SJMF Burgdorf 2019 vs. St. Gallen 2023: Musicians draw conclusions

The 2019 Swiss Youth Music Festival in Burgdorf and this year's in St. Gallen were two very different experiences. In 2019, we got to experience more of the festival. We were allowed to play a concert in the square before our jury performance and after our performance we heard another performance by a youth symphony orchestra from Ticino. We also attended the prize-giving ceremony afterwards, as this took place on the same day. Everyone gathered in a marquee for this and Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga even gave a speech. This year we "only" played our jury performance and then went out to eat together. We saw a few other groups from the festival walking through the city or playing in at the recording venue, but nothing else. The ranking ceremony in St. Gallen was only on Sunday, which is why we didn't go there. 

Our skills have definitely improved over the four years. Playing a piece like Kabalevsky's piano concerto would have been unthinkable in 2019. We couldn't even tune properly back then (the wind players tuned in several small groups one after the other instead of all together) and were generally even less confident. This improvement is also visible in the jury evaluations. The reviews go into much more detail. In 2019, it was more basic things such as bowing and voice leading that were found to be in need of improvement; this year it was more phrasing or timbre.

Performance without recording

Even our clothing and therefore our presentation have changed. In Burgdorf, we still wore black and white. Almost everyone simply wore black trousers and a white top that they could also wear on the train, so it was rather plain. This year the dress code was all black. Most people took their concert clothes with them as they were not suitable for train travel. Many wore a shirt, a suit or a dress.

We think that our improvement was also the reason why the acoustics in the Tonhalle St. Gallen caused us so many problems. As we weren't allowed to record there beforehand, we had no idea what the acoustics would be like and how loud or quiet we would have to or could play to make it sound balanced for the audience. We also barely heard each other. The strings were barely audible to the winds (while we were playing ourselves) and the strings couldn't all hear each other either (especially the cellos and violins). In addition, hardly anyone who was further back than the second or third
The result was that we were not always together with the soloist (according to the jury's assessment). That really stressed us all out, but it also shows how much we have become accustomed to listening to each other and forming a harmony instead of just playing our own voices.

You have to be flexible at the SJMF

In terms of organization and communication, St. Gallen was not ideal. Starting with the fact that there was no piano in the gymnasium where we could play. This meant that we had to play without the soloist and he could only sit at the grand piano in the Tonhalle a short time beforehand. We weren't told beforehand that we could only take the sheet music and unpacked instruments into the Tonhalle. Theoretically, we should even have unpacked at the Olma, but none of us knew that. Nor that we were only allowed to sing after they had announced us on stage. We had the impression that the organizers didn't have that much experience with symphony orchestras, which is probably due to the fact that this is only the second time that they have been allowed to participate in the SJMF. However, one of our fellow players, who still plays in a brass band and has already taken part in the festival several times, said that these "problems" are normal and that you just have to know how to help yourself. We simply don't have the experience with such festivals.

We didn't experience any such complications in Burgdorf, but perhaps special care was taken there to ensure that we were well received and informed, as it was the first SJMF for symphony and string orchestras. 

All in all, most of those who were there in 2019 have better memories of Burgdorf in terms of the festival itself. But our skills and our team spirit are definitely better now than they were then and we think that's ultimately the most important thing.