According to Gerald Mertens, Managing Director of the DOV, over 30,000 people are expected to attend the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's open-air concert at the Brandenburg Gate on August 24 under its new chief conductor Kirill Petrenko alone.

According to the DOV, 45,000 people attended the Opera for All with the Deutsche Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle Berlin on Bebelplatz in June 2019, 75,000 attended Luitpoldhain in Nuremberg, a further 50,000 attended the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in summer 2019 and almost 70,000 people attended Klassik airleben with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. 20,000 visitors are expected at today's hr-Sinfonieorchester Open Air in Frankfurt/Main.

However, according to the DOV, these several hundred thousand music lovers have not yet been included in any official attendance statistics, as admission to many large open-air classical music events is free. Even visitors to smaller professional classical music festivals or open-air concerts, concerts at music academies, many chamber music events, concerts in churches or at universities are not recorded statistically, explains Mertens. However, the available open-air attendance figures for this summer definitely show that there is a large potential audience for classical music - even beyond the summer season.

The church in Saanen is filled to capacity. Even in the frescoed choir room, where a brown Bösendorfer grand piano stands, the audience is seated. As soon as András Schiff plays the first notes of Johann Sebastian Bach's cycle The well-tempered pianovolume 1, the concert audience becomes a devout congregation. Many of the 750 concertgoers have closed their eyes to listen to the Hungarian pianist's subtle art of interpretation. András Schiff is not someone who reinvents the wheel. He likes nuances more than contrasts, develops one from the other and pays attention to the natural flow of Bach's music. He only hints at the basses in the D major prelude, while he plays the E flat major prelude as freely as a fantasy. The fugues are not spelled out, but always told in a larger context. Schiff also discovers the melody in the counterpoint and maintains the tension in this long journey through the keys until the acclaimed end.

Most of the concerts at the seven-week Gstaad Menuhin Festival take place in the churches of the Saanenland, allowing a special closeness between the performers and the audience. Since Christoph Müller took over the festival founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 2002, audience numbers have tripled. This year, two new halls - the church and the multi-purpose hall in Lenk im Simmental - have been added to the total of eleven concert venues. But the enterprising artistic director has also founded various academies to train young musicians in the fields of singing, piano, strings, baroque performance practice and conducting. The juxtaposition of up-and-coming artists and stars, intimate chamber concerts and large symphonic performances in the Gstaad Festival Tent, which can hold 1,800 listeners, is what makes this festival so appealing, according to the director of the second largest in Switzerland, which organizes around 60 concerts and has a budget of 6.7 million francs in 2019.

With only 120 seats, the chapel in Gstaad is a particularly small concert venue. As in the church in Saanen, the acoustics here are transparent and have hardly any reverberation, so that every musical detail can be followed. The hard pews demand a little asceticism from the audience at this one-hour morning concert - but it is rewarded. Franz Schubert's Sonata (Duo) in A major op. 162 is performed by Dmitry Smirnov and Denis Linnik with a simple tone and chamber music density. The two perfectly attuned young musicians lend Béla Bartók's rhythmically intricate first rhapsody the necessary colorfulness. Only in Robert Schumann's first violin sonata does one wish Dmitry Smirnov had a less pressed tone; the pianissimo opening of the second movement lacks mystery. But the weightless way in which the violinist at the top of the bow realizes the semiquavers at the beginning of the finale, with Denis Linnik at the piano following him like a shadow, rightly delights the audience.
 

The Saturday evening concert on the opening weekend reflects this year's festival motto in its program and line-up. Hervé Niquet has come to Saanen with his original Parisian ensemble Le Concert Spirituel to present music by the baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. With the festive sounds of the overture to Le Malade imaginaire Niquet begins the well-attended evening before giving a short introduction to the time of the Sun King in French. In German-speaking countries, Charpentier is only known for his Te Deum taken from the Eurovision anthem. When the choir and orchestra, as in the motet In Honorem Sancti Ludovici regis Galliae Canticum in fortissimo, the acoustics in Saanen church, which are ideally suited to chamber music, reach their limits. The brass bangs, the timpani roar. But apart from the overly sharp sound peaks, this predominantly homophonic music unfolds great charm, even if it is hardly dramatic. The many tonal contrasts in the motets and the alternation between the well-balanced choir and the slender vocal solos are well differentiated. The concluding, entirely dance-like Te Deum shows the sensual splendor of the French court.

The following evening, Sol Gabetta will also be performing the second cello concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns, a rarely performed work by a French composer. The Argentinian has been a regular guest in Gstaad since 2003. Her bright, flexible cello tone is well suited to the light solo concerto. The Basel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Bleuse, provides attentive and attentive accompaniment. Bruno Soeiro's four-movement composition Sillages, Sons de Parfums unfortunately lacks musical substance. However, it is also due to the lack of sophistication in the interpretation that the clouds of musical fragrance in this world premiere are not seductive. In Georges Bizet's Symphony in C major, on the other hand, the Basel Chamber Orchestra is on familiar ground. The warm string sound is enchanting, the agile woodwinds have grace. And the orchestra turns the virtuoso finale, reminiscent of Mendelssohn, into a real charm offensive.

The festival continues until September 6.
 

The 2017-2028 cultural strategy is the result of close collaboration between cultural stakeholders, politicians and the administration, writes the City of Bern. It was developed in a participatory process and, in addition to the concerns of the professional cultural sector, the demands of children and youth culture, cultural mediation, integrative and inclusive culture, the creative industries, neighbourhood organizations, cultural tourism and amateur culture were also taken into account.

In order to implement the strategy, objectives and measures will be developed for four years at a time. The 3rd Bern Cultural Forum marks the start of the participatory development of objectives and measures for the years 2021-2024.

After the forum, interested parties will have the opportunity to submit their concerns and suggestions at "cultural strategy afternoons" on September 16 and October 16 or directly to the administrative offices.

Born in 1967, Dominique Schafer, who has been honored with countless awards, studied composition at Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles. He was particularly inspired by Paul Reale, Mario Davidovsky, Bernard Rands, Magnus Lindberg, Julian Anderson, Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough and Chaya Czernowin. He himself taught composition at Harvard University and the University of Rhode Island. Most recently he taught at Chapman University in California.

In Switzerland, Schafer's work is primarily cultivated by the Bernese ensemble Proton. The collaboration began in 2014 with his work "Vers une présence réelle...". The ensemble recorded a portrait CD for the Kairos label. In 2018, Ensemble Proton also realized a portrait concert in his honour.

The ensemble has also been well-known in the European wind music scene since the Dutchman Johan de Meij conducted the aulos on its 20th anniversary ten years ago at the latest. In recent years, the orchestra has worked with renowned conductors such as Ivan Meylemans (2017), José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana (2012 and 2015) and Jan van der Roost (2014) and has regularly premiered works composed especially for the orchestra. Bert Appermont (2011, Symphony No. 2 Golden Age), Thomas Doss (2013, Horn Concerto Gjallarhorn) and Oliver Waespi (2015, Out of Earth) have written for the aulos. After a break of three years since the last commissioned work (Olivier Truan 2016, tuba concerto Second Wind), the aulos management has now commissioned the three Swiss composers Benedikt Hayoz, Daniel Schnyder and Fabian Künzli to each compose a work of around 10 minutes in length. But that's not all. The second part of the concert includes another commissioned work whose title more than does justice to the occasion. The Spaniard José Suñer Oriola has entitled his 4th Symphony quite simply Aulos Symphony baptized.

José Suñer-Oriola is one of the most promising young Spanish composers. He is a professor at the Valencia Municipal Wind Orchestra and conductor of the Albuixech Wind Orchestra. His compositions are played in many countries in Europe and America as well as in Australia, Japan and China.

As the name suggests, Oriola's 4th Symphony revolves around the aulos - in at least two respects. The main theme is a play on the letters of the word "aulos". Oriola has also based the theme on the orchestra. The first movement is dedicated to the birth and development of the orchestra, while the creative creation of ideas is musically realized in the second movement. After a calm third movement, the final movement is dedicated entirely to the festive occasion for which the symphony was written. As a tribute to the orchestra's origins, the composer has even included a reference to a traditional Swiss song.

The aulos is a project orchestra with around 70 members who come together for an annual concert tour. The semi-professional orchestra consists of around 70% professional musicians and music students. The aulos is only able to cover the large financial outlay for its elaborate projects thanks to the support of its own members and many private and public donors. A crowdfunding campaign was even launched for the anniversary, successfully raising the money for Oriola's symphony. For long-time aulos President Caroline Krattiger, the ensemble is "an affair of the heart", as she says herself. She has been involved in the organization with great dedication for 20 years and has also worked as concertmaster for many years. "I'm really looking forward to the double anniversary and am very proud of the development of the aulos. It's not often that a wind orchestra is allowed to premiere a symphony named after it".
 

For the aulos music commission, it was important to find a good mix between well-known and unknown composers and between Swiss and foreign composers when selecting the composers for the commissioned works, says Caroline Krattiger. Three local artists were commissioned with shorter works and Oriola with the symphony. Benedikt Hayoz from Fribourg came up with an unusual theme for his composition. In his approximately 10-minute work Recycling as the name suggests, music is recycled. Hayoz uses existing music - music that he likes and inspires him - as material to create something new. The sequences were rearranged and cast in a new musical form. The original is sometimes more recognizable and sometimes less. With this work, the composer wants to show how different musical styles and characters can be brought together to create something new that can also be perceived as a unity. The first of the two movements deals with a highly topical subject: the speed of digitalization. According to Hayoz, the second, calmer movement is a plea for the concerto. Hayoz also plays with tonal effects. For example, he will have several clarinet quartets play a chorale "off-stage" in the concert hall.

In addition to Hayoz, the young composer Fabian Künzli and the already internationally renowned Daniel Schnyder have also written a work. The latter has chosen an animal as the model for his commissioned work. The Elephant This is represented by the low instruments. According to the composer, the work is rhythmically very heavy and has Latin American and African roots. The aulos also contains jazzy elements. Schnyder, who has lived in New York for many years, is one of the most frequently performed Swiss composers of his generation. The integration of different musical styles - from jazz to classical and new music - is an important feature of Schnyder's work. In the field of wind instruments, he has written solo concertos for bass trombone and trumpet, among others.

Unknown in comparison to Schnyder, but no less promising is the young composer Fabian Künzli from eastern Switzerland. He has a special connection to the aulos, having been an active orchestral musician himself for several years. In his work Prism he wants to fan out the music, similar to the fragmentation of light in an optical prism. According to the composer, the focus is on transformation, the growth of new ideas from existing ones. Künzli also works with microtonality in his composition.
 

After mostly inviting foreign guest conductors in recent years, this year the aulos is playing under the direction of a Swiss conductor. "This was also a conscious decision by our music committee," says Caroline Krattiger. "After the last ten years with many international conductors, we deliberately wanted to go 'back to the roots' and opted for a Swiss conductor in 2019." And so Blaise Héritier, who conducts the top-class wind orchestra from Siebnen, will be at the conductor's desk for the anniversary. He currently also conducts the Ensemble de Cuivres Jurassien and the Ensemble Vocal EVOCA, a symphonic choir with 80 singers. Héritier is President of the Music Commission of the Swiss Wind Music Association and is dedicated to orchestrating classical and contemporary works for wind instruments and percussion. In 2013, he was even appointed ambassador for the canton of Jura.

This year's soloist David Rufer (trombone) is also from Switzerland. Harvest by American composer John Mackey is the only work in the concert program that will not be premiered, but it is no less worthy of mention. It is performed by a relatively small ensemble and deals with the myths and mysterious rituals surrounding the Greek god of wine, Dionysus. Rufer from Thurgau has been a member of aulos for many years and regularly plays in various Swiss orchestras such as the Bern Chamber Orchestra and the Sinfonietta Schaffhausen. He also played under Pierre Boulez in the orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy.
After this high-quality concert program in 2019, the scene can look forward to the further development of aulos. According to Krattiger, the aim is to be able to continue commissioning compositions in the future. "This is always a huge financial challenge for us," she says. But the anticipation of unforgettable concert moments makes up for all the work. We can only hope that this drive will remain with the orchestra for the next 30 years and beyond.
 

According to the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Gaffigan will "continue important projects of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra with undiminished commitment in the next two years as Chief Conductor and dedicate himself just as undiminished to the further development of the orchestra."

In addition to conducting his own concerts at the KKL Lucerne, several recording projects are about to be realized. International tours will also round off the James Gaffigan era. For example, he will conduct the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra's second residency at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago (USA) on August 19 and 20, 2019. To date, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra is the only Swiss orchestra to have been invited to perform at this renowned festival.

The pay-in system works with two exceptions, writes the Austrian Cultural Council: Firstly, the abolition of the daily minimum income threshold in 2017 has created a hole in the social security system in fields of work for which short-term employment is typical.

Daily employment up to the monthly low income limit is no longer considered full-time employment (even if the total monthly salary exceeds this limit) - unemployment insurance is no longer possible with such employment as things stand at present.

Secondly, unemployment insurance is de facto impossible for anyone who is not employed, as the current model of voluntary unemployment insurance for the self-employed is completely dysfunctional.

Original article:
https://kulturrat.at/agenda/ams/20190814

Since 1 August 2019, the former Graduate School of the Arts has been integrated into the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities (GSAH) as the Studies in the Arts (Sinta) doctoral program. The previous Master of Research on the Arts no longer applies, but students from art colleges will in future have to complete requirements of 30-60 ECTS, which they will discuss with their two supervisors from the university and BUA. The new supervisor is Michaela Schäuble, her deputy is Thomas Gartmann.

The Sinta are a cooperation between the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Bern and the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Department of Bern University of the Arts (HKB). They are aimed at both researching artists and academics who are interested in artistic practice. They are characterized by a combination of different humanities and social science as well as artistic disciplines and thus promote research and reflection, particularly with regard to artistic practices, creative and aesthetic issues as well as the connection between art and science.

Steffen Schorn, musical director of the ensemble since 2014, is relinquishing his leadership role to become composer in residence. After five years, during which Schorn has significantly and audibly shaped the sound of the band, and a joint CD production, the orchestra is now looking for a successor.

There will be candidate concerts for the search in the coming season: Ed Partyka has worked with the ensemble several times and should therefore not be missing from the shortlist. David Grottschreiber has made a name for himself as the competent leader of the Lucerne Orchestra, which was founded in 2007 by young up-and-coming jazz musicians. The Danish saxophonist Lars Møller combines jazz with influences from Indian music, among other things, and has been leading various big bands for a good ten years. Tim Hagans is quite rightly regarded as the doyen of the quartet and can look back on an extremely successful international career since the mid-1970s.

According to international media reports, the Universal Music Group is valued at around 30 billion euros. The agreement is also expected to include further strategic cooperations. Universal Music also owns Deutsche Grammophon.

Tencent, the eighth most valuable brand in the world, operates the music streaming service Tencent Music in China, in which Spotify also has a stake. The French group Vivendi, which is to be split up, wants to sell up to 50 percent of its stake in Universal Music.

"erstKlassik am Sarnersee" is the chamber music festival with soloists from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Top-class musicians perform in the canton of Obwalden and are on first-name terms with the audience. The new format with musical encounters with regional artists and a special themed concert introduction for schoolchildren will be continued this year.

The 2019 festival has the motto "Ladies First" and is dedicated to female composers to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896).

Walking concert
What began two years ago with a pilgrims' concert will continue this year as a "traveling concert": This time, after a first concert with early music by Hildegard von Bingen and J.S. Bach, the route leads from Flüeli to Sachseln to the Bruder Klaus Museum, where the oboe trio with Heinz Holliger will play a second concert.

On the train that takes me home, I suddenly hear the Ranz des Vaches. A fellow passenger has obviously recorded this part of the performance and is now watching or listening to it. The other passengers smile in their tiredness: recognition, memory. Memories of the Fête des Vignerons performance they have just experienced, which only takes place once a generation. Remembrance too - the pensive attention of the 20,000 spectators and, more poignant today, the countless cell phone lights held high in the arena have just shown it - of something that we recognize as our own and yet is far away, so that longing arises. Homesickness in a way.

The fact that it is about remembrance and passing on traditions is also evident in the characters that form the central theme of the two-and-a-half-hour stage festival: The girl Julie is in the vineyard with her grandfather and experiences with him the course of the seasons, the development of the vegetation, the work on the vines, the events of life as a winegrower. Julie soon meets a figure in historical garb. "Je suis la mémoire", she introduces herself. It is the chairman of the Cent Suisses, a troupe of a hundred mercenaries who returned home from European courts around the time of the first winegrowers' festival. Like the aforementioned shepherd's song, which resounds down from the alpine pastures above the vineyards, they are an integral part of these performances: Strands of memory through the centuries.

This is the 12th edition of the Winegrowers' Festival since 1797. Every twenty years or so, the Confrérie des Vignerons organizes such an event, at the heart of which is the crowning of the most meticulous winegrowers. Among the thousands of participants, around thirty will be taking part for the fourth time: Periods that unquestionably give rise to a certain solemnity.

Photo: Samuel Rubio/Fête des Vignerons

The Chairman of the Cents Suisses with Julie

However, the Fête des Vignerons 2019 is not always the same celebration of old traditions, but is extremely contemporary, not only because of the stupendous technology, especially the huge stage floor made of LED components, which literally "underscores" the scenes. In the grape harvest scene, chrome steel tanks and harvest crates made of yellow plastic become instruments in a large percussion happening. The early summer work on the foliage develops into an unleashed cancan, performed in a variation of traditional Vaudois costume, the straw hats in bold red, the skirts lined with rustling ruffles: palpable energy. And the Cent Suisses, these guardians of the past, are joined by hundreds of women.

A total of 5600 amateur performers play and dance at the festival, 900 members of choirs from all over the region sing along, school choirs have been brought together, as have local brass bands. The director is Daniele Finzi Pasca from Ticino, who is known from Cirque du Soleil among other things; his images have the craziness and poetry of the circus. Their effect is supported by the texts by the Vaudois authors Stéphane Blok and Blaise Hofmann: often more associative clouds of concepts than action. Nevertheless, the focus is very clear: the here and now celebrates what is, what was and what will come, the "fleeting life", supported by an equally contemporary, holistic view of viticulture, society and the foundations of life.

Like a healthy vineyard, this performance is populated by animals: Ants, grasshoppers, butterflies, dragonflies, starlings. The musicians in particular appear in insect costumes. However, there are not very many of them, most of the instrumental music is recorded. A large live orchestra would probably also be unhappy with the acoustics, because despite the great effort, the sounds falter when there are sharp draughts of air. The compositions by Maria Bonzanigo, Valentin Villard and Jérôme Berney model the stage situations with catchy motifs, lively changes of time signature and striking repetitions. They make it swing and carouse, parade and ponder.

Photo: Samuel Rubio/Fête des Vignerons

The harvest in the lively vineyard as a percussion happening

"La vie va trop vite," says Raoul Colliard, the oldest of the shepherds, before the Ranz des Vaches resounds. He is one of those who are experiencing their fourth and therefore probably last Winzerfest. His grandfather sang the song as a soloist at the 1927 edition. In 2019, his sons and grandchildren, and perhaps even great-grandchildren, will be there. So life doesn't just move (too) fast, it also renews itself. That is one of the insights to be gained here. In the picture "J'arrache", young gymnasts from the area perform volleys of daring jumps and next to them, disabled athletes form pyramids. With their strength, they all point to the vigor with which old vines are repeatedly uprooted and new ones planted: Making room for the next generation!

And when the Ranz des Vaches is also sung by the children's choir and by Julie alone, then that is perhaps a little didactic. But ultimately, this is exactly how traditions are passed on. The Trois Docteurs, humorous characters who appear again and again and, for example, dissolve the emotional mood after the shepherd's song into laughter by obsessively directing the most modern cleaning machines to the places where the cows' droppings lie, these three swear the participants and audience, especially the young ones among them, to the future at the end, to the next wine festival: "Vous y serez, au rendez-vous?" That wouldn't even be necessary. Traditions that are filled with life are not lost.
 

The Fête des Vignerons continues until August 11:
www.fetedesvignerons.ch/de/
 

According to the BVMI, the court states, among other things, that the phonogram producer's right in this context is entirely in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Copyright Directive and that sampling can constitute an infringement if it is carried out without consent. According to the ECJ, sampling can only fall under artistic freedom if the sampled audio fragment has been altered and is not recognizable when listened to. Musical quotations, on the other hand, are only permissible if there is an explicit artistic examination of the quoted work.

The ruling relates to the legal dispute between the group Kraftwerk and music producer Moses Pelham, which has now been going on for around 20 years. In 1997, the latter had used a striking rhythmic sequence from the Kraftwerk song "Metall auf Metall" for a track sung by Sabrina Setlur. Over the past two decades, several courts, including the Federal Court of Justice twice, had ruled in Kraftwerk's favor until the Federal Constitutional Court overturned the rulings in 2016 as unconstitutional and referred them back to the Federal Court of Justice, in particular with regard to doubts about compatibility with EU fundamental rights. The BGH then referred the case to the ECJ for review.

Douglas Bostock is the new Artistic Director and Chief Conductor in Pforzheim. At the start of the 2019/20 concert season, the British conductor, who lives on the island of Reichenau on Lake Constance, will take over the orchestra founded by Friedrich Tilegant, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2020. Bostock prevailed against 114 competitors. 

Douglas Bostock was most recently Principal Conductor of the Swiss symphony orchestra Argovia Philharmonic from 2001 to 2019. Further stations in his career have included the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic, the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.
 

For a long time, a dripping tap had soaked through the historical holdings of the cathedral music stored in an archive room without anyone noticing. Several centimeters of water had accumulated on the floor. The historical sheet music presented itself with mold stains, washed-out ink and curled paper when it was first recovered.

Musicologist Elisabeth Hilscher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and her students from the University of Vienna worked for two semesters on the restoration of the historical sources, which were expertly examined, professionally cleaned, documented and cataloged. This means that all of the music will soon be moved to their new location in the cathedral archive, where they will be professionally stored and made accessible again for research and musical practice.

Among the most valuable items now restored are hymns from the late 17th and early 18th centuries as well as copies of works by Georg Reutter the Younger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn and his brother Michael Haydn from around 1800, which were in use in the cathedral for several decades.