According to the Bach Festival, the video was filmed in the tower hall of Holligen Castle. The scene imagines the completion of the Bach portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussman (1695-1774).

Iranian 3D artist Hadi Karimi "created a high-resolution, photorealistic 3D model of Bach's face based on this image from 1748." In post-production, the face of the Leipzig actor in the role of Bach was "replaced by Bach's digitally reconstructed face with the help of artificial intelligence."

Link to the video (idea, concept and script: Vital Julian Frey):

Further information about the video clip and the Bachwochen Thun from August 25 to September 8

As can be read on the orchestra's website, the Swiss National Orchestra (SNO) is "modeled on a national sports team" and is made up of outstanding musicians who hold important positions in orchestras in Switzerland and around the world.

The director of the SNO is Igor Longato. It will make its first appearance in the Great Hall of the Casino in Bern at 11 a.m. on August 1. Admission is free. Works by Hans Huber, Siegfried Wagner, Arthur Honegger, Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini and Giocchino Rossini will be performed under the motto "Vivat Helvetia". Regula Mühlemann, soprano, and Sébastian Jacot, flute, will perform the solo parts. The conductor is John Axelrod.

Further concerts and CD recordings are planned.

Information and reservation: https://vivat-helvetia.com

This year's official jury of the Concours de Genève met in the composition category in Geneva at the beginning of June. The Swiss composer Pascal Dusapin chaired the jury. Other jury members are Milica Djordjević, Francesco Filidei, Hector Parrà and Francesca Verunelli. Of the 82 scores submitted, 18 were selected and examined in detail. The jury then selected three finalists. These are Léo Albisetti (26) from Switzerland, Caio de Azevedo (30) from Brazil, who lives in Munich, and Sang-Min Ryu (24) from South Korea.

The candidates will be in Geneva from October 16, 2024. They will be able to follow the rehearsals of their work for viola and chamber orchestra for the final round on October 20, 2024 with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève conducted by Pierre Bleuse. They will also have the opportunity to take part in a showcase. Students from the Haute École de musique de Genève will perform one or two of their works with soloists Lise Berthaud, Georhi Kovalev and Adrien La Marca.

Concours de Genève

Founded in 1939, the Concours de Genève is one of the most important international music competitions in the world. Its aim is to discover, promote and support talented young artists. Every year, up-and-coming international musicians compete in two alternating disciplines, this year in singing and composition. In addition to the prize money, the winners receive a two-year contract with the concert agency Sartory Artists. There are also numerous other coaching opportunities to prepare them for a sustainable career in the classical music scene.

A total of around 60 formations from Bulgaria, China, Germany, El Salvador, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Thailand and many clubs from Switzerland took part in this year's World Youth Music Festival (WYMF) in Zurich. The festival kicked off with a gala concert in the Chipperfield Building of the Kunsthaus.

The competitions in 10 categories took place at the Zurich University of the Arts in the Toni Areal and in the Chipperfield Building of the Kunsthaus. The international jury was impressed by the diverse and high-quality presentations. The great interest shown by the audience in all the presentations was gratifying.

Around 5000 people attended the spectacular opening ceremony in the Hallenstadion. Other highlights included the parade through Bahnhofstrasse and the gala concert in the Tonhalle, the "Youth Music Party" and the closing ceremony with the award ceremony in the Münsterhof.

OC President, Erich Zumstein, looked back with satisfaction on a successful festival weekend. "All the competitions and events were well attended beyond expectations. We were very pleased that we were able to give young people from different countries an unforgettable weekend with this festival and hope that their enthusiasm for brass music was strengthened thanks to this event."

About the World Youth Music Festival

The World Youth Music Festival was founded on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Jugendmusik Zürich 11 and has since developed into an international festival for amateur musicians between the ages of 9 and 25. Since 1985, between 2,600 and 4,500 young people from all over the world have traveled to Zurich for each festival to meet like-minded people from other associations from all over the world, to make music with them and to compete with them in various categories. A total of 250 orchestras from around 50 countries have taken part over the past 33 years. The last WJMF took place in 2017. Due to the Covid pandemic, the event planned for 2021 was canceled.

The festival is organized by a volunteer committee made up of experts in the respective fields and many helpers. The OC President is Erich Zumstein, Director of the Zurich Conservatory Music School.

Detailed information, videos and photos at https://wjmf.ch

After excursions to Ticino, Appenzellerland and the Engadine, the Rümlingen New Music Festival is settling in Oltingen this year. The festival, which reinvents itself every year, has already collaborated with associations or residents of the village in 2010 and 2022. This year, 24 new projects will be realized especially for this place.

The festival starts on Saturday at 3 pm and lasts 24 hours until 3 pm on Sunday. It offers the opportunity to get away from everyday life and, as the festival writes, "immerse yourself in a manageable world with unimagined possibilities".

Participating sound artists

The program includes world premieres by Romane Bouffioux (FRA/CH), Léo Collin (CH), Rama Gottfried (US/CH), Wolfgang Heiniger (CH), Urban Mäder (CH), Aya Metwalli (EGY), Marina Tantanozi (CH), Violetta Garcia (ARG), Michel Robin (CH), Daniel Ott (CH) and Anna Sowa (CH/PL)

 

https://www.neue-musik-ruemlingen.ch

After the "Eurovision Song Contest" (ESC), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) organizes the "Eurovision Young Musicians" competition (EYM) this summer. Valerian Alfaré is taking part in the final show for Switzerland in Bodø, Norway. The 19-year-old impressed the three-member jury of experts (Oliver Schnyder, Manuel Oswald, Eva Oertle) with his euphonium at the Swiss pre-selection in Basel this spring. As one of eleven finalists, Valerian Alfaré will perform as a soloist at the Stomen Konserthus in Bodø on August 17, 2024, accompanied by the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The Swiss pre-selection at the Meret Oppenheim Hochhaus in Basel, SRF's cultural location, was carried out in partnership between SRF, music academies, music schools and the Swiss Youth Music Competition. Young Swiss musicians between the ages of 14 and 21 took part.

19-year-old Valerian Alfaré from Rheinfelden in the canton of Aargau plays the trumpet as well as the euphonium. As a trumpet player, he concentrates mainly on jazz and is a member of the Swiss Youth Jazz Orchestra. With the euphonium, he is primarily active in classical and contemporary music.

About the "Eurovision Young Musicians" competition

The "Eurovision Young Musicians" competition offers young classical talents a large international TV stage with a professional orchestra. The event is organized every two years by the EBU, which also organizes the ESC. The 2024 edition will be hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The competition will take place in Bodø, one of the three European Capitals of Culture 2024.

Link to the original article on SRF

How the Boswil House of Artists the Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees elected Irene Näf-Kuhn and Christine Hehli Hidber as Co-Presidents to succeed Stefan Hegi at their last meeting. Hegi has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1997. As an architect, he was primarily involved in the structural development of the Künstlerhaus. In August 2021, he took over from Peter Wipf as Vice-Chairman until a successor could be found. On August 1, pianist and music manager Irene Näf-Kuhn and lawyer Christine Hehli Hidber will take over the office.

The Sima enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide. Over 300 talented musicians from all over the world have registered for the 14th master class for violin, viola and cello at the Music Island Rheinau 96 outstanding talents from 33 countries were admitted to this year's Academy. They will benefit from the experience of internationally renowned instructors in solo lessons, chamber music lessons and workshops. As a special highlight, the best soloists in the competition will have the opportunity to perform as a soloist at the final concert with the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance in Zurich.

Private initiative

Sima is a private initiative to promote young musical talent. It is supported by the Youth Classics Association. The president and artistic director is Philip A. Draganov.

The Academy offers outstanding young musicians who are studying at a music academy or aspire to study music in the future an intensive, high-quality musical education during the summer vacation period. The master class provides Swiss participants with an extremely valuable exchange with the world's elite.

Teaching at the highest level and exceptional insights

The Academy has once again succeeded in attracting selected lecturers from renowned music academies such as the Zurich University of the Arts, the Bern University of the Arts, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the Haute Ecole de Musique Vaud-Valais-Fribourg. They work with the participants as part of the solo lessons. In addition to individual lessons, there are rehearsals with accompaniment and chamber music lessons as well as various special events. For example, the participants work as a team in a violin-making workshop under the guidance of the renowned Violin maker Stefan-Peter Greiner a violin.

As a special guest at Sima 2024, Christian Tetzlaff, one of the most sought-after violinists and most exciting musicians in the classical music world, will give an "Interpretation Course Brahms" for Academy participants selected by the Artistic Director.

 Chance to perform as a soloist with a  large orchestra

A soloist competition will be held for the first time this year. The best will perform as a soloist at the final concert with the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constancewhich will take place on Sunday, July 21, 2024, at the Zurich University of the Arts. Based on the videos sent in by the candidates in advance, the finalists will be selected to perform in front of the jury of Sima lecturers in the final round at Sima. It will then be decided on the spot who will be allowed to perform as a soloist with the orchestra at the final concert.

As part of the special prize of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constance, one talent will be selected from all participants of Sima 2024 to perform as a soloist with the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constance, which will be renamed the "Lake Constance Philharmonic Orchestra" from the 2024/25 season, at a concert in Constance. www.philharmoniekonstanz.de

 Public concerts during SIMA

During the week, the Sima participants demonstrate their skills at various public concerts.

 Thursday, July 18, 2024, 1:30 p.m.
Final concert of the Brahms Masterclass by Christian Tetzlaff
Music hall, Musikinsel Rheinau

 Thursday, July 18, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
1st concert of the SIMA 2024 participants
Mill hall, Klosterinsel 2, 8462 Rheinau

 Friday, July 19, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
2nd concert of the SIMA 2024 participants
Mill hall, Klosterinsel 2, 8462 Rheinau

 Saturday, July 20, 2024, 2 p.m.
1st final concert of the chamber music groups
Mountain church, 8462 Rheinau

 Saturday, July 20, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Final concerts of the individual classes
Violin classesA. Chumachenco / Z. Tadevosyan, P.A. Draganov / J.G. Flores, A. Janke, P. Vernikov / S.Marakova
Viola class: T. Selditz
Cello classes: T. Grossenbacher, J. Hasten, T. Svane
Music Island Rheinau, 8462 Rheinau

 Sunday, July 21, 2024, 09.30 a.m.
2nd final concert of the chamber music groups
Music Island Rheinau, 8462 Rheinau

 Sunday, July 21, 2024, 5 p.m.
Gala concert at the end of the 14th Sima 2024
Selected participants perform as soloists with the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance
Zurich University of the Arts, Concert Hall 3, Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, 8005 Zurich

All concerts: free admission - collection

 

 

Othmar Schoeck grew up in Brunnen and began his music studies at the Zurich Conservatory in 1904. In 1907, he accepted Max Reger's invitation to join his Leipzig composition class. Back in Switzerland, Schoeck earned his living by conducting two male choirs in Zurich, while he became increasingly well-known as a composer. His early compositions soon brought him international attention.

Even though Schoeck felt committed to German Romanticism and saw himself as a successor to Schubert and Hugo Wolf, he knew the works of his contemporaries very well and drew inspiration from them. The Othmar Schoeck Festival 2024 presents a musical panorama of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and examines the Brunner composer's first career steps in the period before the First World War.

The program

Unheard-of love: Béla Bartók and Othmar Schoeck both raved about the Hungarian violinist Stefi Geyer. Right in the Opening concert with the Moser String Quartet their first string quartets can be heard and in the big symphony concert on Sunday Schoeck's violin concerto "Quasi una Fantasia". The Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren performs the work dedicated to Stefi Geyer together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Izabelė Jankauskaitė.

Particularly noteworthy is the Sunday morning service with the young Swiss baritone Manuel Walser. He sings Schoeck's three sacred songs op. 11 accompanied by Stefan Albrecht on the organ in the parish church of St. Leonhard.

And as always, the next generation of musicians is involved, be it with world premieres in the Chamber music concert, in the Workshop "futur composé" with Dieter Ammann or in a Colloquium of the Institute of Musicology at the University of Zurich, which presents case studies on press coverage of Schoeck's premieres and presents them in a Panel discussion is concluded.

There are seven events in total. A total of 18 works will be performed. An orchestra, a string quartet and a brass quintet, together with all the other 22 musicians, plus two musicologists, a musicologist and some students will be performing.

The performances

Opening concert, Friday, September 6, 2024, 8 p.m., Reformed Church Brunnen

Colloquium, Saturday, September 7, 2024, 3 p.m., Villa Schoeck, Brunnen

Concert and world premiere, Saturday, September 7, 2024, 8 p.m., Villa Schoeck, Brunnen

Church service, Sunday, September 8, 2024, 10 a.m., Roman Catholic parish church of St. Leonhard, Ingenbohl-Brunnen

Podium, Sunday, September 8, 2024, 2 p.m., Villa Schoeck, Brunnen

Workshop, Sunday, September 8, 2024, 4 p.m., Villa Schoeck, Brunnen

Symphony concert, Sunday, September 8, 2024, 8 p.m., Seehotel Waldstätterhof, Brunnen

Tickets are available from August 7 at ticketino.ch or via schoeckfestival.ch bookable. Reservation recommended.

The works

Jonas Achermann:
Composition sketch for brass quintet

Béla Bartók (1881-1945):
String Quartet No. 1 (1908/09)

Viktoryia Haveinovich:
Composition sketch for brass quintet

Alma Mahler (1879-1964):
Three songs

Aregnaz Martirosyan (*1993):
Duo for violin and piano (UA)

Christoph Pfändler (*1992):
- Duo for soprano and violin (UA)
- Composition sketch for brass quintet

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937):
String Quartet in F major, op. 35 (1902/1903)

Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957):
- String Quartet No. 1, op. 23 (1911/13)
- Three songs by Heine, op. 4 for voice, violin and piano (1906)
- Three sacred songs for baritone and organ op. 11 (1906/07)
- Violin Concerto (Quasi una Fantasia) op. 21 (

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):
Symphony No. 3 in D major

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942):
- Sonata for violin and piano op. 7 (1913)
- Drei Stimmungsbilder (after poems from "Die Garbe" by Hans Steiger) for soprano voice, violin and piano op. 12 (1913)

Hyeok Son:
Composition sketch for brass quintet

Luca Staffelbach:
Composition sketch for brass quintet

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903):
Italian Serenade, arranged for orchestra by Max Reger (1873-1916)

The contributors

Basel Chamber Orchestra, symphony concert

Jonas Achermann, composer, workshop
Heinrich Aerni, musicologist, podium
Stefan Albrecht, organ, church service
Dieter Ammann, Composer, Workshop
Ariadna Bataller, viola, Moser String Quartet, Opening concert
Xavier Gil Batet, trombone, KamBrass Quintet, Workshop
Sebastian Bohren, violin, symphony concert
Oriol Reverter Curto, tuba, KamBrass Quintet, Workshop
Lea Galasso, violoncello, Moser String Quartet, Opening concert
Inga Mai Groote, musicologist, podium
Viktoryia Haveinovich, composer, workshop
Izabelė Jankauskaitė, Conductor, Symphony concert
Doris Lanz, musicologist, podium
Joan Pàmies Magrané, trumpet, KamBrass Quintet, Workshop
Kanon Miyashita, violin, Moser String Quartet, Opening concert
Maria Servera Monserrat, French horn, KamBrass Quintet, Workshop
Patricia Muro, violin, Moser String Quartet, Opening concert
Christoph Pfändler, composer, workshop
Hyeok Son, composer, workshop
Julia Spaeth, soprano, concert and world premiere
Luca Staffelbach, composer, workshop
Nadezda Tseluykina, piano, concert and world premiere
Manuel Walser, Baritone, Divine service
Guillem Cardona Zaera, trumpet, KamBrass Quintet, Workshop
Susanne Zapf, violin, concert and world premiere

The association

The Othmar Schoeck Festival Association enables performances of Othmar Schoeck's music at his birthplace Brunnen. It promotes a critical examination of the composer's biography. Thanks to the targeted involvement of young musicians, the work of one of the best-known Swiss composers of the first half of the twentieth century remains relevant.

The Board of Management would like to thank all Persons and institutionswho support the festival.

Carolina Müller will be the new lecturer for the vocal major "Groove and Electronics" from the fall semester 2024. Internationally successful as Miss C-Line and winner of the New Generation Jazz Lab Contest in 2021, she has released three albums and collaborated with artists such as Casey Benjamin and Jeff Ballard. She is musically and technically proficient in music production, studio recording, mixing, live show production and composition.

As of the 2024/25 academic year Jakob Pilgram He succeeded Pascal Maier as the new artistic director of the Collegium Musicum and lecturer for vocal ensemble. As a sought-after soloist in Germany and abroad, he has sung with conductors such as Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Andrea Marcon and Hans-Christoph Rademann and has acquired a sound knowledge of historical performance practice. In 2005, he founded the professional larynx vocal ensemble, where he acts as musical director and conductor. He is also a member of the Artistic Board of the Balthasar Neumann Choir and co-director of its Singer's Academy. Since 2004, he and Mischa Sutter have formed a song duo that has won prizes at international competitions.

Also starting in the new academic year, the multi-award-winning Michael Bach Lecturer in brass band conducting. He has conducted the Bürgermusik Lucerne brass band since 2009. He has been principal conductor of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band (GB) since 2023 and is a regular guest conductor with bands such as the Eikanger-Bjorsvik Band (NO) and the Fodens Band (GB). He acts as a juror at major national and international competitions and runs the Saanenland-Obersimmental Music School.

Marco Amherd He studied conducting, organ/church music (concert, teaching and soloist diploma) and economics in Zurich, Freiburg im Breisgau and Toulouse. He is currently the artistic director of the Swiss Vocal Consort. His flair for unusual sounds is evident in his collaboration with the Vokalensemble Zürich West and the Junges Kammerchor Zürich. He has won awards at numerous international competitions. Marco Amherd is currently also the artistic director of the Davos Festival.

Getting moving, imagining colorful future spaces and returning to the present: The "actions" by Stefan Linne, a mime artist and actor in Berlin, spanned from the beginning to the end of the meeting. The organizers were pleasantly surprised by the large number of participants from all generations. Teachers, students and heads of music schools, conservatoires, associations and academies were invited, mainly from Germany. Student delegations from all of Germany's music education faculties refreshed the many participatory formats. To kick things off, young and old learned to juggle with three colored cloths under Linne's guidance in no time at all. This activity symbolized a central aspect of the conference, namely getting away from a black-and-white view in professional music education.

Finally being able to bridge the gap between artistic and pedagogical orientation was a palpably urgent concern of the audience and speakers.

The specialist medium of the future

The Faculty of Music at the Berlin University of the Arts organized the conference in cooperation with the Mannheim State University of Music and Performing Arts. Ivo Berg, Barbara Busch, Christina Fassbender, Isabelle Heiss, Sebastian Herbst and Barbara Metzger were in charge of the project. The Strecker Foundation acted as sponsor. It has owned the music publisher Schott since the end of 2023. This in turn has been publishing the magazine practise&music out. Since its foundation, it has played a central role in reflecting on various aspects of music education and the development of music schools and colleges. The anniversary was not only celebrated with "champagne and seltzer". Rather, it provided the impetus for a think tank on the future of specialist media. Editor Rüdiger Behschnitt and his colleague Kerstin Weuthen collected many ideas with the audience in well-organized brainstorming sessions on where the journey could take us, provided that human and financial resources do not play a role. As expected, no silver bullet emerged; the media landscape is currently changing too quickly and unpredictably. Short, clear, correct, specific, free and easily accessible - this is how information should be, especially from the students' point of view.

Eight areas of tension

The question that gave the symposium its title, which took place in the rooms of the University of the Arts, was already fanned out in the invitation to tender using eight pairs of opposites. They formed the framework of the events and were explicitly discussed in a "World Café":

1. elitist vs. participatory? Against the background of which guiding principles, which people can learn which music at (higher) music schools and how?
2. Personal development vs. career orientation? Should the development of music schools and colleges focus primarily on the personal development of students or on the future professional field?
3. tradition vs. innovation? Does the future of music schools lie in preserving or overcoming traditions?
4. Lonely vs. together? Will music schools and colleges become superfluous without comprehensive (external) cooperation?
5. Art vs. science? What role do science and art play in the development of (higher) music schools?
6. Sense vs. nonsense? To what extent are mission statements suitable for the further development of music schools and colleges?
7. Closeness vs. distance? What role do proximity and distance play in teaching at music schools and colleges?
8. Analog vs. digital? What significance do analog and digital forms of communication and expression have both in the context of teaching at music (higher) education institutions and in relation to musical performance and music production?

Squeezed around eight tables, the participants spent half an hour exploring these areas of tension. They had had the opportunity to sign up in advance for three of the questions that concerned them most. The "World Café" lasted an hour and a half in total. The result was impressive: many square meters of paper full of colorful scraps of thoughts.

Keep the questions moving

The presentations by Barbara Stiller, Martina Krause-Benz, Ulrich Mahlert, Wolfgang Rüdiger and Tobias Seidel brought further facets to the discussion and stimulated individual discussions during the breaks. Participants were able to explore their specific concerns in seven workshops. Students and alumni of the Berlin University of the Arts repeatedly built bridges between intellectual reflection and artistic presentation with their performances.

There were no clear answers to the many questions, but perhaps the insight that the discussion between the various players must be continued with the greatest possible openness. At the end, Stefan Linne and the students led the participants back to themselves and their own ideas of a sustainable music (high) school.

On the website of practice&music (https://uebenundmusizieren.de/artikel/zukunft-im-blick/uebenundmusizieren.de) documents for some of the events at the "Fit for the future?" conference have been uploaded. A printed publication will also appear later.

 International problem child school music

One month after the Berlin conference, the study Mulem-ex - Music teacher training - an explorative study was published. The aim was to find out why young people in Germany decide against studying to become music teachers. There is a shortage of thousands of trained teachers in the field of school music and the number of new students enrolled on the relevant courses is falling sharply. In a nutshell, the study cites the following reasons for the development of a negative career image: those with an affinity for music perceive the aptitude test geared towards European classical art music as a high hurdle; many respondents feel insufficiently prepared for everyday working life and see few opportunities for development; numerous potential students fear the high workload in everyday working life due to the time-consuming preparation of lessons and the simultaneous lack of opportunities for musical-artistic activities.

The training situation in Germany can only be compared with that in Switzerland to a limited extent. Anyone wishing to teach music in general education schools in this country needs a diploma from a university of teacher education (PH) or a degree in school music I or, for grammar schools, school music II (music universities). However, there is a lack of meaningful figures, for example on the deselection or non-selection of certain subjects or degree programs at the PHs or on the retention of graduates at PHs and MHs. In addition, the employment contexts for music teachers at the school level below, in the area of music & movement, are very heterogeneous. Enquiries to the Chamber of Universities of Teacher Education at Swissuniversities and the Conference of Swiss Music Universities (KMHS) have shown that no well-founded data is available in Switzerland to date. However, the KMHS would welcome a comprehensive survey.

Link to Mulem-ex - Music teacher training - an explorative study

A compass is a useful thing, even if it seems to have long since been replaced by newer technologies. It gives us a clear disposition of the world. We then know where north is. We can orient ourselves. But is that still enough today, as the most diverse directions and alignments appear side by side? We need to think about the compass again, we need to feel how it swings. Sometimes it's a slight vibration, but sometimes it's a hoofbeat ...

Orientation and reorientation

The Bern Music Festival therefore proposed the "Compass" theme to the city and canton's music scene. The latter responded with a variety of ideas, some of which the Board of Trustees selected and had developed. One event with Ludmilla Mercier and Ulysse Loup takes us to the calving glaciers of Greenland, while another with Werner Hasler and Stefan Schultze takes us into the world of animals, which also use an internal compass to guide their movements and flights. For example, how synchronously do three turntable players (including Marcel Zaes), who play in different parts of the world, coordinate themselves? Isn't their imprecision the interesting thing about it? What does an Iranian musician (Ali Latif-Shushtari) imagine about the micrograms of the wandering Robert Walser, where do they lead him? And what does Arnold Schönberg's stirring contemporary document still mean to us today? A Survivor from Warsaw? The Berlin opera company Novoflot and the Thun-born composer Michael Wertmüller have taken on the piece and shed new light on it.

Such projects show how differently today's musicians operate. But hasn't orientation in the musical world always been reconsidered? Individual composers have become compasses, in their own time and beyond, simply by asking questions and sometimes trying to find answers. Schönberg, for example, certainly saw himself in such a position. With atonality and, above all, the twelve-tone technique, he believed he was pointing music history in the right direction. And he did, even if it is no longer uncontested. It is still worth taking a closer look at him. In the three-part concert series Extreme Romanticism, the piano duo Susanne Huber / André Thomet focus on two of his early atonal works and add quarter-tone music by his contemporaries Charles Ives as a contrast. Ives also appears in the second part of the series, to which Jacques Demierre contributes up-to-date commentaries. And Franz Liszt, the true future musician of the 19th century, appears as the third compass figure, with whom the electronic musician Olga Kokcharova enters into a boundary-breaking dialog.

Directions and barriers

Borders often stand in the way of a compass. And that is why the Ensemble Proton Bern, together with four composers and the vocal ensemble Cantando Admont, is exploring the borders of our country, its openness and its isolation. What inner compass do refugees follow on their difficult journey through our country? What barriers do they have to overcome? The international vocal quartet Operadicals (with Franziska Baumann) and the Bernese choir suppléments musicaux, on the other hand, search for the terra incognita of the human voice. And Mauricio Kagel, the Argentinian-born composer based in Cologne, looks at the world from an unusual perspective in his Windrose pieces. For him, the south, which we associate with heat, stands for Patagonian cold. In this way, orders are thrown into turmoil.

Composer in Residence: George E. Lewis

Crossing boundaries and reorientation are also central to the musician who is coming to Bern as Composer in Residence: George E. Lewis. The trombonist from the jazz avant-garde circle of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) has long been one of the most important figures in US music. His music combines improvisation and composition, computer-controlled installations and interactive concert forms with a profound reflection on the conditions of contemporary musical creation. He will talk about decolonization; his computer orchestra interacts with pianist Magda Mayas in Voyager; and he is writing a new piece for the versatile wind-dynamic organ in Bern Cathedral. Daniel Glaus plays the solo part and thus becomes the "devil in the cathedral". With each performance, the way of seeing and hearing changes. Even the compass of the scores can no longer be completely relied upon. But perhaps that is precisely what is liberating ...

 

Bern, September 4 to 8, 2024

musicfestivalbern.ch

It is often said that putting together a library or a music collection reflects the deepest essence of a person, their most intimate desires, curiosities and sometimes hopes. Gathering hundreds of books or recordings requires a diverse education to begin with, possibly growing out of a passion rooted at a young age, cultivated as we grow older and perhaps "transmitted by contagion" from family members, friends and acquaintances. Our reading and music preferences represent immersion in a world we would like to live in, a sanctuary of the mind and often the body, as listening to music or a pleasant book can release healing and happiness-inducing endorphins.

Invitation to beauty

Thus, when we were allowed to enter Emilio and Stefania Bortoluzzi's large house in Velate (Italy), we could immediately grasp the essence of their characters through its large bookcases and shelves full of CDs and DVDs. An invitation to beauty and proof that science and humanism are perfectly compatible and can support each other, as both spouses were doctors but were continuously searching for their deepest purpose, inspired by extensive reading and music enjoyment. When Emilio drew new energy for his poetic writing from the books, retreating to his study to find rhymes and express feelings and memories, Stefania would put on a Deutsche Grammophon LP in the large, frescoed living room and follow the stages of her life in her armchair with music as her constant companion. She had already inhaled art music in the air of the Milan house where she was born, with her mother Alice Claius, a singer from Leipzig, an excellent song interpreter and pianist, in the house music evenings she experienced there, which later also became a custom in Velate, with the inestimable pleasure of having the dearest friends around her. 

Passion for legendary recordings

Let's try to get closer to Stefania Longoni Bortoluzzi by "investigating" her music collection. This points to some of the cornerstones of the personality of the doctor, who worked for 34 years as an anaesthetist at the Circolo Hospital in Varese, where her husband was head of the intensive care unit: legendary recordings with possibly not "historically informed" performers, as those who perform early music are called today, but who instead displayed exceptional charisma and artistic rigor.

There is Karl Richter with the Bach Passions, all of the cantor's keyboard music, interpreted by Angela Hewitt, whom we will talk about later, the Beethoven of the symphonies and concertos, the Mozart for piano and opera, Karajan's most famous recordings. Above all, however, we find a large collection of songs - Stefania's deepest passion. She had a perfect command of German, knew the texts of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss by heart and enjoyed the works of Richard Wagner in the original language. The Romantics, exactly, and we also add Chopin, of course played by Rubinstein, although Maurizio Pollini also appeared as an interpreter on some recordings, or Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, or the great Dino Ciani, who died far too early.

This particular preference might seem like a contradiction, because Stefania Longoni was a pragmatic person, without much frippery, very direct, and yet her taste in music suggests something quite different, namely a deeply romantic spirit. Perhaps this is the result of her years in Milan, where the young woman studied piano with her mother and discovered treasures in the poems of German poets such as Uhland, Klopstock, Müller, Brentano and, of course, Goethe. Her secret remained in the titles of the records, each of which she remembered, whose interpreters she could name and pass judgment on their performance. But she always preferred to listen to very specific authors, reciting them inwardly as veritable "mantras" before putting the records on.

With the sensitivity of a musician

As a child, Stefania heard her mother sing her mother's song repertoire, and she played the piano until she was eight years old, but did not feel ready to embark on a concert career. Music was always in her, however, and she kept it alive by listening to and getting to know great performers, whom she followed to concert halls all over Europe. The doctor, who put thirty thousand patients to sleep while holding their hands during anesthesia, compiled her music collection with the utmost care and expertise and remembered the many live concerts she had attended: Benedetti Michelangeli at La Scala, Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, Bernhard Haitink at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and then Bernstein, Pollini, Sokolov, Fischer-Dieskau, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe - all the names stood on the shelves like friends she could "call" when there was an urgent acoustic need.

As a child, she was lucky enough to meet Victor De Sabata, who was once a guest at her parents' house. She played something for him on the piano and received compliments, then she heard him at La Scala Tristan and Isolde and it was an unforgettable experience. But her idol among conductors was Karajan, about whom she read articles and biographies and from whom she collected entire boxes of Beethoven and Brahms recordings, but also of operas that shaped an era, such as the legendary Bohemian with Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti in their vocal prime. She loved watching the great video recording of Beethoven's Ninth with the Berliner Philharmoniker over and over again, repeating that no one else would be able to play it like that. She listened with the ear and sensitivity of a musician, not an amateur, grasping every nuance of the score and enjoying comparing different interpretations of the same piece.

The way inwards

Her passion for music was contagious, so much so that she also got her husband Emilio, who loved listening to jazz, to become enthusiastic about classical music and attend concerts with her. At the piano competition dedicated to Dino Ciani, Stefania Longoni had one of her most important encounters in the world of music - with the Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, then unknown and very young, who later became like a daughter to her. Angela came to Casa Bortoluzzi to practice in the piano room, especially in the spring and fall when she was on tour in Italy. Stefania accompanied her every year to the festival on Lake Trasimeno, which the artist organized, and never missed an edition until 2018. Her music collection included the complete collection of Angela Hewitt's recordings, which played a key role in renewing the doctor's passion for Johann Sebastian Bach, as the Canadian artist is one of his most important living interpreters. Stefania Longoni loved to travel, and not a trip went by without her taking the opportunity to hear a live concert, whether in Stresa, Amsterdam, Salzburg or Berlin, at La Scala in Milan or at the Metropolitan in New York. As she grew older, she became more selective and approached more introspective composers and works: Bach, the late Beethoven, Brahms, the late Schubert sonatas, some songs by Schumann, but also operas that she had perhaps heard less often when she was younger.

The music patron

Stefania and Emilio Bortoluzzi were patrons of music and supported the municipal music season in Varese from the very beginning, which was directed by Fabio Sartorelli, musicologist and lecturer at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan. Among other things, Stefania donated a lighting system for the concerts, bought various subscriptions every year, which she then gave to the people she cared about, and invited various musicians to the large house in Velate to rehearse, including Leonidas Kavakos and the pianist Enrico Pace, the violinist Vilde Frang and the young Beatrice Rana, who was still unknown on the international stage at the time.

Now the music collection that Stefania Longoni has lovingly compiled over many years is part of the library of the Fondazione Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, to be of use to those who deal with music every day. And when you look at the list of titles, the soul of the woman who left her mark on this collection is emphatically revealed, as in the large hall of the villa in Velate, where science always gave way to an intimate and personal conversation with infinity.

 

Mario Chiodetti is a journalist, actor and writer. He lives in Varese (I).

 

The landscape is perfectly flat around the hamlet of Nohant-Vic in the province of Berry in the heart of France. The proud manor house of the Dupin family stands there. Marie-Aurore de Saxe, grandmother of George Sand alias Aurore Dudevant, once bought it together with its farm, stables, small church and five-hectare park.1

Behind the house is a small wood with winding paths and an enchanted pond, a spacious garden with flower beds and a family cemetery. George Sand spent most of her life here. And some of the most important cultural figures of the time came and went here. Far from the hustle and bustle and dirt of the capital, they worked in peace and in inspiring company on groundbreaking plays, novels, compositions and paintings.

At the beginning of 1838, the poet Honoré de Balzac was inspired by this atmosphere. The rural life, which the bustling George Sand preferred, inspired creativity. But Nohant can also become boring in the long run, so music is needed. The lady of the house loves piano music. She plays the instrument herself, but there are no professionals in the house - preferably stars like Franz Liszt. "Quand Franz joue du piano, je suis soulagé [sic]. Toutes mes peines se poétisent, tous mes instincts s'exaltent. Il fait surtout vibrer la corde généreuse" (When Franz plays the piano, I am relieved. All my agonies are transfigured, all my instincts go into raptures. Above all, he makes the generous string vibrate).she wrote in her Journal intime on June 3, 1837, when Liszt and his lover Marie d'Agoult were visiting Nohant for months.

However, the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin and his intimate friend Wojciech Grzymała - who had long known Sand from the Parisian salons - did not yet respond to her urgent invitations. Meanwhile, Sand is visited by one past, one present and one future lover; they too are artists: Charles Didier, a Swiss journalist and writer, Bocage (Pierre-Martinien Tousez), a French actor, and Félicien Mallefille, a French writer born in Mauritius.2

Chopin's musical fragments over the garden

It was not until two years later that Chopin was able to enjoy a summer retreat in Nohant. After Sand, who was divorced and had been a single mother for years, invited him on a rainy winter trip to Mallorca, which had become famous, and his health had deteriorated dangerously, the little group (Sand's children and maid were with them) arrived at the country estate in June 1839. Chopin soon becomes bored. He missed his extravagant life in Paris, his friends and wandering through the salons late into the night. He implores Grzymała to visit him. Sand is also pleased to see him. She has long been on first-name terms with this co-founder of the Polish Parisian literary society and calls him "mon époux" - while she and Chopin always correspond with the formal "you".

She ordered a Pleyel grand piano for her "malade" so that he could work and play undisturbed. The doors to his study, padded for soundproofing, are still in place today. In Paris, Chopin's main occupation was teaching. mój młynhis "mill", as he somewhat cynically called it. For seven summers (1839, 1841-1846), Chopin was able to compose in peace in Nohant for months on end, and at a reasonable price - he himself could hardly afford such a feudal and extensive summer retreat, including good food.

He perfectionistically polishes his new works. "Il s'enfermait dans sa chambre des journées entières, pleurant, marchant, brisant ses plumes, répétant et changeant cent fois une mesure [...] avec une persévérance minutieuse et désespérée. He spent six semaines on one page to return to it as he had done with the first jet." (He locked himself in his room for days, crying, walking around, repeating and changing a bar a hundred times [...] with a painstaking, desperate persistence. He worked on a page for six weeks before finally returning to it as he had written it down in the first draft).3

Sands "hôte" (as she calls him in Histoire de ma vie) composes during the day, she writes at night and sleeps half the day. This "compagnonnage"4 The two of them get along well, but still go for walks together while riding a donkey.

Chopin remained in contact with his beloved friends in Paris by letter. He sent his trusted intimate Julian Fontana, for example, publishing commissions and more: "Écris-moi continuellement, trois fois par jour si tu le veux [...] Que mon chapeau soit prêt dans quelques jours. Commande immédiatement mes pantalons, ma petite Juliette [sic]." (Write to me all the time, three times a day, if you want [...] Whether my hat will be ready in a few days. Order my trousers at once, my little Juliette [sic]. 3.10.1839)

Chopin's family in Warsaw also received mail from Nohant. And also his old love in Poland, the musical farmer Tytus: "Woyciechowski vient de me conseiller d'écrire un Oratorio." (Woyciechowski recommended that I write an oratorio. 8.8.1839) Chopin never puts an oratorio on paper, as he immediately makes clear to his Tytus. During these summers, however, he completed one piano masterpiece after another: the eerie finale of the B flat minor Sonata, the B minor Sonata, the Ballade in F minor, the "heroic" A flat major Polonaise, the light and airy E major Scherzo with its yearning middle section and many more.

While Chopin composes, Sands teaches his daughter Solange and fills the entire house with his playing in the evenings, the "lady of the house" (as he calls her) constantly invites other cultural figures from her large family of artists to the Berry. For example, the painter Eugène Delacroix. He was also very close to Chopin and wrote: "Il arrive de la fenêtre ouverte sur le jardin des bouffées de la musique de Chopin qui travaille de son côté: cela se mêle au chant du rossignol et à l'odeur des roses." (Scraps of music by Chopin, who is also at work, waft from the window open to the garden: they mingle with the song of the nightingale and the scent of roses. 7.6.1842)

This eternal bachelor teaches Maurice, Sands' talented son. A studio is also set up for him, he is allowed to sleep in his grandmother's beautiful room on the first floor and spends a lot of time together with Chopin. "Jʼai des tête-à-tête à perte de vue avec Chopin, que jʼaime beaucoup, et qui est un homme dʼune distinction rare; cʼest le plus vrai artiste que jʼaie rencontré." (I spend an infinite amount of time together with Chopin, whom I like very much. He is a man of rare nobility and the truest artist I have ever met. 22.6.1842)

 After the soundscape comes the theater

The generous George Sand, who liked to wear men's clothes and smoke cigars, was an avant-garde author for her time as far as her themes were concerned. Gender identity can be fluid (Gabrieldedicated to Grzymała), and her heroines are self-determined (Lélia). In her private life, the novelist is attracted to both women and men; she is bisexual.5

The singer and composer Pauline Viardot is a permanent guest in Nohant, sometimes with her family. Sand had maternal feelings for her, as well as for Chopin, contrary to popular opinion and as she herself always emphasized: "mon fils". Passion plays no role in this partnership of convenience over the years.6 "Ma fille" Viardot makes music and improvises with him - musical magic moments at the Berry.

Selected friends of Chopin come to visit, such as the poet Stefan Witwicki and Grzymała a second time. At times, rooms became scarce because of all the guests, servants and domestic staff. "Le domestique de Chopin [...] est un polonais grave et stupide [...] On pourra le mettre à côté de la sellerie." (Chopin's servant [...], a Pole, is serious and stupid. We could put him next to the tack room. 8.4.1843)

At the end of 1846, George Sand decided to stay in Nohant for the winter as well and - without informing Chopin - gave notice to leave her apartment in Paris. After a disagreement, she and Chopin parted ways for good, and things suddenly became very quiet in the magnificent country house. Sand tries to make music herself, but this is no substitute for the former soundscape. "Je suis forcée de me faire de la musique à moi-même, ce qui n'est pas gai du tout [...] cela donne me à moi, les seules jouissances musicales que je puisse avoir ici". (I'm forced to make music for myself, which is no fun at all [...] that gives me the only musical pleasures I can have here. 5.3.1849)

The engraver and author Alexandre Manceau, Sand's passionate love, who lived with her in Nohant for fifteen years from 1849,7 unfortunately does not bring music into the house. But the performing arts do: he directs the new, in-house small stage, sets up an additional puppet theater for Maurice, and the performances become events for the "Berrichons" from the surrounding area.

Moritz Weber is a pianist and music journalist and has been with SRF Kultur since 2012. His research, "Chopin's Men", attracted worldwide media attention in 2020.

 

Notes

1 Anne Muratori-Philip, La Maison de George Sand à Nohant, Paris: Éditions du patrimoine, Centre des monuments nationaux, 2012, p. 4

2 George Sand, Correspondance (Éd. Lubin), vol. IV, Paris: Classiques Garnier 1968 (reprint 2013), p. 5

3 George Sand, Histoire de ma vieTome XIII, Chapitre 7, Paris: [publisher not ascertainable], 1855, pp. 130f.

4 Martine Reid, George Sand, Paris: Gallimard, 2013, p. 158

5 Martine Reid, George Sand, Paris: Gallimard, 2013, p. 101f.

6 Armin Strohmeyer, George Sand - A biographyLeipzig: Reclam, 2004, p. 105

7 Armin Strohmeyer, George Sand - A biographyLeipzig: Reclam, 2004, pp. 165, 197

Table of contents

Focus

You can plan everything except the weather
Interview with Lena Fischer about the Gurtenfestival

A little poetry in the city
Pianos stray into Geneva's public spaces in early summer

Summer freshness with George Sand
Chopin with the cultural elite of the 19th century as guests in Nohant
Link to the original German text by Moritz Weber

Hits for the swimming trunks
Hit songs that only succeed when heat, alcohol and libido trump good taste

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

Critiques

Reviews of recordings, books, sheet music

Echo

On theWay-with handover of baton
The Munich Biennale for New Music Theater with two Swiss co-productions

Cardew's "TheGreat Learning" in Basel
300 performers create a walk-in concert

Résidence Voix 2024
Golfam Khayam et Barbara Hannigan au Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

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)

 

Desired destination
Puzzle by Michael Kube

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