these bubbles have merged into one large one, but the number of composers selected has not grown by the corresponding factor. On the contrary, it has decreased: it feels like no more than 50 composers are regularly to be found in the top rankings. That's 75% less, so the professional playing field has narrowed. Even if it is just a drop in the ocean: By playing not just a handful, but 26 pieces, as we did this year, and awarding a Special Mention to 14 others, more works than average get a playing window and all composers get a certificate. The composers who play will be paid the royalties and overnight stays, which in many cases already exceeds the prize money. Overall, we think this is more effective.

The AEFW jury has been the same for years with Kotoka Suzuki, Reuben de Lautour, Jaime Oliver La Rosa and yourself, is there something special about this?
Yes, that is a conscious decision: We have a constant jury ensemble that engages in an aesthetic discourse over the years. This would not be possible if the jury was composed differently every year. The exchange between the jury members is extremely open, and together we have an overview of developments over several years, which is particularly valuable. It is also special that we cover all continents through the individual backgrounds of the jury members - with the exception of Africa, at least for the moment: Kotoka Suzuki stands for the Asian region, Jaime Oliver La Rosa for both Americas, Reuben de Lautour for the Turkish-Arabic and Austro-Pacific regions and I for old Europe.

Is acousmatic music male-dominated? The program lineups at least allow this assumption.
In terms of numbers, this seems to be the case, but musically it is not: our experience shows that the pieces that we have rated the highest internally over the years are conspicuously often by female composers. As a rule - and unfortunately - they make up no more than 20% of the input collective. However, they are statistically very far ahead with their pieces. We select pieces that we think are worth listening to and presenting. Nota bene: in several editions, female composers submitted such good works that in some years we had selections with more than 50% female composers, and this with a participation of less than 25% female composers! Chapeau!

AEFW, quo vadis?
As the IGNM-VS, the local chapter of the International Society for New Music, which organizes the Forum Valais, has entered into a partnership with the MEbU, we will be able to draw on an instrument of above-average quality at any time in the coming years. Since 2023, the MEbU has established its own concert series for acousmatic music in Goms with Ars Acusmatica and offers further opportunities to play acousmatic music throughout the year. In the coming years, we will be able to step up these activities and have significantly more works performed.

A strange case: Mr. Fravi suffers from an unusual illness that the doctor declares to be burnout. In reality, Fravi is gradually becoming woody: he is turning into a tree, so to speak, which is why he is withdrawing more and more and disappearing into his inner self, his head, his world of thoughts. His wife and son can only look on helplessly, if not impassively. In the end, the play dissolves like its protagonist himself.

This is the plot of the new musical theater that will be performed on March 29 at the Old Aarau riding hall was premiered. It was conceived by the Aargau poet Andreas Neeser. Six prose poems from his poetry collection The weather gets me at night and other poems in dialect form the basis of the piece. As it was commissioned by the Graubünden festival tuns contemporans, Sursilvan Romansh was added as a third language. Two further performances will follow in Chur, where the festival has been setting the tone for new music every two years for some time now. Also taking part - seated behind a transparent gauze curtain (stage design: Peter Wendl) - were the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble ö! under the direction of Philippe Bach. The composer, who also comes from the Aarau Kanti circle Alfred Zimmerlinwho is celebrating his seventieth birthday these days, wrote the music for it.

The subtitle speaks of an "audiovisual stage play", which seems to suggest a technology-heavy, multimedia event, but that is precisely what it is not. On the contrary: anything automated seems absent. To a certain extent, the play is "old-fashioned" in its rejection of spectacle, it tells its story calmly and without detours, without frills. Ivo Bärtsch has staged it carefully. It is rare to see the different levels move through time so naturally, so independently and yet in relation to each other. They are embodied in the three characters, who only come into contact with each other in a few moments, nodal points as it were.

First there is the story of Fravi, told almost without action from the table by Jaap Achterberg. His wife Seraina remains serious and silent, but Maja Zimmerlin expresses a whole range of feelings between affection and worry, tension and letting go in her simple and unpretentious dance, which is at times geometrically circular. Twelve-year-old Luca, on the other hand, played by mezzo-soprano Mirjam Fässler, initially seeks contact with his father in a playful manner, feels rejected, but then develops compassion for him. He matures and begins to reflect and understand. His melancholy duet with flugelhorn player Christoph Luchsinger is one of the most poignant moments in this already extremely engaging production.

Pictorial sounds that you enjoy following

Speaking, dancing and singing happen alongside and with each other. What could remain a mere creative concept, however, takes on a delicate vitality. It works, especially as the orchestral "accompaniment" also independently draws a broad line through the seventy minutes and creates a connection in its own way. It is astonishing how Zimmerlin's music has changed once again, becoming even more flexible, warm in sound and expressive. There are only a few moments here that require strong accents. Everything has already been said. Zimmerlin has also woven some Grisons folk dance melodies into this line. They shine out delicately, merging with the surroundings, but also coloring them, allowing something of the emotions of the stage to resonate. It is very empathetic music that guides the ear. And that has often been one of the decisive characteristics of this composer: you trust these sounds, their openness and sincerity, their unambitious imagery and follow their path - even if they lead to disappearance.

Report from the premiere on March 29 in Aarau. Two further performances on April 3 and 6 at the Theater Chur as part of the Festivals tuns contemporans.

A tone like tinnitus: high, quiet, incessant. In the third bar, the accordion adds a second note in second notation, which, combined with the nervous repetitions of the violins, makes the sound even more disturbing. In addition, there are low, crashing figures in the bass instruments. It sounds like gurgling, like a languid sigh. "Rain, wood, Indians ... in this shithole," curses Andrew Moore as Paqui. The choir - the twelve-piece ensemble Cantando Admont, which was hired especially for the production - also reinforces the feeling of homelessness with its isolated, layered syllables. The microtonality that this formation precisely implements throughout the almost two-hour evening unfolds a strange, fascinating sound space.

Beat Furrer's new opera The great fire (libretto: Thomas Stangl), which was highly acclaimed at its premiere at Zurich Opera House, avoids any sense of familiarity from the outset. The characters are not musically supported and have no ground beneath their feet. Furrer's musical language is delicate, polyphonic and short of breath. A stammering as if after a shock, a struggle for words. The composer manages entirely without electronics, although his original sound mixtures sometimes sound like it. In his ninth opera and his first choral opera, the Swiss-born Austrian composer has turned to the 1979 novel Icejuaz to the Argentinian writer Sara Gallardo, whom he had come across through a composition student.

Story told suggestively

The focus is on the indigenous shaman's son Eisejuaz, who is torn between his belief in nature and his Christian upbringing. He works in a sawmill - and is thus partly responsible for the destruction of the forest, whose trees and animal spirits he can hear singing. The fact that he takes care of the racist petty criminal Paqui is due to his Christian influence. Eisejuaz mourns his deceased wife Lucia and is pressured by her sister Mauricia, his secret lover, to return to the Indio village. In the loosely connected scenes, he argues with the missionary, meets a seeress, allows himself to be ordered around by Paqui and is ultimately betrayed. His path leads steeply downhill - he goes from being a savior to being persecuted. Only an Indian woman (Muchacha), whom he heals, gives him a touch of comfort at the end, before she accidentally poisons him together with Paqui.

However, the meandering story, which is also conveyed in flashbacks and inner monologues, is not told in the opera, but only in the program booklet. The frequent alternation between Spanish and German, the experimental treatment of the language and the multiplication of some of the characters make for confusion. Without surtitles, which also outline the plot, you would be lost. Tatjana Gürbaca's production (co-directed by Vivien Hohnholz) in Henrik Ahr's standardized stage space also does little to make things more concrete. Standing and hanging poles may make you think of cleared jungle, of the destruction of life. A slanted disc that keeps moving as a playing surface, a cyclist hanging from the ceiling and not moving in slow motion - not enough scenic ideas to visualize the complex material and condense the evening.

Burning charisma from the singers

It is the actors who create theatrical moments through their acting presence and musical excellence. All the supporting roles and the major role of Mauricia (sung by Elina Viluma-Helling with a slender, limp soprano) are performed by members of Cantando Admont. Friederike Kühl and Patricia Auchterlonie make Lucia's lines float, Helena Sorokina and Cornelia Sonnleithner give the old Chahuanca dark colors, Hugo Paulsson Stove gives a stern, brightly timbred missionary. The French soprano Sarah Aristidou, who specializes in contemporary music, lends Muchacha enormous charisma with her sometimes completely vibratoless, pure vocal sound. Whether roaring or whimpering, greasy or rough: With his distinctive bass-baritone, Andrew Moore turns Paqui into a real puke, who at the end stylizes himself as a miracle healer in a bizarre scene in front of the glitter-covered people (costumes: Silke Willrett). Eisejuaz's tale of woe is finally broken. Leigh Melrose makes us feel the inner turmoil of this protagonist. Eisejuaz is a driven man, who makes pitfalls and becomes increasingly entangled in the thicket on his tortuous path. But Melrose also gives space to the enlightened Eisejuaz who hears the voices of spirits.

Under the direction of the composer, the Philharmonia Zurich vividly realizes the demanding score. It whispers and whimpers in the orchestra pit. The smallest particles are modeled. Even the few, massive outbursts, the cold layers of brass have a clear shape. Only the woodwinds sometimes seem too coarse in the filigree web of voices. And the balance is not always perfect. Beat Furrer's The great fire contains unheard-of sounds. However, the permanent ambiguity and polyphony also overwhelm this new music theater, whose tension is repeatedly lost in the many pauses, breaks and microstructures. At the end, the high frequencies in the accordion return. And the opera ends as quietly as it began.

Further performances: March 25/28/30, April 4/6/11, 2025, operahouse.ch

Table of contents

Focus

We create an emotional home with film music
Interview with Diego and Lionel Baldenweg

Switzerland as inspiration
What about our country has inspired local and foreign composers?

Folk music and homeland - a fraudulent label?
A wave of popular sounds is sweeping across Switzerland.

Chatting about ... the peculiarities and uniqueness of Swiss music and Swissness in musical programming.
Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer and Martin Korn exchange ideas

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

Critiques

New releases Sound carrier, Websites, Sheet music

Echo

Is AI displacing the creatives?
Jurisprudence in the field of AI and music was the topic of the latest meeting of the Parliamentary Group on Music on March 5 in Bern. The helplessness was palpable.

The OSR meets virtual reality
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande presents an application de réalité virtuelle permettant une immersion au coeur de l'orchestre.

Wide-awake producers, despondent television people
International Music Film Fair Avant Première in Berlin

A Chinese double victory
5th edition of the Basel Composition Competition

I was attracted by the low register of the viola
World premiere of Dieter Ammann's viola concerto no templates with Nils Mönkemeyer

Exile as a biography and creative condition
11th Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival in Basel

HEMU, Uri Caine et Cullyjazz
Une vingtaine de musiciens de l'HEMU interpréteront une suite du compositeur américain

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)

 

Not as the name suggests
Puzzle by Michael Kube

________________________________________

Order issue for CHF 10.- (+ CHF 2.- shipping costs)

We live in turbulent times, disruption is the word of the hour. Just a short time ago, it was hard to imagine how abruptly the rules of global politics that were thought to be certain can be overridden. This also applies to the creative industries. Following the destruction of traditional distribution models for music, film, literature and art by internet platforms, a second tsunami now seems to be overrunning the creative industries: Artificial intelligence (AI) is now threatening to dismantle production models as well. How should we react to this?

Could it be that composers, writers, fashion photographers or directors will no longer be needed in the foreseeable future? Systems such as Chat-GPT, Deepseek, Claude or, especially in music, Mubert or Suno now automatically create works according to instructions formulated in everyday language: "Compose a tango in the style of Piazzolla for flute and chamber orchestra! Write a pop song with reggae elements as an ode to the mountains!" Something like this is enough as an instruction, and even musically illiterate people can have the machine cobble together pieces according to their wishes.

However, AI models only do this after the providers have trained them with real-life models. They thus use works that should actually be protected by copyright. The question at the heart of the PGM meeting chaired by National Councillor Stefan Müller-Altermatt was therefore: Are there legal options for asserting claims against the providers of AI systems?

Legal subtleties

Chantal Bolzern, a lawyer, and Noah Martin, a legal expert, both of whom have worked or are working for the Swiss rights management company Suisa, explained the difficulties involved. As their presentations showed, there is still a great deal of confusion in this area. This starts with the question of who to take legal action against and where. The players are globally active, with complex international company structures, which has already made it difficult to fight legal battles with platforms such as Facebook. It is also completely unclear how AI providers use original works to train their models and which laws are relevant: In addition to copyright law, patent and competition law could also come into play, depending on the situation.

Chantal Bolzern therefore emphasized that the key prerequisite for legal certainty in this area is transparency. We need to know exactly how the training is carried out. However, AI providers are hardly interested in disclosing this. They protect their business models with secrecy. As a result, there are debates that sometimes seem more like verbiage. The legally defined concept of "use", which allows authors to control their own works, seems to be central.

AI providers take the view that they do not "use" the original works to train their systems, but - and this is where it gets legally tricky - that they merely "enjoy" them, which can be done freely under copyright law. "Enjoyment of a work" is also a legally defined term and means "the mere taking note of a work". This, in turn, is always freely permitted. And even if there were arguments in favor of the AI providers "using" the works in the legal sense, they could retreat to the position that they are merely "using them for scientific purposes", which in turn is freely possible.

If the legal basis for dealing with the new phenomenon of AI is still completely unclear, this applies even more to the political, economic and social consequences. Ueli Schmezer, a new member of the National Council and musician who was also present at the meeting, pointed out that a motion by Balthasar Glättli on law enforcement on the internet has been pending for years. It should lead to platforms such as Facebook setting up a national contact point. Politicians have not yet made any progress here either. An effective legal strategy with a view to the upcoming challenges posed by AI therefore seems a long way off. And when you consider that politicians actually have completely different concerns at the moment, difficult times are likely to be ahead for creatives.

Constant hunger for original works

However, some schadenfreude may remain, as there are signs that the artificial intelligence that is currently sweeping across the creative industries is imploding faster than one might think. At the PGM meeting, legal representatives pointed out that the AI's statistical models always look for the average in the corpus of training data. With each new round of training, the data is also likely to include AI-generated works, making the results increasingly flat and meaningless. The systems will only retain their power if they are constantly fed with original works that deviate from the masses.

What does this mean for the business models of creatives? Faced with perplexity, it's tempting to ask Chat-GPT and its cronies. "AI models have the potential to significantly impact the business models of creative industries. They offer both opportunities and challenges as they change the creative process and create new possibilities," Chat-GPT replies. Well, we've come this far already.

Today, music in the media is increasingly listened to via streaming. While sales amounted to 100 million dollars in 2006, they had already reached 19.3 billion by 2023, and the trend is rising. Physical sales fell from 15.1 billion to 5.1 billion in the same period. These are the figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). They relate to music that is only listened to. In contrast, the audiovisual sector is still relatively small. This is less due to the market mechanisms than to the perceptual situation: music can be listened to on the side, in many cases it is imposed on you as a sound wallpaper. Film, on the other hand, forces you to look.

Classical films from Bruckner to Stockfisch

Since Internet transmission technology has enabled the throughput of large amounts of data and thus unprecedented image and sound quality, music films have also become increasingly popular. The concert hall or opera in HD on your home screen is a tempting possibility. Innovative ideas and discoveries are still the order of the day in this up-and-coming media-aesthetic genre. This applies above all to classical music films; in the underground sector, broadcasts of pop concerts with the same old arm-waving fans have long since become an ossified routine.

The surprises that classic films continue to offer could be seen once again at the Avant Première music film fair in Berlin. Every February, authors and producers, internet broadcasters, distributors and rights dealers from all over the world meet here to spend four days examining new productions, exchanging information about the latest developments in the industry and, above all, trading in the new products.

These include Bruckner's Ninth with Herbert Blomstedt, a gem of a music film. Or a documentary about the difficulties of starting a career with the young cellist Anastasia Kobekina. Or the internationally co-produced, eight-part documentary series with short portraits of female composers from Hildegard von Bingen to Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Ethel Smyth. And then the crazy project The Stockfish OperaIt traces the route that stockfish took from the Lofoten Islands to Venice thanks to a shipwreck by Venetian sailors in 1432, where it is now a delicacy as "Baccalà Mantecato". The jointly rehearsed Stockfish Opera follows this path: you see the people from the far north performing their play in front of the astonished audience in Venice.

Artistic interest under pressure

A total of 61 showreels lasting 12 to 15 minutes presented around 500 new productions in short excerpts. Admittedly, these were just snippets. But such snapshots provide an insight into the producers' aesthetic orientation and current trends. This inevitably raises the question of the relationship between content and commercial success.

Artistically interesting novelties, even daring ones, still have a chance on the international market, even if not as often as before. But the prospects for the future are rather bleak. The greatest danger today comes from the economic and political uncertainties of the war in Ukraine. It is foreseeable that this will also leave deep scars in the cultural sector. However, it is also down to the public broadcasters, who for some years now have no longer been buying in such contributions, let alone producing them themselves, for fear of appearing elitist and therefore coming under fire. With them as co-producers, substantial financial resources are lost.

Arte is not a solution either, as the Franco-German broadcaster generally only buys what is produced in the two countries. Today, these are increasingly retreating to mainstream products: Le Concert de Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower with an audience numbering in the tens of thousands; Classical music at Odeonsplatzanother fair-weather event, this time from Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the same from Vienna or Berlin. And then, of course, the Vienna New Year's Concert, which is a sure-fire ratings hit all the way to the Far East. The winner for 2025 has already been decided: Johann Strauss, born 200 years ago, at least not an unsympathetic figure. In Berlin, he has now been named the first pop star in music history.

Reiner Moritz addressed this problematic mainstream aesthetic during the presentation of his showreel. The internationally highly decorated producer and author of countless music films since the 1970s, owner of a distribution company with the pretty name Poorhouse International and still a driving force behind the scenes of Avant Première at the age of 87, addressed his colleagues from the public broadcasters directly: "Please show a little more courage and be a little more curious! There are so many interesting things that the audience should know and that you should show them." He was referring to John Reith, the founding director of BBC London, who in 1922 described the task of public broadcasting in three key words: Information, education and entertainment.

Swiss contributions ...

Ticino Television has always participated from Switzerland. Its hallmark is films that do not swim with the mainstream: For example, a funny animated film on Beethoven's 250th birthday five years ago, a documentary with songs by Italian anarchists who fled to Lugano in the 19th century or the great artist film The alchemy of the piano by Jan Schmidt-Garre. RSI was absent this year, which is hopefully not a sign that production is being cut back. But there was still something to see from Switzerland: an informative, beautifully made film portrait of Frank Martin - produced in the Netherlands, where the Genevan spent his retirement.

... and American perspectives

The problems facing music institutions in the classical music sector today are international. Peter Gelb, Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New Yorkwho gave the opening lecture at the Avant Première, explained to me in an interview how things look in America, where subsidies are practically zero and sponsorship and ticket sales are the only sources of money. In the Bermuda triangle of audience-repertoire-costs, Gelb is looking for a solution to keep the huge house of 3,800 seats running at all. After the pandemic, he says, many older visitors stayed away. Before that, ticket sales and income from cinema screenings covered around fifty percent of the costs of around 300 million dollars, and the other half, around 150 million, came from private donors. Because income did not really recover after the pandemic, the proportion of donations now has to rise to around 200 million. "We are," says Gelb, "the only cultural institution in the world that has to contribute such large sums."

He notices a gap between the slowly dying, tradition-oriented audience and the younger, hip visitors and is therefore taking a two-pronged approach: on the one hand Tosca and Aidaon the other hand, contemporary works. However, these only find favor when prominent singers are on stage, the music does not overwhelm the listener and the work is based on intelligent libretti and staging.

Gelb consistently gears the repertoire towards the audience: "What I have never understood is the attitude of many critics who think that opera is made for them. No, opera should be for as many people as possible. That's what Puccini, Verdi and Mozart thought. This is the only way it can continue to exist as an art form, and the only way new works can survive. They shouldn't be written for a shrinking circle of insiders." His conclusion: "I don't know what the future of the Met will look like. I only know one thing: we must continue to develop art and take risks. Falling back or standing still is the surest recipe for failure. With an ageing art form like opera, creativity and the search for something new are the only guarantee of its continued existence."

Matchspace Music describes itself as "the largest and most versatile platform for private music lessons in Switzerland". The company has launched a survey among Swiss music teachers. The aim is to gain "a comprehensive picture of the professional situation, current challenges and the use of new technologies in teaching". The survey takes around 5 minutes to complete and can be completed until the end of March. The plan is to publish the results in April.

Link to the survey

The music city of Basel seems to be longing for May. Yes, a major European music competition is due to take place here, followed shortly afterwards by a major European choir festival. But that's not what we're talking about here - no, we're talking about Walpurgis Night, the traditional "Dance into May".

Derived by name from St. Walburga, the festival has been associated above all with the witches' Sabbath on the Blocksberg since the European witch mania in the 16th and 17th centuries. This meaning was cemented by Goethe, who described the festival in the Fist and poetically described it several times elsewhere. One of these descriptions was eventually turned into music: after his teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter refused, Felix Mendelssohn composed the cantata "The First Walpurgis Night" based on Goethe's text.

This half-hour piece, which drives out winter and heralds the arrival of spring, was performed for the second time in a short space of time at the Stadtcasino Basel on February 11, 2025. Last November, the Collegium Musicum Basel and the Basel Bach Choir performed it, and now the young concert organizer vokal:orgel took it on. While the first performance - in keeping with the two time-honoured institutions - was relatively traditional, the most recent performance on 11 February 2025 was embedded in a thoroughly choreographed, semi-staged overall program that spanned a dramatic arc from the deep, Nordic winter to the festive start of spring.

Dark Nordic winter

In complete darkness, the grand piano was raised from its hiding place at the beginning and Dominic Chamot played Fanny Mendelssohn's January from the 12 character pieces. To this end, part of the choir, dressed in monk's robes, took to the stage, where they soon entered the Rondo Lapponico by Gunnar Arvid Hahn - a frosty piece based on the traditional Sami joik, which sings of Lappish nature (geese, waters, hills, forests). After a choral interlude ("Come!"), the ensuing organ composition Évocation II by Thierry Escaich, the choir formed with its back to the audience. This was followed by the Estonian folk song Lauliku Lapsepõli (Engl. "The Childhood of the Singer") in Veljo Tormis' version, in which the choir gradually turned towards the audience. Like most of the Nordic pieces performed, the piece created an almost ethereal atmosphere in the Stadtcasino's music hall, a glassy sonority, like different sheets of ice layered on top of each other. The song led into diffuse whispering, from which a soloist group of speakers finally crystallized and staged a "curse on the iron" - a hauntingly poetic anti-war text, which shortly afterwards was translated into Raua needmine in the original Estonian language and with shamanic drum accompaniment. The intermediate Christian folk song Ma on niin kaunis sang a more conciliatory tune, extolling the beauty of nature, the grace of God and the singing pilgrimage of the soul.

A wintry, Nordic first part was rounded off with Fanny Mendelssohn's Andante espressive, during which the choir imitated the onset of rain with snapping fingers, which, without pausing for breath, led into the beginning - "The Bad Weather" - of the Walpurgis Night by Fanny's brother Felix.

 

Springtime scenery with organ and piano

For the music of the Walpurgis Night was not responsible for an orchestra on February 11, 2025 as part of the vokal:orgel performance - its part was rewritten for organ, piano and percussion and played by Babette Mondry (organ), Dominic Chamot (piano) and Tomohiro Iino, Pablo Mena Escudero and Yi Chen Tsai (percussion). And while we're on the subject of the participants: The choir was made up of young voices from Muttenz and Laufen high schools and the Steinerschule Birseck, and also included the Young Opera of the Basel Theater - a total ensemble of 180, held together by the direction of Abélia Nordmann.

During the overture to "Walpurgisnacht", the stage set changed from a wintery to a spring-like scene - with yellow-green clothing for the choir (who also brought out colorful wreaths of flowers) and equally colorful lighting. Mendelssohn's piece also worked in the special arrangement - the Metzler-Klahre organ in the Stadtcasino, with its 350 or so mixtures of stops, was able to harmoniously suggest the different timbres of the orchestra and at the same time lend the music its own, winning touch; the piano provided support, particularly in the contouring of the melodies. Vocally, not only the choir, but also the soloist and soloists were convincing - baritone Felix Gygli, whose volume, phrasing and stage presence were impressive, deserves special mention.

The integration of the scenic elements (for which Salomé im Hof was responsible) was also successful, and the masked appearance of the "human wolves and dragon women" even briefly created a bit of a carnival atmosphere in the Stadtcasino. The overall dramaturgical structure of the performance was carefully and sensibly thought out - from Fanny to Felix Mendelssohn, from winter to spring, from dark to bright; and in the first part there were several discoveries from the Scandinavian and Baltic vocal repertoire. The great enthusiasm of the participants, especially that of the choir, was downright infectious. Conclusion: spring can come.

 

Transparency notice:

Lukas Nussbaumer wrote the text on behalf of vokal:orgel and was honored for it. The text was first published on the author's website lukasnussbaumer.com published.

Niels Pfeffer studied basso continuo, harpsichord, guitar and lute in Stuttgart, Freiburg, The Hague and Basel. He was supported by a German scholarship and an Excellence Scholarship and his master's thesis was awarded prizes. He teaches theorbo, harpsichord and lute at various music academies and is pursuing his dissertation project at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Tübingen. He is in demand as a chamber music partner with his instruments. Numerous recordings and competitions document his work as a continuo player. Pfeffer has made television and radio recordings and has given concerts and master classes in Europe, Lebanon, Armenia and Mexico.

 

Anna Krimm studied viola at the music academies in Karlsruhe and Berlin (UdK, HfM Hanns Eisler) and baroque viola in Weimar. She is a lecturer for viola at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, deputy solo violist in the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and a member of the formation Spira mirabilis. She works as a guest with renowned ensembles, including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra, the RSB, WDR and SWR orchestras, the Ensemble Resonanz and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.

 

Prospective students can register for the entrance examination at the ZHdK Music until March 1, 2025: https://www.zhdk.ch/studium/musik/ap-musik

Late registrations are possible until March 10 to: monika.baer@zhdk.ch