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

Ammann has been working on this concerto for four years, with interruptions, and has been commissioned by several renowned orchestras and festivals: the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival, the Tongyeong International Music Festival and the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto.

The orchestral writing is for the internationally sought-after Dieter Ammann his favorite playground. He knows how to explore the many colors and structural relationships with great imagination. He knows how to combine energetic dynamics and harmonies balanced down to microtonality with surprising dramaturgy.

After several successful orchestral works such as glow (2014-2016) and Turn (2010), Ammann ventured into the concertante genre. The traditionally heavy genre of the solo concerto suits his idea of virtuosity and the subtle probing of the solo instrument. It is also always about the battle between solo instrument and orchestra.

The piano concerto Gran Toccata (2016-2019) and the concerto movement for violin and chamber orchestra unbalanced instability (2012-2013) is now followed by the viola concerto no templates (no templates). For Ammann, composing has always been "a long journey into the open". Anything can happen at any time during the course of a piece. The only constant is the constant change "from smooth transition to rupture".

Struggling for the soloist position

The possibilities of the viola are radicalized in this concerto. The solo part moves mainly in the lower ranges, creating new colors. "There's something archaic about the low notes that I like," he says. The fact that he also concentrates on the lowest string is a great challenge as a soloist. "I'm attracted to the low register of the lowest string because this is the spectrum that I didn't have in my violin concerto and I really like hearing the viola down there."

But does the viola have any chance at all of being heard in the orchestral sound? Only now and then. Nils Mönkemeyer fought for his solo position over long stretches with rhythmic drive and virtuoso power. You could see it, but you could hardly hear it. Then the solo voice emerged, only to disappear again soon afterwards. The solo instrument conducted a multi-layered, varied dialog with the orchestra. This resulted in a dramaturgical inner tension, but the ear often sought the dark viola sound in vain.

The Basel Symphony Orchestra faced the soloist with a large orchestra and a rich percussion section. Ammann's finely networked, harmonically always "unstable" music demanded chamber music qualities from the performers. Under the confident direction of Fabien Gabelwho showed a great sense of tonal refinement, the Basel musicians succeeded in a precise and powerfully dynamic interpretation.

Play with fifths

The beginning is particularly original. The soloist begins with pizzicati on all four strings, as if he were tuning his instrument. First he plucks a C sharp on the C string, followed by the perfect fifth. This makes the two lowest strings seem out of tune at the beginning. Another diminished fifth is followed by two perfect fifths. This is how Ammann plays with fifths. He also suggests an "imaginary" fifth string. The composer develops the rest of the piece from the fifth at the beginning and thus ventures into an undisguised tonality. The interval plays an important structural role and appears both melodically and harmonically.

Ammann reflects the tempered tuning in certain chords. These "zones of tonality" are exposed to different states of (in)stability and confronted with very different tonal atmospheres. Microtonality, such as he used in the piano concerto with spectral harmonics, still occurs. This is subtly done and makes you sit up and take notice.

Lawsuit in a high position

Nils Mönkemeyer was only allowed to soar into the higher registers in two exceptional cases. He made truly magical moments out of them, once from the end of the cadenza (Cadenza II, into the open). It is a "citational lament" in which a Schubert song appears. With this lament, Ammann commemorates his composer friend Wolfgang Rihm, who recently passed away. This concert is dedicated to Rihm and Ammann's family.

Mönkemeyer lifts this passage into another sphere with heartfelt devotion and subtle tone. His spiritualized musicality is also revealed at the end of the concerto. The viola sound slowly rises, all on its own, with purely intoned harmonics up to the highest heights. It is beguiling - just like the beginning: a great idea. The audience was enraptured and gave everyone involved enthusiastic applause.

 

Due to current developments, the topic of "exile" gained relevance far beyond Basel - also through the biographies of the musical personalities presented, who fled the Holocaust or died in concentration camps in Germany. "Exile" became tangible as a "celebration of the diverse encounters between Jewish music and Western art music", and inevitably also the extremely sensitive membrane between critical competence and anti-Semitism.

A good example of the knowledge and awareness processes initiated was the Late Night Concert by pianist Denis Linnik, a recipient of the Mizmorim Young Talent Grant. In the Teufelhof, he played the Burlesques op. 31 by Ernst Toch, long forgotten after his American exile, a Intermezzo by Arthur Lourié, who positioned himself between Scriabin and Stravinsky, and the early sonata by Leo Ornstein, who presumably died in 2002 at the age of 106. Such discoveries are the energy and ambition of the Mizmorim Festival. The compositions revealed different creative qualities.

In addition to established concert venues such as the Druckereihalle Ackermannshof, concerts were held in the Kunsthalle Baselland, which opened in 2024. With the exception of the launch concert in Zurich, this was the first time the Mizmorim Festival had been held outside of Basel.

Curator Erik Petry from the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Basel, whose students included Mizmorim director Michal Lewkowicz, is particularly interested in linking program design to the history of the 20th century. Barbara Häne, also a Petry alumna, summed up after her tour of "Exile in Switzerland" at the Jewish Museum Basel: "Anti-Semitism does not end at the border." In this respect, an appreciation and localization of the Mizmorim Festival based solely on criteria of interpretation and the quality of compositions is definitely not possible, always including global migrations of Jews and regional factors. At least this applies to the compositions written before the millennium. The composition competition for the 2026 festival, supervised by violinist Ilya Gringolts with the motto "Jerusalem", looks to the future, as do the concerts especially for young audiences.

Revered opening evening

There was little success with the performance composer Janiv Oron. His main contribution was announced as a world premiere at the opening of the festival in the Musiksaal of the Stadtcasino. The rude piece Histoire du soldat by the long stateless Russian exile Igor Stravinsky proved to be a striking interface to the Mizmorim motto. Oron's sound designs, however, inflated the small cast with reverberation effects and clouded over the finale of Stravinsky, a cosmopolitan who was not entirely blameless with regard to anti-Semitism.

The Swiss Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz transferred the fairy tale from the Russian Afanasyev collection to his home country in 1917 and arranged it for three speaking roles, a dancer and a chamber ensemble with an exposed violin (ideal part for Ilya Gringolts). In 1975, the new building of the Theater Basel opened with the German translation by Mani Matter, which was also used for the Mizmorim performance. No director was named for the semi-staged performance, in which the stalls remained empty for a long catwalk and the audience looked down from the balcony at the enervating island situation of the princess and the soldier who had married her. The profound introduction by Heidy Zimmermann at the Paul Sacher Foundation, which is making Stravinsky's estate accessible, had heightened awareness of the extraordinary significance of the work. Incidentally, Stravinsky gave the finalized autograph score to the Winterthur patron Werner Reinhart in gratitude for his help.

Far-reaching modernity

The Mizmorim idea was realized far more convincingly in the following days. The second string quartet by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, who was born near Krakow and works as a professor at the Vienna Academy of Music, proved to be a brilliant compendium of modern compositional techniques when interpreted by the Gringolts Quartet. Last season, Haubenstock-Ramati's Kafka opera America in Zurich with sensational success. The Sacher Foundation will also receive the materials for the production.

The world premiere of the duo, which has already been heard in Zurich, showed affirmative wildness sh'nayim levad (leàn?) - two alone (where to?) by the composer in residence Hed Bahack (born 1994). Ilya Gringolts and viola virtuoso Lawrence Power enhanced the vitality of the work, in which Bahack suggestively threads together the extreme values of interpersonal communication, from fear to the experience of crisis. Bahack's piece is also a performative event - like Mark Kopytman's October Sun for voice, flute, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion (1974). In this Swiss premiere, the Mizmorim Festival Ensemble also showed the organized aimlessness of the composition, which meanders in all voices and many styles with atonal fortissimo rebellions.

The exciting thing about the Mizmorim Festival was not only the foray into unknown musical realms with contributions by Jews in exile, whose traces were often lost in the migratory movements of the 20th century. Listeners were faced with the challenge of balancing the conscious perception of historical conditions with an unbiased openness to the musical experience.

On March 20, 2025 on SRF 2 at 8 p.m. in the program In the concert hall a cross-section can be heard:

https://www.srf.ch/audio/im-konzertsaal/mizmorim-festival-2025-ein-rueckblick?id=AUDI20250320_NR_0023

 

Stefan Escher comes from a family of musicians and has been very familiar with the music scene as an artist agent and concert organizer for 15 years. From 2015-2019 he managed the Meisterinterpreten concert series at the Tonhalle Zurich and since 2020 he has been responsible for international instrumentalists and conductors as an artist agent at IMG Artists. He also has experience in banking and holds a Master's degree in Arts Management. The Board of Trustees is delighted to entrust Stefan Escher with the management of the Foundation and wishes him every success and pleasure in his new role.

Stefan Escher succeeds Valerie Probst. She will leave the SJMW as Managing Director at the end of February 2025 to pursue new challenges. In her 18 years as Managing Director, Valérie Probst has played a key role in shaping the development of the SJMW with great commitment. Under her leadership, funding projects were implemented that opened up valuable opportunities for the award winners and enabled them to gain lasting experience. Valérie Probst has always been a reliable and inspiring companion for the next generation of musicians.

The Board of Trustees very much regrets her departure and would like to thank Valérie Probst for her many years of extremely valuable work on behalf of young musicians in Switzerland and for her constructive and successful collaboration, and wishes her all the best for the future and every success in her new endeavors.

The Board of Trustees is now chaired by Andreas Wegelin, CEO of the SUISA Cooperative Society of Music Authors and Publishers in Zurich.

It was already clear before the actual event that no Swiss composer would win the first prize of 60,000 francs in one of the world's most lucrative composition competitions. The twelve composers whose works were selected and presented to the public in three concerts in the Paul Sacher Hall of Don Bosco Basel came from Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia, Greece and the People's Republic of China. The jury, which had the task of selecting what they considered to be the twelve best works from the huge number of entries, consisted of Michael Jarrell, Augusta Read Thomas, Liza Lim, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini and Florian Besthorn, the director of the Paul Sacher Foundation. Christoph Müllers Artistic Management GmbH and his team organize the BCC.

 After the three competition concerts, the jury selected five works for the final concert, which were played again and from which the prize-winning works were chosen. In view of the fact that there are stars among contemporary female composers such as Unsuk Chin, Olga Neuwirth, Kaija Saariaho and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, whose works are frequently performed, it was astonishing that only one work by a woman was selected and performed. The reason given for the paltry proportion of women was the small number of works submitted by female composers.

Night, colors, birds

In the end, however, it was the extremely shy 25-year-old Chinese composer Qianchen Lu, currently still a student of Shen-Ying Qian in Shanghai, who not only won the inaugural Audience Award of 5,000 Swiss francs, but also the first prize in the Basel Composition Competition. Her Nine Odes to The Night based on poems by T. S. Eliot are intended, according to the composer, to depict the vagueness and fluidity of nocturnal impressions and to capture the blurring and transformation of the night before finally disappearing into uncertainty. The densely woven band of sound, perhaps a little too long, fascinates with its distinctive timbres and poetic moods.

Even more imaginatively orchestrated was The Gaze of Mnemosyne. Four Afterimages for Orchestra by her Chinese compatriot Erqing Wang, who studies with Annesley Black at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Each orchestral section contributes to an extraordinarily colorful whole in this work, which won 2nd prize and was a great pleasure to listen to. The piece is a real homage to the music of Debussy and Ravel, which is also present, perhaps over-present, through quotations.

Less convincing Bird in Space by the Spaniard Ramón Humet (3rd prize). Like Messiaen, the composer is fascinated by birdsong, in this piece by the South American turpial. Humet imagines that a small bird begins to sing in a huge cathedral. An interesting idea, but one that doesn't carry the piece and makes it seem drawn out.

Among the non-award-winning works, there were some that were original and appealing or at least interesting, such as the pointillist music painting punctum contra punctum by Jona Kümper, the effective Macabre Carnival by Aurés Moussong or the powerful eruption of sound Flowered Fluidity by Carlos Satué, which is constructed according to complicated mathematical principles.

Basel's musical life is strong in performance and communication

The Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Tito Ceccherini, the Basel Sinfonietta under Pablo Rus Broseta and the Basel Symphony Orchestra under Roland Kluttig interpreted the consistently difficult works with commitment and at a high technical level. The fact that there are three orchestras in a city the size of Basel that can play the most demanding contemporary compositions is not a matter of course. All the nominated works were recorded on video and later published on the BCC's YouTube channel.

The concept of the BCC also includes cooperation with the music academy and grammar schools in the region. Students from the college work on pieces by jury members in workshops and present them in pre-concerts. This year, very well played pieces by Liza Lim and Augusta Read Thomas could be heard throughout. Axis Mundi for solo bassoon (2012/13) by Liza Lim with sounds of this instrument that had hardly been heard before was given a benchmark performance by Timm Kornelius. During the week of the competition, various composers each visit a school class that has already specifically studied their work and new music in general.

According to a statement from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) The discography of the award-winning pianist includes Ragna Schirmer "currently 18 CDs, 2 DVDs and 2 vinyl recordings with an extensive repertoire ranging from baroque music to contemporary works. Ragna Schirmer performs worldwide with her own historical keyboard instruments or on modern concert grand pianos. Unusual projects and theater productions staged for her also reveal the pianist's dramaturgical skill with which she embeds her programs in historical contexts." As a teacher, she focuses on "body and self-awareness, performance training and overcoming stage fright as well as developing interpretations with attention to detail. Promoting the individuality of the students is a particular concern of hers."

"I am delighted to return to my 'alma mater' as a lecturer and to pass on my experience to the next generations," says Immanuel Richter to his new position at the ZHdK. He completed his studies (teaching, orchestral and concert diploma) at the former Zurich Conservatory with Claude Rippas. According to the ZHdK press release, the award-winning musician has worked as a solo trumpeter in various Swiss orchestras and in the orchestra of La Scala in Milan with renowned conductors. "As a sought-after soloist and chamber musician, he can regularly be heard on European stages. He has taught trumpet at the Lucerne School of Music for many years."

The Netzwerk Junge Ohren writes that the "survey is intended to provide information about professional contexts and fields of activity, it examines the requirements and framework conditions of music education and explores the effects of the professional field on personal decisions and social potential."

The data is collected anonymously online.

Further information and link to the questionnaire

The Lucerne School of Music has announced that Francesca Verunelli will join the Department of New Music, Composition and Theory from the spring semester of 2025. The internationally renowned composer will enrich the Lucerne School of Music with her wide-ranging experience.

Andri Hardmeier will take over as Director of the Institute for Classical and Sacred Music on March 1, 2025. In addition to many other professional positions, he was Head of the Music Department at Pro Helvetia for many years and thus brings with him "outstanding knowledge of the musical profession and the funding landscape".

Link to the HSLU report Andri Hardmeier

Link to the HSLU report Francesca Verunelli

Table of contents

Focus

I invite the listener into my head
Interview with Francesco Biamonte about music and language

In search of words for what is felt
"The Listeners" talk about the music after concerts

Pop, black on white
For Hanspeter Künzler, it is a certain "Je ne sais quoi" that motivates him to report

The discotheque (at Zwei) - a private listening club for everyone
Carte blanche from Moritz Weber

Chatting about ... podcasts
Susanne Stähr and Ulrike Thiele exchange ideas

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

Critiques

New releases Sound carrier, Websites, Sheet music

Echo

With Bruckner's Third to Rome
The newly founded Swiss National Orchestra made a guest appearance at the Vatican on its first trip abroad

The future orchestra with a past
The Junge Deutsche Philharmonie is regarded as a pioneer of self-governing orchestras. In Basel, it performed a work by Daniel Schnyder for the first time.

Stored and unleashed time at the Dampfzentrale Bern
The Ensemble Proton and the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain venture a sonic tightrope walk with Enno Poppe's cycle "Speicher 1 - 6"

Penser d'abord à ce qui nous fait vibrer
The HEM de Genève et Neuchâtel celebrates its quinze years. Béatrice Zawodnik makes the point with us and imagines the future.

A Valaisan in America
Ludwig Bonvin, an almost forgotten Swiss composer and musicologist

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)

 

Dixit Sixtus
Puzzle by Chris Walton

________________________________________

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

 

 

The Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (JDPh), nicknamed "the orchestra of the future", celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. A small group from the German National Youth Orchestra founded their own formation in 1974, as the young people did not want to join a professional orchestra. At the time, the established classical music business had a bad reputation among many students. The new orchestra was to be grassroots democratic and self-governing and clearly set itself apart from the encrusted concert life. Lothar Zagrosek, principal conductor and advisor to the JDPh from 1995 to 2014, called this a "late weather glow of the 1968 movement". Today it is "a dream destination for orchestral musicians and conductors alike to be invited there". (JDPh Magazine Clock generator 55, S. 8)

Despite all the prophecies of doom, the co-determination model has established itself as an alternative form of organization in the classical concert business. Similarly functioning formations such as the Ensemble Modern, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Ensemble Resonanz, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Basel Sinfonietta have been highly successful for years. The members of the JDPh work in various committees on the future of the orchestra, the programs and the selection of conductors and soloists. The proposals are discussed and voted on at the general meeting.

 

Located between study and work

Today, the JDPh is highly sought after by students at German-speaking music academies as a training orchestra, as it performs at the highest artistic level and with top-class conductors and soloists. Many professional orchestras value the training they receive at the JDPh and are happy to make use of its graduates. Among the many successful former members are names such as Thomas Hengelbrock, Jun Märkl, Stefan Dohr and Sabine Meyer. The current 280 members aged between 18 and 28 from 35 different universities are subject to a strict selection process: 10 to 15 percent of the 500 applicants who come to audition each year are accepted, initially on a provisional basis. On average, they stay for 4 years.

There are currently 5 members from Swiss universities. The program focuses on the symphonic literature of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. This is performed during the spring and fall tours. At New Year, the focus is usually on a lively program with several shorter works. Another focus is contemporary music. The "Freispiel", a biennial experimental festival, took place for the last time last summer in Frankfurt with 13 concerts under the title "Shifting Futures".

 

Today it's all about jobs

What has remained of the idealistic goals of that time? Jürgen Normann, one of the founding members, was principal double bass of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Hanover for more than four decades. "Did we really achieve anything?" he asks himself looking back. Opinions are divided, he says, because "some of the bad traditions from back then still exist". (ibid. p. 9) But the world keeps turning and professional realities are changing. Jonathan Nott, First Conductor since 2014, classifies the members' aspirations: "While they still value self-management and grassroots democratic organization, they also want jobs, they want into the business, perhaps in opposition to what some of the founders had fought for." (ibid. p. 22)

The high turnover and the involvement of everyone in the responsibility remains one of the great strengths of the JDPh. Media manager Johanna Kehl says: "The JDPh reinvents itself every time. The self-determination of our members, who actively take on and are responsible for the design of the programs and concert formats, creates a special energy and the freedom to develop and try out innovative ideas."

This special energy could be felt immediately at the "Celebrations" concert on January 9. "The pioneer of self-managed orchestras" created enthusiasm and a good atmosphere among the audience. Delyana Lazarova conducted with wit, swing and precision. The program with Copland, Gershwin, Bolcom, Bernstein and Daniel Schnyder was characterized by a pluralism of styles between classical, new music and jazz. Despite the large instrumentation, the string sound always remained lean and vivid. Brass, woodwind and percussion featured prominently throughout, for example in William Bolcom's Concerto Grosso with the stunning saxophone quartet Kebyart. In Daniel Schnyder's complex Concerto for Orchestra (premiere, commissioned by the JDPh), instruments that are normally neglected such as tuba, bass trombone and contrabassoon are given important motivic solos.

Over the last 300 years, the string quartet has established itself as the "premier class" of string instruments, writes the Yehudi Menuhin Forum in its press release of January 12. Today, it is a versatile musical genre in various musical styles for professional musicians and amateurs alike. This is why the Forum wants to place an emphasis on this area.

The "Streichquartett Bern" begins with the Vogler Quartet Leipzig on January 17 and 18 at the Yehudi Menuhin Forum in Bern. There will also be further offers for participants and listeners.

Further information: menuhinforum.ch

Depending on the class, different subjects are affected by the cuts. According to a message from the Online portal Sardona24.ch From next school year, there will only be one music lesson in the sixth primary school class. Previously there were two.

In other classes, there are fewer lessons in French, English or Nature, Man and Society. In the upper school, there are no lessons in the core subjects and electives.

These cuts could reduce the heavy workload on classroom teachers. The decision to reduce their workload by one lesson was made in summer 2024.

The St. Gallen Cantonal Teachers' Association criticizes this decision in its communication of January 8. The decision was made purely for financial policy reasons without prior consultation with school stakeholders. It is a delicate savings decision with which the St. Gallen government is jeopardizing the quality of education in the canton.

The Swiss Music Council is working with the member associations involved to develop a strategy to ensure that the "high-quality music lessons" required by the Swiss constitution (BV67a, para. 2) and enshrined in the curriculum actually take place in schools and are not cut for reasons of cost-cutting or other reasons. A steering group will be constituted on January 22 to this end.

 

What exactly is meant by memory? A hard disk? An old farm building? Or perhaps the human brain? Questions of this kind accompanied us on this winter evening in the Kesselhaus of the Dampfzentrale, where the next special feature was immediately waiting - 22 instruments were ready on stage, including a harp and two large percussion instruments. We waited even more eagerly for the first sounds and were surprised once again by a solo viola, which searched for fixed pitches for almost minutes with endless glissandi.

In this work for large chamber orchestra, composed between 2008 and 2013, each of the six Memory an independent soundscape that is characterized by its specific atmosphere and musical language. In it, Poppe develops a world of contrasts: from gentle, lyrical passages reminiscent of quiet meditation to powerful and rhythmic outbursts that shake up the audience. The music is not always easy to understand, and it often takes the listener down new emotional paths. At the concert, you could suddenly feel how the sounds changed the mood in the hall; sometimes to concentrated attention, often to exuberant cheerfulness.

How time flies

A central aspect in Memory 1-6 is the play with space and time. Poppe stretches and compresses the musical flow of time. This creates a feeling of constant movement and change that inevitably captivates the listener. The individual Memory can be understood as different spaces, each with its own perspective on the passing of time. Sometimes it seems to stand still while the sounds expand endlessly, then again the action accelerates into a brilliant ride into the unknown. The combination of traditional orchestral instruments with occasional electronic elements creates a unique soundscape that is both familiar and strange at the same time. Poppe manages to build a bridge to different musical epochs and at the same time develop a completely new musical language.

His cycle is a challenging piece that requires a high degree of technical skill and interpretative precision. In addition to virtuosity, it also requires the musicians to have a keen understanding of the complex structures and subtleties of the composition. The two ensembles fully met these requirements on this evening. Under the direction of the German conductor Gregor A. Mayrhofer, who acted with impressive authority and clarity, the performers succeeded in giving a performance that emphasized both the structural sophistication and the tonal diversity of the work. Together, they ensured that the dense, sometimes brittle textures were never overwhelming, but always remained precise and transparent.

How order and chaos are connected

Memory 1-6 developed into a dialog between the musicians, the audience and, to a certain extent, the composer over the course of around 70 minutes. With this cycle, Poppe invites the audience to listen actively and to engage fully with the music. It is important to him not to send any interpretative hints in advance, no conceptual clues should predetermine the experience. The results are as surprising as they are individual. Often various synthesizers seem to howl or wail at the same time, sometimes the strings sound like scattered data carriers in the last moments before their disintegration; and again and again the sounds seem like a subtle representation of the interaction of order and chaos.

The Dampfzentrale boiler house, clad entirely in black, once again proved to be a fitting venue. The acoustics were suitably dry, the lighting perhaps a little too contrasting at times. Nonetheless, the venue also seemed to easily add this performance to its now rich storehouse of contemporary art.

 

The performances took place on December 17 and 20, 2024 in Bern and La Chaux-de-Fonds respectively. Concert excerpts will be published on YouTube at a later date.