Schmid received the prize for his recording of a CD with music by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major op. 26, orchestral music from the operas Il campiello, Le donne curiose, L'amore medico and I quattro rusteghi). The Oviedo Filarmonia is conducted by Friedrich Haider.

According to the jury, the recording is "a fervent plea for Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's highly romantic but still little-known violin concerto; at the same time an exceptionally well-documented edition and a tribute to Guila Bustabo, the great American violinist and dedicatee of the work".

The German Record Critics' Award is an independent association of currently 145 music critics and journalists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Organized in 29 expert juries, the jurors examine the range of new recordings in 29 categories on a quarterly basis.
 

On the Wednesday dates, some ongoing or completed HKB projects are presented, or national and international guests are invited. Students also have the opportunity to present their work and approaches as young researchers. In addition to the projects, questions relating to the significance of research for the departments and research in the arts will also be discussed.

The first such event will focus on the SNF-DORE project "Recording the Soul of Piano Playing (Geisterhand 3)": the perforated paper rolls for self-playing pianos and organs by the Welte company are among the earliest sound documents of artistic interpretation. Nevertheless, they have received little attention from researchers because their creation process - and thus their credibility - was unclear.

Thanks to the examination of the only surviving recording apparatus and the discovery of more than 1,300 recording rolls with the ink traces of the apparatus, the current research project was able to clarify central questions and test new ways of evaluating the piano and organ rolls as interpretative documents that go back well into the 19th century.

Info:
HKB, large concert hall, Papiermühlestrasse 13d. March 6, 5 to 7 pm. Guest and co-speaker: Martin Elste, State Institute for Music Research / Prussian Cultural Heritage Berlin. www.hkb.bfh.ch/forschung.html

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), global revenue from music sales rose in 2012 for the first time since 1999, driven largely by sustained growth in the digital business segments.

The overall market grew by around 0.3% to 16.5 billion dollars. Overall, global sales of downloads, subscriptions and ad-financed online services increased by 9 percent last year. This means that the digital market currently accounts for 34% of global music sales.

Download sales have increased by 12% overall and now account for 70% of digital sales. The number of music subscribers to premium streaming services has risen by 44% to around 20 million paying customers - global revenues from this segment now account for 10% of digital revenues.

In a first step, Monica Basler, Sarah Dupasquier and Nadine Näpfli, the university's experts, surveyed 77 members of the orchestra, the Philharmonia Zurich, to identify physical complaints and stress factors as well as criteria that are decisive for well-being at work.

The result: 18% of respondents complained of noise hypersensitivity, 14% of hearing loss, 13% of tinnitus and 10% of other hearing impairments. Other frequently mentioned physical complaints were pain in the shoulders or neck (20%) and eye problems (12%). The orchestra members also found their posture to be detrimental, partly due to poorly adjustable chairs, as well as the high temperature and inadequate lighting in the orchestra pit.

In a second step, the experts worked with the management and representatives of the orchestra to develop measures for workplace health promotion based on the results.

The Philharmonia Zurich is now taking measures in line with the suggestions of experts in occupational health management. For example, the musicians now have access to a massage service. The installation of showers is also planned. As part of a reorganization of the premises, a relaxation room is also planned for the near future. New chairs and a new desk lighting system will also be purchased.

An organizational development process has also been initiated in order to promote the exchange between the orchestra management and the orchestra, but also between the musicians, and to reduce the insecurities of the concertmaster and section leaders in performing their management functions.

Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich in 1923. He began his conducting career at the Städtische Bühnen Augsburg. From 1953, he held music director positions in Aachen, Wiesbaden and Cologne. He taught a conducting master class as a professor at the Cologne University of Music.

From 1960 to 1970, he was General Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, and was also Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. From 1973 to 1980, Sawallisch was Directeur Artistique of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.

In 1971 he became Bavarian General Music Director, and in 1982 also Artistic Director of the Bavarian State Opera, of which he was made an honorary member in 1992 after his retirement. From 1993 to 2003, Wolfgang Sawallisch was Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the USA.

Image: © University Musical Society, Creative Commons 
 

For the past five years, the foundation has raised CHF 100,000 a year, which enables the city's cultural department, the Département de l'instruction publique, de la culture et du sport (DIP), to purchase tickets to cultural events for the city canton's schoolchildren or to enable them to take part in workshops.

Around 400,000 francs have now been invested in the project, writes the canton. The cultural offerings for young people have thus been increased by around a quarter. In 2012, the foundation increased the amount by an additional 56,000 francs due to the success of the project.

In 2013, the project "Stravinsky s'invite à Geisendorf" will be supported with 25,000 francs, among other things, as part of which pupils will be able to explore Stravinsky's soundscapes through dance under the guidance of the Atelier danse Manon Hotte.

According to a statement from Bayerischer Rundfunk, the prize was awarded to a musician who has made critical questioning her trademark. In keeping with this attitude, every piece of music must make sense of its material, its arrangement on both a small and large scale and legitimize it through its content and intended message. This is a very high standard, which Mundry naturally also demands for her own works.

Along with the prize, Isabel Mundry, who also teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), was commissioned to compose an orchestral work, which was premiered at the award ceremony. She has reworked the piano concerto "Ich und Du" from 2008. The result was presented by pianist Nicolas Hodges together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Emilio Pomarico.

Lucas Niggli, probably the most active drummer in Switzerland at the moment, as well as Michel Godard and the Italian accordionist Luciano Biondini will be among those performing in Schaffhausen. Michael Moore, the Dutch super sax player and the New York electric guitarist McManus will be playing with Michel Wintsch from Geneva.

Berlin-based trombonist and Romand Samuel Blaser will be performing with two French musicians in a new trio. The Lausanne pianist Sylvie Courvoisier will be playing solo for the first time in Schaffhausen. She is traveling from New York for the event. Newcomers Yves Theiler, pianist from Zurich, and the Biel quartet "Breakfast on a Battlefield" will be welcomed.

Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR 3 is recording a live evening together with SRF for the third time. The festival will thus be broadcast as far away as North Rhine-Westphalia. Swiss television SRF will also be showing three documentary films about Swiss jazz from its beginnings to the present day as previews. The screenings will be accompanied by interviews and panel discussions.

The whole program: www.jazzfestival.ch

Picture: Francesca Pfeffer

The Foundation makes an annual contribution of CHF 100,000 to a fund managed by the IHA. The fund is designed as a pilot project and is initially limited to three years. Over 300,000 active people are organized in ten national associations in the IG.

With the performance agreement, Pro Helvetia is transferring the support of nationwide projects of individual folk culture associations to IG Volkskultur in a three-year pilot project.

The IG Volkskultur has appointed an independent panel of experts to assess applications. The members of the jury are Isabelle Raboud-Schüle (Bulle), André Ducret (Pont-la-Ville), Josef Schuler (Altdorf) and Hansruedi Spichiger (Bern) as president. Pro Helvetia has a non-voting seat. The secretariat of the fund is run by the Haus der Volkskultur in Altdorf.

Individuals, groups or festivals continue to submit their applications for folk culture projects directly to the Foundation online via www.myprohelvetia.ch in.

More info: www.volkskultur.ch

Opus 111! Did the composer allow himself a little gag? After all, who doesn't think of Beethoven's last piano sonata, truly a "late work", when they hear this number! The Blüthner Variations op. 111 by Julien-François Zbinden must also be counted among them. After all, he wrote the piece at the incredible age of 95 ... and it is apparently to remain his last piano work.
However, his variations are not of Beethovenian transcendence, but are bursting with youthful mischief and freshness. A simple theme with a slightly jazzy touch, a "blues in three", forms the basis for eight variations, which differ considerably in character and pianistic demands, whereby even the more virtuosic parts - as always with Zbinden - are pleasant and rewarding to play.

In any case, this composer has the rare gift of making a piano sound wonderful, even with simple means.
This opus 111 is dedicated to "someone who has faithfully accompanied me for over 65 years ...

This someone is my Blüthner grand piano, which is over 100 years old". One wishes that the composer of this charming piano piece would also reach this age.

Julien-François Zbinden, Blüthner Variations op. 111, for piano, PNO67, Fr. 20.00, Edition Bim, Vuarmarens 2012

Highly unusual recording technology provides additional listening pleasure. It may well be that the direct recording in front of the galleries makes finely tuned, analytical listening more difficult; perhaps some listeners are also disturbed by the lack of balance between vocal and instrumental parts in Schütz or the reverberation of the monastery church in Muri. However, the sound engineers Ludger Böckenhoff and Bernhard Hanke, the conductor Johannes Strobl, the Cappella Murensis and Les Cornets Noirs have achieved something that is sorely lacking in countless dry, sterile studio productions: a grandiose, vital and full-bodied retrospective of times that made the musicalization of space a defining theme long before the avant-garde of the 20th century.

The recording was honored with the International Classical Music Award 2013 in the Baroque vocal category.

Polychoral Splendour. Cappella Murensis, Les Cornets Noirs, conductor: Johannes Strobl. SACD Audite 92.652

The bandXaargau festival offers professional performance opportunities for up-and-coming talent. The participating bands are given the opportunity to present their musical skills live to an audience.

At the qualifying concerts in Aarau, Baden, Brugg and now also in Aarburg, 23 bands with members aged between 12 and 23 will be competing this year. In addition to the bands, the spotlight will also be on talented young presenters who will guide the audience through the evening.

The preliminary rounds take place in Aarburg, Brugg, Baden and Aarau. Each evening, five to six bands present their own songs or cover songs for twenty minutes. The musical spectrum of the performances ranges from rock to metal to hip-hop.

The jury is made up of experienced musicians and media representatives. They give each band feedback after their performance. In the end, the best six bands make it through to the final on May 25, 2013 at KiFF Aarau.

More info: www.bandxaargau.ch
 

At the beginning of 2012, the canton of Lucerne opened a fund with Swisslos money to help cultural event organizers in the canton of Lucerne with the purchase of basic event technology. This year, the Albert Koechlin Foundation is now also making a contribution to the fund. Theater, cabaret and music organizers in the Lucerne countryside as well as in the city and agglomeration of Lucerne can apply for a contribution.

The Canton of Lucerne hopes that this will provide lasting relief for budgets by saving on rental costs, making the venues more attractive for artists and audiences and fundamentally strengthening the activities of cultural event organizers, particularly in the Lucerne countryside.

In 2012, a total of 14 contributions to cultural organizers were approved and 106,000 francs were distributed. Three quarters of this went to the Lucerne countryside, where the need for investment is particularly great.

The application deadline is April 26, 2013. Further dates, conditions of participation, criteria and requirements for the application can be found at
www.kultur.lu.ch
 

The "Cornichon", the prize of the Olten Cabaret Festival, has been awarded since 1988. Previous winners include Franz Hohler (1990), Gerhard Polt, Dieter Hildebrand and Simon Enzler.

Nicole Knuth and Olga Tucek both grew up in the cultural and artistic milieu: Nicole Knuth, granddaughter of Gustav Knuth, daughter of Klaus Knuth and Hannelore Fischer and grandniece of O.W. Fischer, commuted between Zurich's Gold Coast and Vienna. She initially trained as an actress. Olga Tucek, born and raised in Zurich, Leimbach, surrounded by Czech relatives and the lifestyle of the Danube Monarchy, took up her mother's legacy and became a singer.

In December 2010, cantonal councillors Christoph Pfister and Rolf Bolfing demanded that the cantonal government terminate the agreement, partly because the canton of Lucerne was no longer a reliable and predictable partner following the termination of the PHZ Concordat.

In response to a request from the Cantonal Council, the Government Council has drawn up a proposal to withdraw from the agreement as of the next possible termination date, December 31, 2015.

At the same time, however, it is requesting the rejection of the termination proposal. According to the official communication from the cantonal government, an exit would bring down the entire construct negotiated between the cantons and damage the canton's image.