In this 15-minute French-language work, Arvo Pärt explores the temptation of Abbot Agathon. He meets a leper who asks him to take him into town to do some shopping. However, the leper has no money. In the end, the abbot buys him a cake and brings it back. Suddenly the leper disappears from his sight and in the end reveals himself to be an angel of God.

Pärt conducts the dialog in short motifs consisting of three to four notes. The pauses in the conversation illustrate the fear of infection, which was widespread for a long time. Lepers were largely excluded from society and lived in great loneliness. The choir is assigned the task of narrator, and this in monophonic form. The soloists take on the pleas of the leper, symbolizing the voices from above. The string orchestra is made up of two violins, four violas, three cellos and a double bass. The uncertain mood between the dialogues is bridged in an exciting way by the string orchestra.

Arvo Pärt, L'Abbé Agathon, for soprano, alto, choir SA and string orchestra, study score (French/English), UE 34672, € 26.95, Universal Edition, Vienna 2011

Although the organ music occupies only a marginal place in the oeuvre of Bach's second eldest son, its typical "Empfindsamkeit" can be seen as exemplary of the stylistic development from the late Baroque to the Classical period - or, depending on your point of view, of a painful loss of quality in organ music in its "decadent" phase.

17 years after the publication of the first Urtext edition with the six organ sonatas, a second volume is now available in the same format, containing the "smaller works" in their entirety for the first time. Until now, they were only available in partial editions. Of the six fugues - some of which Marpurg quoted as examples in his theoretical textbooks - the one in C minor (preceded by a short fantasia) stands out in particular. Its tempestuous gesture is somewhat wistfully reminiscent of the compositional daring that the composer ventured in his other keyboard music, but mostly denied himself at the organ. A curiosity is the chorale prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, which expands Johann Sebastian Bach's well-known Orgelbüchlein chorale with "sensitive" preludes and interludes.

In addition, the volume contains (alongside other works such as the well-known Preludio in D, a trio and five chorale movements) a series of pieces for musical clocks and barrel organs, some of which are extremely delicate in terms of playing technique and expand the genre of "flute clock pieces" in a welcome way. A convincing interpretation of all these works places high demands on the player's creative and articulatory imagination. The exemplary preface, the comprehensive critical report, several alternative versions and the interpretative notes by Gerhard Weinberger - a brief summary of the relevant information from Bach's Experiment on the true way of playing the piano - provide the necessary information and also give suggestions for the realization of some passages that are only hinted at chordally.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Smaller Works for Organ (Complete Organ Works II), edited by Jochen Reutter, UT 50149, € 24.95, Wiener Urtext Edition (Universal Edition/Schott), Vienna 2012

The Langnau Jazz Nights are more than just a jazz festival: the evening concerts in the Kupferschmiede with top international musicians are complemented by a jazz workshop for adults, the Junior Jazz Workshop and the International Junior Jazz Meeting. The aim of this event is to promote young musicians, make music together, perform in front of an audience and exchange experiences among the participants.

The International Junior Jazz Meeting, a "festival within a festival", aims to give young musicians up to the age of 26 the opportunity to come together with established jazz musicians and international stars in an informal and uncomplicated way.
More detailed information and registration forms are available at www.jazz-nights.ch to find.
 

The European Forum on Music will be held in Glasgow from April 18 to 21. Right at the beginning, the Youth Day young people up to the age of 30 who are active in all areas of European musical life, from administration to music education, music creation and performance. In workshops, topics such as fair internships and teaching, working in Europe and self-marketing, lifelong learning and further education opportunities in Europe will be explored.

The national music councils are invited to delegate representatives from their country to the Youth Day and the Forum. As part of the forum, the Youth Committee newly elected. Candidatures can now be registered.
 

The Government Council has approved funding for the following projects: For the
Stiftung Christlich Jüdische Projekte, "Tent of Abraham" project, for 2012 and 2013 (CHF 50,000) and for the organization Imagine / terre des hommes schweiz, implementation of "Imagine 2013 - the youth festival against racism" (CHF 50,000).

The Inforel Basel association will receive CHF 40,000 for the development of an electronic guide "Christianity in Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft", while the Klangraum Riehen Marlboro association will receive CHF 25,000 for the chamber music festival in fall 2013 at the Landgasthof Riehen.

The Reso - Tanzwerk Schweiz, Zurich is being supported with CHF 19,000 for the dance festival on May 4 and 5, 2013 in Basel and the Med Kultur Zentrum and Schweizerische Kurdische Gemeinschaft Basel, Kulturwiege for a Kurdish exchange week for peace at the end of February 2013 with CHF 15,000.

Urfer's Märli-Theater Basel, summer production 2013 "Kasperlis grosses Abenteuer" receives CHF 15,000 and the FoyersBasel association receives CHF 10,000 for a history project in 2013.
 

Applicants, whether solo musicians or bands, choose a song from rock history and cover or interpret it in their own way. They send the recording as an audio or video file together with their biography to the organizers by 31 May 2013. The organizers will select five finalists, with the main focus on the personal interpretation of the song presented.

On August 24, the Rock Music Contest will take place at Werdenberg Castle, where the five finalists will perform the original and cover versions of their chosen song. The jury - Daniel Fäh (concert promoter), Armando Bianco (journalist), Michael Sele (musician and producer) and Thomas Schifferle (program director of Radio Grischa) - will decide who will be awarded live performances or a day in the recording studio.

Information and registration form: www.schloss-werdenberg.ch
 

The new Werkjahr is endowed with a net sum of 80,000 Swiss francs and is awarded every two years to Swiss composers who contribute to Swiss music creation with innovative projects.

The aim of the Werkjahr is to support the musical careers of the beneficiaries by enabling them to concentrate fully on their musical work for the duration of the Werkjahr.

The exact work year period will be determined in consultation with the beneficiary composer. SUISA members with Swiss citizenship or a permanent residence permit are eligible to apply. Candidates must also not have reached the age of 40 at the time of their application.

More info: www.suisa.ch/de/fondation-suisa/werkjahr/
  
 
  

In the letters, Liszt comments on Wagner and Chopin and complains about a lack of public appreciation. Also on sale is an eight-page handwritten booklet by Liszt from 1832 with piano exercises for his pupil Valérie Boissier.

Hôtel des Ventes estimates the value of the Liszt documents to be at least 9750 francs. The letters come from the collections of the Szigeti and Magaloff families and the Geneva musicologist Robert Bory.

The auction will also include manuscripts and letters by Bartok, Brahms, Puccini, Viotti, Wagner, Dukas and others.

More info: www.hoteldesventes.ch/fr/ventes

The Austrian group was removed from the list after the Berlin band MIA, which was also nominated, threatened to withdraw if Frei.Wild were offered an Echo platform.

The Phono Academy explainsThe nominations were based on the evaluation of the charts. "In order to prevent the Echo from becoming the scene of a public debate on the subject of political views", the board "decided after intensive discussions to intervene in the rules of the award" and remove the band Frei.Wild from the list.

According to the media service Meedia Fans of the group, which is considered right-wing extremist - an accusation that Frei.Wild itself firmly denies - sparked a shitstorm on the Internet, albeit against the British singer M.I.A. instead of the Berlin group due to a mix-up.

As the German newspaper "Der Westen" writesthe far-right German party NPD has announced a vigil at the Echo awards ceremony on March 21 in protest against the removal of the nomination.

As TOBS writes in its press release of March 8, Artistic Director Dieter Kaegi is delighted to be able to continue his long-term collaboration with the current Artistic Director of the Biel Symphony Orchestra. With the appointment of Kaspar Zehnder as Director Concert, the new TOBS management team is complete: in addition to Artistic Director Dieter Kaegi, who will also become Director Music Theater, the TOBS management team will in future include Carole Trousseau-Ballif as Administrative Director, Katharina Rupp as Director Drama and Kaspar Zehnder as Director Concert.

Kaspar Zehnder has been Artistic Director and Principal Guest Conductor of the Biel Symphony Orchestra since the 2012/13 season. Since his appointment at the helm of the Prague Philharmonia, which he succeeded Jiří Bělohlávek as chief conductor from 2005 to 2008 and with which he remains closely associated as a guest conductor, Kaspar Zehnder has performed regularly in major European concert halls and at important festivals.
 

What are the signs of a successful festival? A note on the steel door of the old Jura garage that says "sold out"? Or the fact that not only on stage, but also in the audience, a wide variety of age groups, musicians and music lovers of all styles come together? In any case, the eighth edition of this small, fine festival on the language border was once again moving in its own way and showed what waves a festival can make when its concept and implementation combine a high level of initiative with a high degree of professionalism. At times, it enabled confused journeys of discovery in widely divergent musical worlds, which sometimes refreshed, sometimes tired, sometimes delighted and sometimes annoyed.

Photos: Marcel Meier

The place is unique

When Ear We Are is not visiting, steel, wood, glass and plastics are used in the old Juragarage in Biel. On the Ear We Are weekend, there's not much of that to be seen. A stage and a bar have been set up, chairs lined up, lights and technology installed. Under the influence of the old garage nostalgia and thanks to the efforts of those involved, a relaxed atmosphere is created that facilitates, but does not force, an exchange, that offers everything desired but does not impose it.

Unique is the way

The program, for which the four musicians from the Biel scene, Gaudenz Badrutt, Hans Koch, Christian Müller and Martin Schütz, are responsible, reveals their own signature style. It is characterized by contrasts and a wide stylistic range that includes free improvised music, jazz and free jazz, noise and conceptual music as well as chanson, rock and hip hop. Well-known musicians of free improvisation are part of the experiment, but young, lesser-known or local musicians are also included. This results in concert sequences that attract new attention with each new performance.

Roscoe Mitchell

The result is unique

This year's Thursday began in rapture. Roscoe Mitchell captivated the audience from the very first note with his resting, never-ending cantilenas, only to unleash his incomparable energy in a virtuoso frenzy at the end of his performance. The Norwegian duo of the tireless electro artist Maja Ratkje and the noise specialist Lasse Marhaug then seemed less at home, their worlds only seeming to reconcile in brief moments. Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and his band The Thing made up for this later in the evening with a wonderfully powerful yet finely tuned show.

Friday's program was also varied in terms of style and attitude: the cultivated performance by the two greats Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson showed what poetry can be extracted from "simple" sound sources if they are handled in a stylish and effective manner. The following experiment by Jacques Demierre and Vincent Barras - as may be inferred from the program text - probably looks better on paper than it sounds. The "exact sound sculptures" of their Poésie sonore were unable to leave the "boundaries of familiar sonority" and seemed stale. It did not even develop a fascination in the duration of its irrelevance. Thomas Peter's short and subtle sound improvisation provided a long-awaited contrast, after which the show by Ishmael Butler and Tendai "Baba" Maraire's hip-hop combo Shabazz Palaces provided a somewhat long but exceptionally subtle conclusion.

There were also contrasts on Saturday afternoon with two young musicians: South Korean cellist Okkyung Lee impressed with her original power and forcefulness, in which she repeatedly built up enormous towers of sound. In contrast, Roman Nowka's caricatures of an amateur musician were briefly refreshing and then tiring. In the evening, there were also full rows with Pascal Auberson, Christophe Calpini and Laurent Poget, the noise enfant terrible Rudolf Eb.er, Keith Rowe and John Tilbury and with Marc Ribot's trio Ceramic Dog.
 

Trio Ceramic Dog

The aim of the experiment, initiated by cantonal music delegate Luc Aeschlimann, is to give pupils the opportunity to gain music-making experience in an ensemble over a two-year period as part of an open experimental space.

Two classes are currently taking part in the trial, one at the Collège des Endroits (3e Harmos) in La Chaux-de-Fonds and a second at the Collège de Vauseyon (6e Harmos) in Neuchâtel. The children in La Chaux-de-Fonds had the choice between five wind instruments, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, trumpet and flute, while those in Neuchâtel could choose between the string instruments violin, viola and cello.

The first results are to be presented to the public in mid-March. If the results are positive, further school classes will be included in the trial.

The scenic concert with compositions by Morton Feldmann, Pedro Alvarez and Helmut Oehring was premiered by Ensemble Interface on March 9, 2012 at the Dampfzentrale Bern.

Bettina Danielle Berger is a founding member of ensemble interface and plays as a guest musician with Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien. She studied flute at the ZHdK and the UdK Berlin. She completed a master's degree in contemporary music at the HfMDK Frankfurt. This was followed by a master's degree in music theater at the HKB from 2010 to 2012.

For the second time since its inception, the Burgdorf Inno Prize has been awarded to a Master's graduate from the BUA's Department of Music.

Anyone who believed that the very clear approval of the constitutional article on music education by voters last fall would have strengthened the future position of music as a subject in Basel schools has been proven wrong by the current plans of the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft as part of the implementation of HarmoS. On the contrary: music lessons are being massively reduced, particularly in Basel-Stadt, and downgraded to a (deselectable) minor subject at secondary level. In addition, the basic music courses in Basel-Stadt are to be taken away from the aegis of the Music Academy, although this model has proven its worth for over 40 years.

Basic course teachers: Responsibility now lies with the elementary school
In Basel-Stadt, the basic course teachers were previously, uniquely in Switzerland, under the direct supervision of the music academy. Stephan Schmidt, Director of the Basel Music Academy, referred to the many years of good experience with the current model and warned of a foreseeable long-term loss of quality; if the teachers also had to teach other subjects in the future, it would hardly be possible to achieve the same quality as with "only" musicians, who are also highly motivated to teach their subject. Benno Graber from the Basel-Landschaft Office for Primary Schools replied that these fears had not come true in Baselland and emphasized the advantage of integrating music teachers into the respective school culture and the contact with colleagues. In addition, postgraduate training in music could be completed if required. Schmidt put this into perspective: a shorter postgraduate course could in no way make up for a well-founded education. The panel identified a fundamental problem in teacher training itself, where music can be opted out of.

Two scholarships for professional musicians from Bern will be awarded in Paris next year. The artists are invited to spend either January to June or July to December 2014 in the Canton of Bern's furnished studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts. In addition to free accommodation, the scholarship includes a monthly sum of CHF 3,000 towards living and travel expenses. The scholarship is not suitable for stays with children.

The prerequisites for admission to the adjudication are a professional performance record, legal residence and/or professional cultural activity in the Canton of Bern for at least two years. Applications must be submitted by April 30, 2013 at the latest and will be judged by the Music Commission. The documents are available on the website of the Office of Culture:

www.erz.be.ch/kultur

Contact: lejla.sukaj@erz.be.ch