A Chinese double victory
The 5th edition of the Basel Composition Competition (BCC) from January 30 to February 2, 2025 was once again an exciting encounter with new orchestral compositions. 255 works were submitted by male and - a few - female composers aged between 15 and 91.
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.
