At the beginning of 2018, the Winterthur Civil Defence Organization parted ways with its figurehead, the ZS Big Band Winterthur. The Reto Parolari Orchestra (ORP) wrote this in a letter. It has worked with the ZS Big Band for 25 years, whether as part of the U-Musik festival or in joint concerts.

The ORP would like to preserve the ex-ZS Big Band in its current form under the new name ORP Big Band. However, it cannot do this with its own funds. It has therefore launched a fundraising campaign and is hoping for a lot of goodwill and support.
The next performance is planned for November 2019 under the title "An Evening at the Circus".

Further information and contact via www.orchester-retoparolari.ch
 

Download payment slip (PDF)
 

The Zurich Center for Creative Economies (ZCCE) is to become an internationally leading center of excellence in research, teaching and consulting. The ZHdK has been successfully positioning itself in this field for around 15 years. The ZKB is funding the initiative with a total of CHF 1.9 million over the next six years. This will enable existing ZHdK initiatives to be linked and a professorship, a senior fellowship program and support programs for start-ups and spin-offs at the interface between studies and the job market to be established.

If the ZCCE establishes itself successfully, the ZKB will support the university with further contributions of CHF 1 million until 2024. A prerequisite for this is that further partners and funding are acquired. The ZHdK asserts that the partnership between the ZKB and ZHdK "in no way impairs the freedom of teaching and research". Academic freedom has been contractually confirmed. The Zurich University of Applied Sciences Council has approved the collaboration.

The creative industries combine future-oriented sectors and form an important part of the labor market for ZHdK graduates. It is therefore of strategic importance to the university. With innovative companies and a dynamic start-up scene, Zurich is a national and international hotspot for the creative industries. Around a third of Swiss added value is created in the canton of Zurich.

The Rhön-Klinikum Campus Bad Neustadt and the Swiss University Center for Music Physiology SHZM invite you to a first joint training event for musicians on May 24 and 25, 2019 in Bad Neustadt. The main focus of the event will be practical workshops on group-specific bodywork and stress management in everyday musical life. New strategies for the prevention and treatment of profession-specific problems will also be presented and discussed. The new cooperation model "Health at the Meiningen Theater" will be presented as a learning interdisciplinary model project. The flyer for the event can be downloaded at

https://www.campus-nes.de/presse-aktuelles/veranstaltungen/fort-und-weiterbildungen.html

62 percent of those who responded to the survey use professional music reviews regularly. Four out of five music lovers believe that reviews should be constructive, respectful, open-minded and impartial. A well-founded assessment is also expected. Around two thirds of classical music fans like to read comparisons with other recordings, and just as many are persuaded by a clear and gripping description.

The online survey conducted by the research team from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of Sheffield, which was published on German and English-language web platforms between January 2017 and March 2018, was answered by 1,200 people from 62 different countries who listen to classical music regularly or occasionally, ranging in age from 17 to 85.

More info: https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/hochschule-luzern/ueber-uns/medien/medienmitteilungen/2019/01/28/rezensionen-spielen-grosse-rolle-fuer-liebhaber-klassischer-musik/

When the String Quartet op. 80 in F minor is examined more closely as the first work and leads to the question "Why does the minor gender predominate so conspicuously in the instrumental area (...)", the author is moving in the area of his earlier publication from 2015, Music and farewell. There he had united astonishing insights in a series of works from the Middle Ages to the present under the common aspect of death. Mendelssohn's Opus 80 irritates us in its ruthlessness towards form; it was composed shortly after the death of his sister Fanny - and a few months later he too died. With this structure, Gülke wants to counter the verdict of "perfectionism" and "smoothness" right at the beginning, which is still used against Mendelssohn in descriptions of his works today. And he ends this section with the sentence: "This early death is also one of the catastrophes of music history."

Gülke does not avoid the questions, he even provokes them immediately when he is not with the octet and the music for the Midsummer Night's Dream The composer does not continue with the works that are popular and recognized today, but uses the Piano Sonata op. 6 and the String Quartet op. 13 by the not yet twenty-year-old to point out independent references to great role models. His talent for analyzing and yet vividly describing the course of the music proves itself even where he "only" limits himself to (for him) conspicuous details, which, however, always lead to an illuminating individual insight.

With the cryptic Schumann quote as a subtitle, which he completes on the very first page, "He is the Mozart of the 19th century, the brightest musician who sees through the contradictions of the time most clearly and reconciles them first", Gülke focuses on the composer's significance for the period of 'Romanticism'. At the same time, he points out the difficulties in assessing his oeuvre as a whole and his biography: "Mendelssohn remains a hot potato."

The privileged family situation, the sensational early talents of the siblings Fanny and Felix, the one-sided encouragement of the boy and the associated blocking of his sister's creativity are presented in an unembellished way, as are Felix's numerous sacred works, which were intended to prove the seriousness of his conversion to Christianity, but which were then to be realized with the two oratorios St. Paul and Elias but showed that he did not want to favor any of the religions - from his Reformation Symphony he distanced himself and did not release them for printing.

The most extensive chapter, "Im schönen Zugleich von Kunst und Religion" ("In the Beautiful Simultaneity of Art and Religion"), concentrates on this area of sacred music, where Gülke wants to pinpoint the contradictions most clearly: "Many compositions, complementary to the Reformation Symphony and to the Hymn of praiseseem like attempts to undermine the spiritual/secular distinction from the secular side." And elsewhere: "Nowhere in Mendelssohn's works do reception and evaluation contradict each other as sharply as in sacred music." Gülke therefore devotes the most detailed examination of his works to the two oratorios, but points out: "In trying to listen as deeply as possible to Mendelssohn's music, we risk understanding him differently than he wanted to be understood."

Peter Gülke: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, "Der die Widersprüche der Zeit am klarsten durchschaut", 139 p., with illustrations and bibliography, € 29.99, Bärenreiter/Metzler, Kassel/Stuttgart 2017,
ISBN 978-3-7618-2462-7

Brand new and yet already showing clear signs of use! Not that I read it through in one night, but I took this book out again and again, read it chapter by chapter, consulted it. This is not a conventional history of music, which compiles facts clearly and concisely and thus fixes them somewhat too clearly, but a reader. It's not just a matter of having sound knowledge (which is a necessary prerequisite), but at least as much about the selection made and how the parts are combined and presented. Conveying music history based on the latest findings, satisfying for connoisseurs but also understandable for laymen, is an art. A team led by the two editors Tobias Bleek and Ulrich Mosch takes us on a journey through twelve centuries, from 800 to 2000. Yes, even more, it starts in antiquity and extends into recent times. Pop music 2.0 is also included - as well as our changed listening habits.

Let us stop here briefly at that extravagant ars subtilior around 1400, which was soon replaced by sweeter English tones. The book does not present it to us as hopeless mannerism, but as music that sought to express emotional and creative nuances through the means of notation, construction and intertextuality - at a time when Europe and, above all, the Church were divided. All this is vividly told, fortunately with the courage to tell an enlightening anecdote, because music history also consists of stories. The illustrations not only illustrate, but complement. Inserts outline technical terms and highlight further details. Every teacher will find plenty of material and inspiration here. So-called U-music appears as well as - less frequently - non-European music. At the same time, sociological, political, media and technical aspects of music are also taken into account. Finally, there is even a chapter on music distribution on the internet. The only drawback is that the paper is quite heavy and smells a little strong. But otherwise the book is warmly recommended for use.

Tobias Bleek / Ulrich Mosch (ed.): Music. A journey through 12 centuries, 397 p., numerous illustrations, € 34.95, Bärenreiter/Henschel, Kassel/Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-7618-2233-3

Why not get to know the late Baroque harpsichord suites, which cannot quite compete with those of Bach and Handel? There is no doubt that this genre is a species that died out from 1740 onwards and was no longer used in music for the fortepiano, but piano players also benefit from knowledge of such literature, which was probably still part of the repertoire of the later so-called classics. The discovery of 26 previously unknown suites (Parthien) by Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770), the Viennese organist and imperial music teacher and son of the violinist and organist Georg Muffat (1653-1704), in the holdings of the Berlin Singakademie, which were returned from Kiev in 2001, is tantamount to a sensation.

The harpsichordist Glen Wilson has published five of them for the first time; a sixth was previously available in Christopher Hogwood's edition (Ut Orpheus, 2009). This shows that it is worthwhile studying this composer, who has so far been known mainly thanks to his 1739 works under the title Componimenti musicali printed eight suites. The six new suites, which have only survived in manuscript form, can compete in terms of extravagance, scope and technical demands with the Componimenti but Gottlieb Muffat proves himself to be an expert in the various musical languages of the time, all of which he integrated into his preludes, dance movements and character pieces.

We must be grateful to the editor for his careful discussion of Muffat's ornaments in the preface and main text, which contribute greatly to the brilliant effect of these pieces. Most players would probably need similar assistance with the arrangement of the endings and the insertions of so-called "petites reprises", which require solutions that are not necessarily found in the notes. Muffat was known for his consistent division of the notation between the two playing hands or staves. Fortunately, Wilson has retained this in modern clefs (G2 instead of C1). However, it remains problematic when two rhythmically identical figures in the same bar take up unequal amounts of space in modern engraving (e.g. in the Ballet of the A minor Suite) and notes that are not played simultaneously are almost directly above each other in both staves (e.g. Adagio, Allemande of the D minor Suite). The original print of Muffat's Componimenti musicali would teach us how to print music in a beautiful and user-friendly way even today.

Gottlieb Muffat: Six Suites for Harpsichord (Clavier), first edition, edited by Glen Wilson, EB 8904, € 26.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, 2017

With "Bestiaire" for clarinet and piano, the French clarinettist, music teacher and composer Alexis Ciesla has created a versatile and fascinating work for advanced beginners. The three-movement work appeals with its accessible musical language, which makes use of a wide variety of styles and techniques and uses them skillfully. The first movement, "Klapperschlange", plays with the harmonic minor scale and uses techniques such as trills and flutter tonguing or a special notation for an accelerating three-note figure. Both players have to create a short cadenza. The second movement, entitled "Koi Carp", with its sparkling semiquaver accompaniment in the piano, is based on Japanese music and requires both players to create a flowing musical design with long melodic arcs. As a special technique, the clarinet incorporates a note that ends as an air note. "Foxes" is the title of the third movement and stands for a lively and cheerful foxtrot swing. Although the entire movement is fully composed, in the middle section the composer gives the clarinettist the choice of playing a 16-bar improvisation instead and specifies the appropriate scale.

While the first and second movements offer plenty of opportunity for musical interpretation with differentiated articulation, varied dynamics and long phrasing arcs, the third movement focuses above all on precision in rhythmic realization and swing phrasing.

Alexis Ciesla: Bestiaire for clarinet and piano, ADV 8117, € 18.95, Advance Music (Schott), Mainz 2017

Henle-Verlag has recently published the most important works of horn literature by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and others in Urtext editions. The new edition of the Morceau de Concert by Camille Saint-Saëns is, like the previous ones, excellently edited and provided with a foreword by the editor Dominik Rahmer, which provides detailed information about the special features of the piece. It was composed in 1887, at the time of the transition from the natural horn to the valve horn and is therefore of instrumental-historical significance. It was not easy for composers and horn players of the time to say goodbye to the natural horn and the transition to the valve horn was a smooth one. Henri Chaussier, the hornist at the premiere, therefore designed an instrument in which a valve block was fitted to the natural horn. This allowed him to switch to valve horn within the piece. Chaussier gave very detailed introductions to this system before concerts. The findings of this performance practice can or should also be taken into account on our modern instruments.

Camille Saint-Saëns: Morceau de Concert in F minor op. 94 for horn and piano, edited by Dominik Rahmer, HN 1284, € 13.00, G. Henle, Munich

The sextet was composed in 1924 for Janáček's 70th birthday Mládí as a suite in the rare instrumentation for flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn and bassoon. He added the bass clarinet to the classical wind quintet, which is strongly rooted in Czech music. Although the bass clarinet has a similar range to the bassoon, it is capable of a very idiosyncratic colorfulness, oscillating between noisy roughness and mysterious murmuring, and here it brings an even darker foundation to the work. The registers are now divided into two balanced descant, middle and low registers. The strong character of the individual instruments, with their oscillating tonal oscillations in the transitional areas of the registers, contribute greatly to the fascination of this work, which repeatedly recalls the opening passages of Sacre du Printemps where the same instruments dominate.

Transferring this score into the rather monochrome world of the string quartet with its homogeneous sound is a risk, as the arranger, the composer Kryštof Mařatka, notes self-critically. It is fair to say that this unusual but excellently crafted work is a new piece, which in turn has much in common with Janáček and his original string quartets. The first quartet, Kreutzer Sonata, was created in 1923 before Mládíthe second shortly before Janáček's death. In both, he uses instrumental and musical techniques that are unparalleled by other composers and make these works icons of expressionist classical modernism. It goes without saying that Mařatka studied these scores thoroughly and even took the liberty of incorporating some of the techniques he found into his string arrangement, even though the source material for wind instruments naturally does not contain them. This freedom of transformation may be criticized, but it makes it possible to bring the piece into the aesthetic proximity of the string quartets and to give it an originality that is modelled on Janáček. Fortunately, such experiments are no longer frowned upon as a matter of principle today, adding a new "little" family member to the canon of Janáček's quartets that is well worth hearing.

Leoš Janáček: Mládí / The Youth, arranged for string quartet by Kryštof Mařatka; parts, BA 11543, € 19.95; study score, TP 521, € 19.95; Bärenreiter, Prague 2017

The Basel composer Ernst Levy (1895-1981) first became widely known as a pianistic child prodigy. In the first half of the 20th century, he was even regarded as one of the most important pianists. He also received recognition as a music theorist, but his compositional output, which includes 15 symphonies as well as numerous pieces of chamber music and piano works, was hardly appreciated. In the USA, he pursued a university career as a professor of piano, which meant that he was not forced to compose in a particularly market-oriented manner and to take care of the performances of his works. The Sonata for flute and piano was created by Levy in 1932, but it was not premiered until 1939 at a concert in Carnegie Hall in New York with the composer himself at the piano.

The sonata, which consists of one movement and lasts just under 17 minutes, contains the classic three-movement structure in the order fast-slow-fast and is typical of Levy's compositional style, which he describes as follows: "The main characteristic of a sonata, which is inherent in its concept, is that of becoming, of development. We are not, so to speak, the same at the end of a work as we were at the beginning."

After an elegiac flute solo at the beginning, a gripping triplet motif is heard, which is accompanied by pulsating triplets from the piano. This is followed by cantilenas in both instruments, which are interwoven and imitate each other. It is interesting that the 4/4 meter written at the beginning is constantly changed so that, as the editor Timon Altwegg describes it, it soon seems like an ironic joke and a "constantly changing, quasi inhaling and exhaling musical organism" emerges from it. In the middle of the sonata follows a slow section with delicate piano passages and a cantilena by the flute, which is only sporadically accompanied by chords. It leads into a bold final section entitled "Vivo e leggiero", in which the opening motif is heard again in the flute shortly before the end of the piece.

With this sonata, Ernst Levy has created a multi-layered and interesting work that deserves a place in today's concerts.

Ernst Levy: Sonata for flute and piano, edited by Timon Altwegg, first edition, BP 2803, € 14.00, Amadeus-Verlag, Winterthur 2017

Especially if we don't have much experience with improvisation ourselves, we find it difficult to integrate this enormously enriching field of learning into our lessons. However, Thomas Silvestri's series Piano-Vamps for Improvising (Vol. 1-3) has provided me with wonderful material that has given me many new impulses and ideas for my lessons. The pieces are all based entirely on his teaching practice and only offer as much explicit theory as is necessary to get into playing quickly. Short ostinato bass figures (vamps) are presented in the booklets, which can be improvised on. The corresponding scales (major, minor, blues scale, pentablues scale etc.) are deliberately listed separately in the last part of the booklets with the intention of memorizing them first and making them your own. There are also many typical "patterns", which should be practiced as building blocks and can later be incorporated into improvisations. The aim is to build up a repertoire of good-sounding phrases and to get a feel for the different keys over time. Also highly recommended are the suggestions on how individual keys can be practiced not only as a so-called "scale", but also how, using the keyboard pattern as a guide, you can start on any note in order to diatonically transpose small motifs, intervals or chords of the scale, for example. As a result, the scales are increasingly viewed as a "tone reservoir" that starts somewhere and ends somewhere, as is naturally the case when improvising.

Also with www.silvestrimusic.ch have appeared Jazzy Tunes for Piano-Soloin versions for beginners to advanced players. These are collections of "jazzy" piano pieces, many with an improvisation section. The booklet in the intermediate difficulty range (Intermediate Vol.1), for example, offers numerous tips on scales and patterns in addition to the pieces. The author also shows how to create an improvisation sketch with notated and free passages. The individual pieces can be listened to as audio samples using a QR code.

Thomas Silvestri: Piano-Vamps for Improvising Vol. 1, Blues, Funk, Jazz, Valse, Tango, Pop, Bossa, Classic, Choro, Flamenco ... and more; booklet Fr. 20.00; PDF Fr. 10.00; self-published by Thomas Silvestri, www.silvestrimusic.ch

Guitarists Raoul Morat and Christian Fergo studied with Frank Bungarten at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, where they also joined forces to form a guitar duo. The duo formation can open up much more piano literature to the instrument than the solo guitar, for one obvious reason: as the guitar soloist only has one hand to produce the sound - he has to shorten the strings with the other - he lacks the harmonic and contrapuntal richness of the two-handed piano literature. However, two guitars ensure lossless reproduction of the piano part. The two have already ventured into Schubert's works in 2016, when they performed a Winter journey-cycle. So now Impromptus, Moments musicaux and Valses sentimentales, which will have appealed to many a guitarist. One of the Moments musicaux was already arranged by the important guitarist Francisco Tarrega in the 19th century. Now Morat and Fergo are presenting an entire collection of these character pieces, probably not entirely coincidentally on an Austrian label called Challenge Records.

At first you are a little startled: the first Impromptu from Schubert's Opus 90 begins in the original with a quadruple octave G in fortissimo. This sounds rather pathetic on two guitars. However, the further the guitar duo Morat-Fergo work their way through the musical text, the more you get caught up in the maelstrom of the music and the more and more you are fascinated. The guitars have a wealth of sound techniques at their disposal, harmonics, vibratos, pizzicati, the sounds of different positions of the plucking fingers and so on. The Lucerne duo uses them wisely and extremely tastefully to make Schubert's music iridescent in all its colors. The result is a filigree, transparent sound that makes the selected pieces appear delicate, but also modern.

The duo thus expands the repertoire of the instrument, which is truly not blessed with high-quality works from the late classical and early romantic periods, in an extremely convincing way. They strive for additional historical rootedness by recording the pieces on copies of guitars from Schubert's time. However, this hardly guarantees that the pieces are contemporary, even if the sound of the historical instruments can point to the time when the originals were written. However, it can be assumed that these piano works would have sounded strange if played on guitars at that time. The appeal of the arrangements lies in general interpretative and creative principles, rather than in efforts to make historically-informed music. The result is convincing because it illuminates the music in a timeless and intelligent way. The two recorded the CD in a concert hall at Marienmüster Abbey, partly financed by crowdfunding.
 

The productivity of violinist Sebastian Bohren is almost unstoppable. By his own admission, he strives to approach a piece interpretatively in such a way that it ideally "sounds as it is". In the case of Dmitri Shostakovich's Sonata op. 134 (1968) also extends the framework for this.

Originally set for violin and piano and written for the violinist Igor Oistrakh, the piano part was later transferred to a large string orchestra plus percussion. A legitimate trick. Above all, however, it was an undertaking to which Sebastian Bohren and the Camerata Zürich under the direction of Igor Karsko devoted themselves with delightful playfulness at a concert in Brugg's Stadtkirche. This live recording for Sony Classical bears witness to this.

Shostakovich's Opus 134 is both a psychogram and a tonal document of the times. In 1968, the composer was also living in a climate of fear and oppression, and was also under the influence of the violent suppression of the Prague Spring. Conducted in a sparse twelve-tone sequence, the first movement no longer provides any emotional refuge due to the lack of a basic key. The second, fast movement unleashes a ghostly dance of death. The final movement then seems like a reduced conclusion - with idiosyncratic variations on a stoic passacaglia and cleverly adapted baroque borrowings.

The performers of this new recording are united by an audible desire for objectifying clarity: Sebastian Boren's playing stands at every moment as a shining fixed star at the center of the brilliantly captured sonic events. His tone radiates all the more forcefully from an inner calm and testifies to deep spiritual concentration. Often cool and lacking in vibrato, he condenses a laconic gesture in the exposed solo parts, but also claims an unshakeable sovereignty in the most heated, virtuosic outbursts. The Camerata Zürich, with its cuttingly precise and at the same time sensually breathing interplay, creates the best conceivable sound environment for the commendable undertaking of bathing Shostakovich's stirring late work in a "rejuvenated" interpretative light.
 

Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata op. 134 for violin, percussion and string orchestra. Sebastian Bohren,