Desire for discovery and expansion

Patrizio Mazzola, who lives in Bern, is one of the few pianists in Switzerland who has regularly championed music by female composers for many years. No sooner had he recorded the flute sonata by Mel Bonis (Mélanie Bonis) on CD with Kaspar Zehnder than this composer appeared repeatedly in the programs of his concerts. He also remains loyal to her in the third edition of the Femmusicale festival, which was founded in Bern in 2014. Her sonata for cello and piano op. 67 will be performed together with works by the German Rheinberger student Luise Adolpha Le Beau and Nadia Boulanger in a concert in Bern under the somewhat offbeat motto "Ne rien va femme" (November 18, Aula NMS).

Miniatures in the run-up
In contrast to this program, which focused on three outstanding female composers, Mazzola aimed for the greatest possible diversity for the festival opening with the Czech violinist René Kubelík. With "Songs without words" in the deviating French formulation "Poèmes sans paroles", the Festival Femmusicale expanded to the Small Hall of the Tonhalle in Zurich for the first time. The oversupply of pronounced miniatures and other small-format pieces showed the danger of fragmentation. With 17 pieces by 14 composers ranging from Chopin's predecessor Maria Szymanowska-Wołowska (1789-1831) to Ruth Dürrenmatt (*1951) and Jan Fila (*1982), the two musicians presented an anthology-like selection of works that was strongly reminiscent of Mazzola's CD Idyll and refuge with short piano pieces by 25 composers, all of which have a different connection to Switzerland (Gallo 1422).
However, the short compositions by Judith Cloud or Nancy van de Vate, for example, were too short to illustrate the individuality of their authors. As varied as the concert was, with five world premieres and a very high level of creativity, ultimately more heart and soul went into the interpretations than money into the box office. The overloaded concert program, which lacked a common thread, was probably the main reason for the low attendance. The actress Céline Beran stood in the way of conveying information about people and works with a presentation style that was too fast and often barely comprehensible. This information would probably have been more effective in printed form.