In 1972, choirmaster Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud Graulich founded the Carus publishing house and published the first edition of Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria in D RV 589 for choir and orchestra - the first scholarly-critical edition of this masterpiece. Today, the publisher's catalog includes around 45,000 works, mainly for vocal ensembles, as well as sheet music editions, books, CDs and apps. The edition of the Gloria has remained a bestseller in the Carus program.

The anniversary will be celebrated throughout 2022 with a wide range of activities. Highlights will be the festive concert in Stuttgart on June 3 with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius and a workshop week for choir conductors in the fall. In addition, commissioned compositions by John Høybye (Denmark) and Martín Palmeri (Argentina) will be premiered in the anniversary year.

Publisher and Managing Partner Johannes Graulich emphasizes the proximity to the performers: "Since the very beginning of Carus, we have sought out exchanges with choir conductors all over the world and closely aligned our program with the needs of the choirs." Managing Director Ester Petri adds: "Even though the pandemic has thwarted many of our plans for the future, we remain committed to continuously expanding our choral repertoire in terms of both depth and breadth. Our expertise and the new digital possibilities help us to offer choirs and conductors around the world the best possible service - from researching works to rehearsals and performances."

In addition to scores, Carus always offers performance material for all works. With over 750 piano reductions of sacred and secular choral works with orchestra, the Carus range is unrivaled. In addition to the Urtext editions, the Carus choir books are well established and have proven themselves as basic equipment for church choirs and chamber choirs. The music pedagogical publications support with the series chorissimo! vocal work from kindergarten to secondary school. The publishing house also produces selected works from the catalog on its own CD label. Leading artists publish their recordings with Carus. With carus musica practice app for choir members, was a great success for the publisher in 2015.

Carus is a family business and is managed by the Graulich publishing family. It is socially committed to the promotion of music-making in society. Singing with children is particularly close to its heart. With the song project, the publishing house has launched an important charity initiative (Lullabies / Christmas carols from all over the world).

According to the canton's press release, the aim is to "take better account of the different business models of orchestras and simplify the application process". The improved model makes it possible to secure musicians' salaries in accordance with the guidelines of the Swiss Musicians' Association. It also gives the expert jury sufficient leeway to assess the orchestras' programs in terms of artistic quality.

The mandate to evaluate and optimize orchestra funding is set out in the cultural mission statement of the Basel-Stadt Cantonal Government Council 2020-2025 as the first milestone in a comprehensive review and further development of music funding. The next step is to introduce club funding and correct the historical imbalance of musical genres: Popular music and jazz are also to be "substantially strengthened". An initial pilot call for proposals in the field of jazz will be launched in 2022 as part of the cultural partnership with the canton of Basel-Landschaft.

More info:
https://www.bs.ch/nm/2022-verbessertes-foerdermodell-fuer-die-basler-orchester-ab-2023-rr.html

Flora Papadopoulos studied at the Conservatorio di Parma and at the Civica Scuola di Musica "Claudio Abbado" in Milan. She also holds a BA from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Parma (Conservation of Musical Heritage) and an MA in Musicology from the Sorbonne in Paris.

She performs regularly as a duo with Mara Galassi and with her own formation "il Caleidoscopio". She released her first solo album in 2018 Unwritten. She is also interested in musical projects that go beyond the narrower boundaries of early music.

Born in 1971, Carlos Mena studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Música "Jesús Guridi" in his home town of Vitoria-Gasteiz and then at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis until 1997. His repertoire is very wide-ranging, from the Middle Ages to the central repertoire of the 17th to early 19th centuries to contemporary music, with a focus on opera performances.

He teaches at the Academia de Música Antigua at the University of Salamanca and at the Extremadura School of Music (Cáceres), among others. Carlos Mena is also active as a conductor.

There have been no new mergers or dissolutions of orchestras since 2018, according to the press release from the German Orchestra Association (DOV). At the time of the first nationwide survey in 1992, there were 168 professional orchestras.

Although there will be 17 fewer positions in 2022 than in the last survey in 2020, this is due to job cuts at the SWR Symphony Orchestra following the merger in 2016. The direction in which the trend is heading is becoming increasingly clear. More and more orchestras are addressing major social issues such as diversity and sustainability.

Original article:
https://www.dov.org/presse_meldungen/lage-bei-berufsorchestern-trotz-corona-stabil

Initiated by the Musée de la musique/Philharmonie de Paris and the Association Talents & Violon'celles, Paris, the "Talents d'aujourd'hui" and "Talents de demain" competitions were announced for the first time. It is open to both professionals ("Talents d'aujourd'hui") and violin making schools ("Talents de demain"). The first edition of this competition was dedicated to the cello and was held under the patronage of cellist Sol Gabetta.
The instrument of Violin making school Brienzthe replica of a violoncello by the Venetian violin maker Matteo Goffriller (1659-1742), was the clear winner due to its tonal and aesthetic qualities.
The cello is played by the Musée de la Musique de Paris (MMP), will remain in the collection there and will be made available to music students in the future.

Second place went to the Ecole Nationale de Lutherie Mirecourt (F) and third place to the International Lutherie School Antwerp (NL).

On January 23, 2022, the two 3rd-year apprentices, Lejla Fasler and Adrian Pfeiffer, received the award in Paris together with their instructor Olivier Krieger.
 

Inaugurated in 2019 with a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Andermatt Concert Hall will open its doors for the year on the weekend of February 4 to 6. Adermatt Music under the directorship of Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer. On average, 20 concerts are staged each season. The three program pillars "Swiss Orchestra - Swiss Classical Music", "World Stage - World Stage" and "Local Roots - Home Sounds" enable concerts with both international appeal and local roots.

The 2018 from Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer founded the Swiss Orchestra acts as the resident orchestra in Andermatt and opens the season under its direction with works by Mozart and Beethoven as well as a Swiss trouvaille by Lucerne-born composer Franz Xaver Joseph Peter Schnyder von Wartensee. The soloist in Mozart's A major violin concerto is the German-Russian violinist Alina Pogostkina. On the second evening, the French pianist Hélène Grimaud Works by Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann and Valentin Silvestrov. And finally, the native of Andermatt Fränggi Gehrig in the concert hall for a "Stubete" with traditional and new folk music, together with his Uri formation "Gläuffig" and four musicians close to it.
 

Born in 1989, Sebastian Androne studied composition in Romania, Great Britain and France. His music has been performed throughout Europe and beyond by established ensembles and orchestras. He completed his doctorate in 2018 at the National University of Music in Bucharest with Dan Dediu as his supervisor and long-time mentor.

The ICMA have replaced the Cannes Classical Awards (Midem Classical Award), which were previously presented at the now discontinued MIDEM trade fair. The jury is made up of music critics from international trade journals; in Switzerland, it is Music & Theater Partner.

The name Leokadia Kashperova is probably not even familiar to many music lovers. And if they do, then at best as Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher in St. Petersburg. Yet it was precisely in this musical metropolis that she was regarded as an outstanding pianist and talented composer, at least until the Russian Revolution, and was also a much sought-after teacher. Stravinsky mentions her in detail in his Chroniques de ma vie and in the Conversations with Robert Craft.

Leokadia Kashperova was born in 1872 in a village near Yaroslavl. She studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the elite piano class of the legendary Anton Rubinstein and graduated with top marks in 1893. Two years later, as a pupil of Nikolai Solovyov, she also completed her studies in composition. Her most important works were performed over the next twenty years, including a symphony, a piano concerto, choral works and much chamber music.

In 1916, she married her student Sergei Andropov, a Bolshevik revolutionary and close confidant of Lenin. This obviously changed her life drastically. After the revolution, she occasionally performed as a pianist, but her music was hardly ever played. And when she died in 1940, her person and her work were completely forgotten.

This has changed in recent years, not least thanks to the initiative of Graham Griffiths, who has published some of her works in a special edition with Boosey & Hawkes. Kashperova Edition has published. We also have him to thank for a new edition of the piano suite In the middle of nature (Au Sein de la Nature) from 1910. As in numerous songs and chamber music works, Kashperova's deep love of nature manifests itself in this work. The six movements are cleverly graded according to difficulty, which could indicate that the pieces were also intended for teaching.

The first four Deux Roses and Deux feuilles d'automne are kept simple and can (almost) be played at sight. However, this simplicity is anything but primitive. The music flows and breathes with a wonderful naturalness, like poetic verses that rhyme in an unforced way. The fifth piece Le murmure des blés, a rewarding sound study for nimble fingers, makes greater pianistic demands. And the concluding Battage du blé with its stomping martellato brings a surprisingly coarse component into play.

The publisher is to be highly complimented on this careful and attractively designed new edition, not least for the fact that the foreword in English, German and French provides a wealth of interesting information about this extraordinary musician.

Leokadiya Kashperova: In the midst of nature, suite for piano solo in six movements, edited by Graham Griffiths, BH 13563, € 17.00, Boosey & Hawkes, London 2021 (Schott)

The title makes you sit up and take notice: What might these "ghostly sounds" be all about? But it has nothing to do with Hamlet, Don Giovanni or Poe. You soon realize, somewhat disillusioned, that this is simply "music beyond genre boundaries" - which do not necessarily have to be otherworldly, but are very present, as the author beautifully explains. Christoph Wagner has already attracted attention with several books in which he explored such intermediate areas. Here he presents mainly US-American musicians: Composers such as Christian Wolff, George Crumb or Morton Subotnik, for example, the vocalist Meredith Monk, David Harrington, the principal violinist of the Kronos Quartet, or the composer and trombonist George Lewis. His concept of "creolization", a world music without Central European blinkers, is more than worthy of consideration - and one of the most important impulses in this book.

Wagner presents this music between avant-garde, (free) jazz, minimalism, electronics, rock, folk, folk music, etc., mainly in interviews and a few summarizing essays: knowledgeable, journalistic, easy to understand, without wanting to get to the bottom of the musical phenomena, but rather along the personalities and their intellectual developments. And along the way, you can follow how electrified and electronic instruments have interfered with the world of sound since the sixties. The other avant-garde, which has always been somewhat neglected, if not ridiculed, in Central European serious music, is thus revealed. The impulse for the string quartet, for example, which came from the Kronos Quartet, is certainly comparable to that of the Arditti Quartet. It is palpable how the styles influenced each other and how they permeate each other. New musical elements penetrated from the margins. Wagner once again takes a loving look at this with this book.

Christoph Wagner: Geistertöne. Conversations about music beyond genre boundaries, 172 p., ill., € 29.95, Schott, Mainz 2021, ISBN 978-3-7957-8699-1

As early as spring 1934, Shostakovich wrote to his best friend, the writer and musicologist Ivan Sollertinsky, about negative reactions to the second opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensktwo years later in the Pravda was denounced and removed from the repertoire in Moscow and Leningrad. "Your formalistic remarks are duly countered. All in all, numerous rebuffs are issued. Oh, that's good. I like it. It reduces the fat layer." (Letter dated July 9, 1934). This was at a time when the 28-year-old composer still believed himself to be untroubled by Stalin's censorship.

He was later shocked by the abrupt change from admired young composer to "enemy of the people" when, on January 28, 1936, the article Chaos instead of music in the Pravda appeared. Two days later, he asked from Arkhangelsk, where this total betrayal came to his attention, for caution: "Don't do anything before my return. Come on the fifth." Then not another word, until he told his friend a month later: "I'm leading a quiet life here in Moscow. I'm at home and don't go out. Waiting for a call. I have little hope of being received." In the notes it says: "DSCH [Dmitri Shostakovich] wrote to Stalin and asked for an audience in connection with the situation that had arisen after the article appeared Chaos instead of music."

Precise notes take up an entire third of the book. They are rightly referred to as "commentaries" and are indispensable for understanding the cryptic brevity of Shostakovich's statements due to censorship. Thanks to the letters to Isaac Glikman published in 1995, it was possible to become acquainted with such circumstances as early as the second formalism debate in 1948. However, no new insights were to be expected from the time of the first condemnation, because in this dangerous situation it was completely impossible for Shostakovich to communicate anything of substance. Maxim, the son, pointed out that his father had burned many letters from the 1930s for fear that they might incriminate the senders. Fortunately, his letters to Sollertinski have been preserved. It is extremely revealing to learn about the circumstances of Shostakovich's life from 1931 to 1944, the year of Sollertinski's death. They form the prehistory, so to speak, to the Glikman letters, which extend from 1941 to Shostakovich's death in 1975.

Dmitri Shostakovich: Letters to Ivan Sollertinsky, edited by Dmitri Sollertinsky and Lyudmila Kovnatskaya, translated from the Russian by Ursula Keller, 251 p., € 36.00, Wolke, Hofheim 2021, ISBN 978-3-95593-097-4

The fund, which has been frozen since 2016 as part of a savings program, will be reactivated to support the implementation of ambitious professional projects that contribute to the development of tourism in Valais. In addition to promoting cultural events with an impact on tourism, the fund is also intended to "support impulse projects that contribute to strengthening the value chain of the creative industries in the canton", according to the canton's press release.

To be eligible for support, projects must meet three main criteria: contribute to the canton's attractiveness as a tourist destination within the framework of cantonal tourism policy; promote access to artistic and cultural productions and bring them closer to the local public and visitors; involve as many Valais players as possible in the creative industries value chain and the productions of artists and/or professionals in Valais culture.

Original article:
https://www.vs.ch/de/web/communication/detail?groupId=529400&articleId=14792369

If you talk about musical romanticism, then the clarinet is not far away. Its soft, full-bodied tone has something exuberant, something lushly romantic about it. This is also revealed on the new CD by the versatile clarinettist Bernhard Röthlisberger, with which he has been released on the Naxos Musiques Suisses label. Swiss chamber music - Romantics from two centuries presented.

This is the second recording that Röthlisberger has tackled during the grueling lockdown in 2020. His research for the project Swiss Clarinet Music (Naxos Musiques Suisses NXMS 7002, SMZ 4/2021, S. 16) also brought to light other scores that hardly anyone knows. Five of these works, composed by Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-1882), Paul Juon (1872-1940), Richard Flury (1896-1967) and Paul Müller Zurich (1898-1993), can now be heard here.

Not only is the selection surprising in its musical substance, the four performers also find a committed and distinguished interpretation of these chamber music trouvailles. Violinist Fióna Kraege is second concertmaster of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, cellist Milena Umiglia was the only Swiss representative in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 2017 and pianist Benjamin Engeli once won the ARD Music Competition in Munich as a member of the Tecchler Trio.

The oldest piece on this recording was composed in 1850-51. Two fantasy pieces op. 9 for clarinet and piano by Johann Carl Eschmann, who was born in Winterthur. He had studied with Mendelssohn in Leipzig and was friends with Wagner and Brahms. He was also a well-known figure in Zurich's musical life, but was quickly forgotten after his death. Nowadays, we occasionally hear something from Eschmann again; the Amadeus publishing house has him in its program. And each time he surprises us with his technical sophistication and gripping gestures. You can feel the musical joy when Röthlisberger and Engeli play his original pieces.

The Trio in A minor op. 17 by Paul Juon, born in Moscow in the Grisons, is the most important piece on this CD and lasts almost 24 minutes. Juon knows how to interweave the timbres of the clarinet and cello in a charming way, and the three performers masterfully shape the expansive, wide-ranging phrasing. In contrast, the trio by Richard Flury, written 50 years later, tends to emphasize the folk-like, cheerful side of the clarinet, which has a dance-like verve. Röthlisberger has once again recovered interesting pieces with good instinct.      

With this playbook, the author has created a real journey through time, in which new music also finds its place and early music is not simply limited to Telemann and his contemporaries. There are no dubious arrangements of classical hits. Beginning with instrumental music from the Middle Ages and continuing with Renaissance pieces by John Dowland, for example, and early Baroque music from Italy, this booklet for soprano recorder contains Baroque music from all the countries that set the tone at the time. There are also short original works in blues, jazz, Latin or avant-garde style by the British composer Alan Davis and two improvisations. Johann Melchior Gletle, a Swiss Baroque composer, is even represented.

The Czech flautist Jan Kvapil selected the almost 70 pieces; they are of medium difficulty, for which the players must know all the accidentals and be rhythmically confident. For some works there is an unfigured bass part or chord symbols; almost a third of the works are duos with a second part on the soprano, alto or tenor flute.

The big plus is the various free download options on the publisher's website. In addition to exposed accompaniment parts for harpsichord/piano or guitar to print out, audio files of 32 pieces are available for download, both as full versions and as play-alongs in various tempi and with different accompanying instruments (harpsichord, piano, lute, viola da gamba, percussion). The audio examples provide a first impression of the works or offer performers accompanying support, even if they are sometimes not entirely convincing in terms of sound and phrasing.

This comprehensive collection gives a good overview of the recorder literature and invites you to familiarize yourself with one or the other epoch.

A journey through time from the Middle Ages to the present, playbook for soprano recorder, edited by Jan Kvapil, BA 11544, € 15.50, Bärenreiter, Prague

Great respect must be paid to Editions Symétrie from Lyon. This is because they dedicate themselves with great commitment time and again to repertoire rarities that will certainly not have an easy time in concert life. And yet they seem to have a lucky hand in their selection, as in this case with the two piano concertos nos. 2 and 3 by Louis-Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833), which were written in 1811 and 1813 and are on the cusp of the Romantic period. The compositions become even more remarkable when one considers that Hérold's father was once apprenticed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg. He must have passed on the experience he gained there to his son as a child, before he entered the Conservatoire at the age of sixteen, where he first perfected his keyboard skills and finally won the Prix de Rome (as a pupil of Méhul) at the age of 21. Most of his instrumental works were composed during this time, followed later by several operas with varying degrees of success.

Musically, the concertos are convincing with a noticeably individual tone; the slow movement of No. 3 (scored only for piano and a solo violin) can even be performed on a smaller scale. The musical notation is easy to read (even if it could be better presented graphically), but apart from a one-page preface, basic information on the sources used is missing (a standard nowadays!), as is a revision report or at least a brief description of the reliability of the sources used. Anyone looking for further information is well advised to consult the booklet of the CD recording published by Mirare in 2011, which is well worth listening to (MIR 127). Incidentally, it also quotes a letter that reached Hérold in the Roman Villa Medici in 1813 - a conservative interjection that unintentionally emphasizes the real and forward-looking qualities of the master, who is unfortunately almost forgotten today: "Melody, melody! This is the refrain of sensible people and the unspoiled part of the audience. Harmonic detours, barbaric transitions, outrageous chromaticism belong to the mad and the manic. [...] [Will you recover] from this modulation fever, from this delirium, product of chromatic enthusiasm?"

Louis-Ferdinand Hérold: Concerto pour piano et orchestre no. 2 en mi bémol majeur, edited by Sébastien Espesson, € 30.00, Editions Symétrie, Lyon 2021, ISMN 979-0-2318-0371-6,

Id.: Concerto pour piano et orchestre no. 3 en la majeur, ISMN 979-0-2318-0374-7

Antoine Gilliéron - A major renewal within the association marks the transition to 2022. These appointments at the head of several institutions of higher education in music in Switzerland bring vital forces to CHEMS, which finds itself in the yardstick of a phase of implementation of a strategy aimed at opening up new horizons to the Swiss tertiary space for teaching music.

The vision of CHEMS constitutes a contribution to building our society in constant evolution, socially, culturally and intellectually through the dissemination of knowledge, research and productions of higher music education.

As defined in its statutes, the missions of CHEMS are:

- The coordination of tasks and problems specific to universities of music;

- Le développement de la qualité de l'enseignement musical et de la recherche ;

- Defending the interests of the music colleges vis-à-vis Swissuniversities and the Chamber of Specialized Colleges, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) and the Conference of Cantonal Directors of Public Instruction (CDIP), as well as in higher and university education at national and international level;

- The exchange of experiences between national and international music academies as well as cooperation with the conferences of the heads of the music academies and music colleges in Germany, France, Italy and Austria, the Association Européenne des Conservatoires, the music academies and music colleges and the European League of Institutes of the Arts;

- The drafting of declarations and recommendations on professional and educational policy, including by disseminating them at specific communication levels or by publicizing them through the media;

- A strong relationship with professional musical organizations and Swiss musical life associations, such as the Association Suisse des Ecoles de Musique (ASEM) and SONART;

- Engagement in cultural and educational policy for the interests and promotion of music, musical creation, musical education/training and research, as well as for appropriate conditions for the promotion of young musicians and their initial and pre-professional musical training.

The Conférence des Hautes Écoles de Musique Suisses has recently been equipped with a piloting tool that will enable it to develop its future development in an equally harmonious and ambitious manner. He is developing an articulation of his vision and his missions around a credo that will strengthen his impact: coordination/prevision/federation.

CHEMS, through its role as a national leader and aware of the important challenges to be addressed, can thus advance in the realization of its objectives in the service of art and the constant improvement of society. In this way, the Swiss music schools will contribute to building a society of knowledge that can promote creativity as a key asset of Switzerland.

This is the reason why the excellent quality of the training offered in the field of music, as well as its articulation with production, research and innovation, are the main axes of the new strategy. It consists of providing clear measures for action in order to increase the legitimacy and visibility of higher music education in Switzerland and to ensure that new people with responsibilities within it can contribute in proportion to their talents.

According to a statement from the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Switzerland, Michael Bühler has a broad professional musical education, which he expanded with an Executive MBA from the Universities of Zurich and Stanford (U.S.) and a doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire (UK). For more than ten years, he was artistic director and managing director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, before that he was executive director of the Swiss Youth Music Competition Foundation and orchestra director at Zurich Opera House. In addition to providing a professional musical education, the new rector also wants to prepare the students of the Kalaidos University of Music specifically for the "entrepreneurial challenges of the modern music market".

Born in Lausanne in 1974, Béatrice Zawodnik is a musician, interpreter, teacher, curator and manager with a multifaceted career in the fields of culture, creation and education. Triplement diplômée du Conservatoire supérieur de musique de Genève en pédagogie musicale, piano et hautbois, Béatrice Zawodnik a complété son parcours par différentes formations post-grades en Suisse (hautbois baroque) et en Allemagne auprès de professeurs reputés (hautbois), dont Heinz Holliger.

Furthermore, in 2020, she was awarded the prize for the best Master in Public Administration by the Institut de hautes études en administration publique de l'Université de Lausanne (IDHEAP). His professional career is characterized by a solid and varied experience, which reflects the richness of his artistic, pedagogical and managerial background. At the musical level, Béatrice Zawodnik has enjoyed a wide range of activities for over fifteen years with numerous orchestras and ensembles, both baroque and contemporary, in Switzerland and abroad, and regularly collaborates with composers for whom she has created and recorded several works. Her teaching career of over thirty years, particularly as a professor of harpsichord and didactics at the music schools in Geneva, at the Geneva School of Music and at the Lausanne School of Music, guarantees her a solid knowledge of the field of higher education.

Finally, in terms of management, Béatrice Zawodnik has also demonstrated her skills as head of the establishment at the head of the Lausanne site of the Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU) for the past six months. Since 2018, she has been responsible for the coordination of teaching at the HEM Genève - Neuchâtel, where she took over the management in January 2022.

While the next direction of the music department of the Hochschule der Künste Bern is not yet known, CHEMS warmly wishes the best for the rest of her career to Graziella Contratto who was the first woman to sit in the association as well as for their well-deserved retirements to Frank-Thomas Mitschke and Philippe Dinkel while warmly thanking all three of them for their great commitment, as positive as it is eminently effective and sustainable, with CHEMS.