Since spring 2020 and until the end of 2021, a total of around CHF 22.8 million has been available for these support measures in the cultural sector. In future, book and music publishers as well as educational and event projects by bookshops and galleries will also be eligible in St. Gallen.

In accordance with federal legislation, non-repayable financial aid is provided in the form of cancellation compensation and now also contributions to transformation projects. Cultural enterprises can apply for compensation for financial losses resulting from the cancellation, postponement or limited implementation of events and projects or due to operational restrictions as a result of government measures. They can also apply for contributions to cover the costs incurred for transformation projects. This supports projects with which cultural enterprises aim to adapt to the changed circumstances and with which they want to achieve a structural reorientation or attract audiences.

Cultural enterprises can also apply for short-time working compensation. As a rule, short-time working is due to economic reasons. Loss of working hours due to official measures or other circumstances independent of the employer's will also count as short-time working. As the compensation for loss of earnings for cultural enterprises is subsidiary to the compensation for short-time working, those affected are requested in a first step to apply for short-time working compensation if possible.

Current information is available on the website www.sg.ch/coronavirus can be found under "Culture". The corresponding application forms will be available from November 1, 2020.
 

The music theater project "Chronik eines Aussterbens oder der innere Klang" by Micha Stuhlmann and Beat Keller and the concert series "NOEISE" for contemporary music by trumpeter Christoph Luchsinger received awards.

The interdisciplinary project "Chronicle of an Extinction or the Inner Sound" will be performed as an open-air play with the participation of a Thurgau choir in spring 2022 at Schreckenmoos in Kreuzlingen. Micha Stuhlmann and Beat Keller will combine music, theater and dance in a performance. The project will also be filmed. Christoph Luchsinger is designing an innovative concert series that aims to make contemporary music accessible to a broad public and take place in unconventional venues. Three programs are planned so far, which will be performed in the 2021/22 season.

KosmosMusikThurgau was announced as part of the funding priority Impulse for the Thurgau music scene of the 2019-2022 cultural concept and was aimed at musicians who, in collaboration with Thurgau-based groups of all musical genres, implement music projects that pursue an innovative, independent approach and promote networking and cooperation.

The competition was announced in January 2020 and the submission deadline was extended by two months due to the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Eight projects were received by June 30, 2020, which were assessed by a jury of experts.
 

Malangré is the second musical director of a permanent orchestra in France after Debora Waldman, who has been conducting the Orchestre Régional Avignon-Provence since September 2020.

Johanna Malangré is a graduate of Johannes Schläfli's conducting class in Zurich. She has also completed masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Paavo Jarvi, Reinhard Goebel and Nicolas Pasquet, among others. In 2017, she was a Conducting Fellow at the Lucerne Festival Academy, where she worked with artists such as Heinz Holliger and Patricia Kopatchinskaja. She has been re-invited as Assistant Conductor for the Roche Young Commissions and the Academy Orchestra for 2020 and 2021.

Beethoven had long since realized that the French Revolution, originally striving for freedom, equality and fraternity and directed against the feudal corporative state, had come to an end when a Leipzig publisher made him an untimely proposal. He was to write a "revolutionary sonata" for an (unnamed) client, possibly depicting the events programmatically, but at least reflecting on them. His rejection on April 8, 1802 was full of indignation: "Is the devil riding you, gentlemen? - To suggest to me to make such a sonata - at the time of the revolutionary fever - that would have been something like this, but now that everything is trying to get back into the old groove, Buonaparte has concluded the Concordat with the Pope - such a sonata? - If it were still a Missa pro sancta maria a tre vocis or a Vespers etc - now I would like to take the brush in my hand - and write a Credo in unum with big pound notes - but dear God such a sonata - in these new Christian times - hoho - leave me out - nothing will come of it ..."

It is not possible to determine Beethoven's specific attitude to the political circumstances of his time, or even whether he sympathized with republican ideas. Apparently perplexed by the French expansionist policy, he composed a Farewell song to Vienna's citizens WoO 121 (referring to the Corps of Viennese Volunteers), followed by a War song of the Austrians WoO 122 (1797). Only a few years later, Napoleon was held in the highest esteem as First Consul in Vienna: Beethoven was particularly enthusiastic about his statesmanlike farsightedness and the establishment of a civil society with civil law (including the Civil Code). In the end, he even considered moving to Paris.

However, after it became public in Vienna that Napoleon had crowned himself emperor in Paris on December 2, 1804, Beethoven completely rejected these idealistic plans. The rededication of Symphony No. 3 in E flat major op. 55, as related by his friend Ferdinand Ries in an anecdote (which cannot be proven with any certainty), is also connected to this: "Beethoven had Buonaparte in mind for this symphony, but this one when he was still First Consul. ... Both I and several of his close friends have seen this symphony, already copied out in score, lying on his desk, with the word 'Buonaparte' at the top of the title page and 'Luigi van Beethoven' at the bottom, but not a word more. ... I was the first to bring him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself emperor, whereupon he flew into a rage and exclaimed: 'He is nothing more than an ordinary man! Now he will also trample all human rights underfoot, indulging only his ambition; he will now place himself higher than all others, become a tyrant! Beethoven went to the table, took hold of the top of the title page, tore it right through and threw it on the ground. The first page was rewritten, and only then was the symphony given the title: 'Sinfonia eroica'."

Further historical events show that Beethoven was right in this assessment. After Vienna had been occupied by Napoleon without a fight on November 13, 1805, the city was only retaken after heavy artillery fire on the night of May 11-12, 1809. Beethoven spent these hours in the cellar of his brother Kaspar Karl (1774-1815); to protect his failing hearing, he is said to have covered his ears with pillows.

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The city supports initiatives and projects that "deal with the current challenges in the cultural sector in a diverse, innovative and sustainable way". A total of 34 applications were submitted as part of the call for proposals. A budget of CHF 100,000 was available to support selected projects. The call for proposals was supported by the Foundation for Art, Culture and History (SKKG).

The jury selected the following projects: Video project "Shared Set of Concerns", Sarah Hablützel and Marko Mijatovic (5000 Swiss francs), project "Kunstpost", Luca Harlacher (5000 Swiss francs), "Kunstprojekt mit Messina", Messina (5000 Swiss francs), project "ChorOnline / CaféOnline / ConcertOnline", Franziska Welti and Lea Hagmann (10,000 Swiss francs), project "Tanz-Trail-Spiel", Astrid Künzler (10,000 Swiss francs), exhibition project "System Reset. Tools for a better working world", Museum Schaffen (CHF 20,000), project "Interactive Experiences in Arts & Culture in Times of Crisis & Opportunities", Artsnext (CHF 20,000), audio walk "Tell me where the children are...", Cornelia Truninger and Liliane Weber (CHF 25,000).

In 2019, there were 312,000 people in the Swiss labor force who are "cultural professionals" in the broader sense. This figure corresponds to 6.3 percent of the working population in Switzerland. In an international comparison, this puts Switzerland at the top end of the table, together with countries such as Iceland, Malta, Estonia, Luxembourg and Finland. A third of cultural professionals work outside the cultural sector. At 51%, the proportion of women in the workforce in 2019 was higher than in the economy as a whole (47%). In 2019, 28% of employed cultural professionals were also self-employed, which is significantly more than in the economy as a whole (13%).

While the median gross monthly wage in the economy as a whole was CHF 6857 for men and CHF 6067 for women in 2018, male cultural workers in the cultural sector earned CHF 7356, while women earned CHF 6088. This is around 17.2 percent lower; in the economy as a whole, it is 11.5 percent less.

The synthesis statistics are based on surveys conducted by the FSO. It includes not only traditional cultural sectors such as cultural heritage or the visual arts, but also architecture and advertising, for example. The cultural industries statistics provide information on both cultural enterprises and cultural professionals.

Original article:
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/aktuell/neue-veroeffentlichungen.assetdetail.14716508.html

The name says it all: under the direction of its founder Fortunat Frölich, the choir always develops projects with a partner choir from a different cultural background. To mark its 10th anniversary, Frölich's meta-spiritual "missaverde" will be rehearsed to radical poetic texts by Beat Brechbühl. The work for choir, soloists and symphony orchestra has lost none of its topicality, the organizers write in their press release. It will be invited to the Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival in Lviv (Ukraine) in 2021, where it will be performed together with Ukrainian ensembles.

It is a challenging work for the participants, the press release explains. Participants will be rewarded with an enriching exploration of contemporary music, musical freedom and a journey to an unknown country, where they will be accompanied by the Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

Everyone is invited to sing and travel along, and participation is free for young adults up to the age of 26.

Some dates:
Zurich: October 24 and 25, 2020 (start of project)
Chur: November 14 and 15, 2020 (register rehearsals)
Lviv: October 2 to 10, 2021 (rehearsals and concerts in Lviv)
November 15 to 19, 2021 (rehearsals and concerts in Zurich and Chur)

The instrument was presented in various event formats over the two three days of the first organ festival at the Casino. On the occasion of the new buildings in Basel's Musiksaal and Zurich's Tonhalle, much thought was given to the requirements of a concert hall organ: dynamic flexibility and a room-filling overall effect are required here. The need for a differentiated palette of stops in the normal register (eight-foot register) and a seamless structure from the quietest individual stop to the combination of almost all stops led to borrowings from English, French and German organ building of the late 19th century. With a cool-sounding neoclassical organ, as was previously present in the Casino, or with a row of heterogeneous solo effects, as was recently removed from the Tonhalle, the literature composed for the concert hall and the diverse accompanying tasks can hardly be met.

The organ, built by Orgelbau Metzler in collaboration with the Basel-based company Klahre, was presented for the first time on 4 September with a stringent program sequence: The still rather conventional sound mixtures in the program by Iveta Apkalna (Hamburg) - works by Widor, Bach and Kalniņš (the latter pathetic High Romanticism from the organist's Latvian homeland) - were followed by a selection of unusual effects in subtle improvisations by Vincent Dubois (Paris) and the rich, opulent euphony of an English hall organ in the contributions by Thomas Trotter (London, Birmingham). One of the innovative features of the Basel instrument is the so-called wind-dynamic work, which allows flexible access to the response, intensity and sound of some stops.

September 5 was organized as an organ day with contributions from Basel organists. A large number of arrangements (mainly of orchestral works from the 18th and 19th centuries) could be heard, as well as improvisations and new music. As with many church music events in recent times, an attempt was made to largely hide the traditional Sunday church face of the organ - this led to the new instrument sounding most like "church" in the contribution with music by Jewish composers of all things.

The third day of the festival began with a varied family afternoon: an organ fairy tale was followed by a presentation for children, in which brave participants were allowed to play the keys themselves, and the prizewinners' concert of the "Organ Compositions for Children" competition, which was organized by the "Children to the Organ" association and the Basel Music Academy. The varied series of new pieces was masterfully presented by youngsters aged 8 to 15.
The concert of the Basel Symphony Orchestra in the evening began without an orchestra: Martin Sander (Basel, Detmold) played an arrangement of the overture to the Flying Dutchman; his virtuoso act in front of the still empty chairs of the podium aroused admiration, but also led to the ironic observation that a truly "Corona-suitable" version of the orchestral work had been found here. This was followed by the world premiere of the palatable Concerto da Requiem by Guillaume Connesson, in which the sounds of the organ are cleverly interwoven with those of the orchestra, and finally the popular Organ symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns. Ivor Bolton conducted the committed and sophisticated orchestra. In a welcoming address, orchestra director Franziskus Theurillat assured the audience that the future use of the organ was also a concern of the orchestra. This made people sit up and take notice of the situation in some other cities, where valuable concert hall organs are available but rarely heard. Honors were integrated into the concerts on the first and third days of the festival: A prize from the European Cultural Foundation Pro Europa went to Jacqueline Albrecht (for her magnificent efforts in raising the sum needed to build the organ) and to the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. However, the sequence of the introduction, laudation, award presentation and speech by the newly honored led to unexpected lengths.

After twelve days of waiting, the festival continued with three more musical events: On September 18, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Bleuse, performed music from France with a joyful and loving sound. For the organ concerto by Francis Poulenc, soloist Olivier Latry found a superior sound direction free of all routine, which avoided unnecessary sharpness and showed the colorful organ from its best side. The concert evening Organ meets tango, jazz and Balkan music brought together three ensembles, which are at home in the aforementioned styles using the organ, and three dance formations. The performances were met with great enthusiasm and also confirmed the versatility of the organ. The final concert was to bring together over 200 singers from seven choirs. For reasons best known to all, singing in this large formation had to be postponed until 2021. The evening was now organized by the Basler Madrigalisten under the direction of Raphael Immoos together with the organists Babette Mondry and Iveta Apkalna. This also allowed for a program rich in contrasts - from Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster and the affirmative Hymn for solo organ from Peteris Vasks to the witty Cantata Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten, in which, to the surprise of the audience, a selection of members of the other scheduled choirs could also be heard briefly.

Basel now has an organ that can meet the specific requirements of a concert hall in a colorful and inspiring way. However, this organ requires thoughtful use. The unquestioning adoption of inherited "recipes" for the selection of stops can lead to unfavorable sharpness. The Tuba stop on high wind pressure imported from England is an impressive special sound effect for coronations or papal visits - occasions that are rare in the Casino. Its use for any FCB championship celebrations could be considered. However, it should be clear that this solo register should not be mixed into the organ's tutti. And even when using the neo-baroque mixture of the organ's Hauptwerk, great caution is recommended - as with thousands of other organs in the country.

In view of the ban on accommodation and the drastically worsening corona infection figures, those responsible were forced to take this step. Visitors can have the tickets they have purchased refunded.

The Donaueschingen Music Days were to take place from October 15 to 18. The program included 29 works, 25 of which were world premieres. The Donaueschingen Music Days are organized by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Donaueschingen in cooperation with the city of Donaueschingen and Südwestrundfunk (SWR).

SWR2 will broadcast a rehearsal recording of the opening concert on Friday, October 16 at 8 pm. The SWR Symphonieorchester, conducted by Titus Engel, will play six orchestral miniatures by Klaus Lang, Mica Levi, Cathy Milliken, Lula Romero, Oliver Schneller and Michael Wertmüller - all compositions for small orchestra that were written under special hygiene conditions in view of the festival.

Cla Mathieu completed the doctoral program Studies in the Arts with his dissertation "Reimagining the Guitar: The Performance Style of Miguel Llobet, 1878-1938". The former HKB student was awarded the prize for the best degree, which is endowed with CHF 10,000. The dissertation was supervised by Cristina Urchueguía (University of Bern) and Kai Köpp (HKB). Mathieu previously completed a Master's degree in Music Performance with Elena Casoli at the HKB.

The starting point of the dissertation is the microphone recordings made in the 1920s by Llobet, who, as the leading exponent of his instrument as a soloist and teacher (including as a teacher of Andrés Segovia), exerted a decisive influence on the development of the instrument in the 20th century. Conceptually, the study is based on the concept of "expressivity" - a central term of late Romantic musical thought - and examines its concrete implications for Llobet's instrumental practice and his environment.

There is eye music, and there are spectacle basses. Beethoven has little to do with either musical phenomenon (the Renaissance and the pre-classical period), and yet there is a composition "with two obbligato eyeglasses" in the catalog of his works. Of course, the eyes and spectacles are not intended here as a counterpoint to the viola and cello, but the epithet jokingly refers to the two musicians for whom Beethoven wrote the duet. Incidentally, the visual aids will not have been lorgnettes that were held on a stem in front of the eyes while reading (glasses on the left, book on the right). Rather, more elaborate temple or temple-frame spectacles, or even a simple "nose squeezer" if necessary, were required in order to be able to play freely (in which case, as always: viola left, bow right - and in this case anyway: glasses on the nose).

Of course, it is not known for whom Beethoven wrote his duet. It has been suggested time and again that it could even be for himself (viola) and his friend Nikolaus Zmeskall (1759-1833, civil servant and composer). Although this is suggested by a letter dating from the time around the work (from the early years in Vienna), it cannot be verified with certainty. What remains is the statement "dearest Baron Dreckfahrer je vous suis bien obligé pour votre faiblesse de vos yeux" (I am very much obliged to you because of the weakness of your eyes) too general.

Furthermore, the question arises as to whether the composition was "finished". Only a long, complete first movement and a minuetto have survived in the so-called "Kafka sketchbook", a completely disorganized bundle; only 23 bars of a (second?) slow movement exist. But even where Beethoven wrote down the complete musical text, large parts of the articulation and dynamics are missing. Perhaps there was once a fair copy that has been lost over the decades or has been slumbering in a family vault for generations. But in that case, it's now time to Take an eyeglass and magnifying glass and take a close look.

Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The 2020 annual prizes go to:

• the Institute for Computermusic and Sound Technology, Zurich, for the double CD Les Espaces Électroacoustiques II (col legno/Naxos)
• Bob Dylan for the double album Rough And Rowdy Ways (Columbia Records/Sony)
• the mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen and the pianist Jan Philip Schulze for the Lied recital Dirty Minds (Challenge Classics/Bertus)
• the actor Rufus Beck and the German Bible Society, Stuttgart, for the unabridged reading of the Bible in the Luther translation (Der Audio Verlag)
• The Düsseldorf Düsterboys for their debut album Call me music (Staatsakt/Bertus)
• the conductor Markus Poschner and all participants in the complete recording of Jacques Offenbach's opera Maître Péronilla (Bru Zane/Note 1)
• the country rock band The Jayhawks for their eleventh album XOXO (Sham Records/Membrane)
• the filmmaker Alan Elliott for the editing and release of Pollack's concert film Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace (Sony)
• the pianist Dina Ugorskaja, posthumously, for her recording of late piano works by Franz Schubert (CAvi Music/harmonia mundi)
• jazz pianist and composer Carla Bley and her trio colleagues for the album Life Goes On (ECM/Universal)

The jury statements can be found at:
https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/jahrespreise

In the Jury statement it says: The seven works (by Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Karlheinz Stockhausen) all shine in new splendor in this recording. Les Espaces Électroacoustiques II is with col legno has been published. The members of the research team and participating institutions are listed in the Message from the ZHdK mentioned.

At the beginning of 2020, three letters from the Mozart family found their way to Salzburg. Due to the coronavirus, only one of these documents, a letter from Mozart to Constanze from 1789, could be presented online on Good Friday. The second document, a letter from the first trip to Italy from Bologna dated July 28, 1770, is a detailed letter from Leopold Mozart to his wife Anna Maria, who remained in Salzburg, with a short postscript from Wolfgang in Italian to his sister Nannerl.

According to the Mozarteum, however, the composer's last surviving letter to his father, who died in Salzburg a few weeks later on May 28, 1787, is of outstanding importance. Although the text of the letter had been known for a long time, the original was inaccessible for more than 90 years and there were not even any recordings of it. It is now clear for the first time that Mozart added Masonic symbols to his letter

Original article:
https://mozarteum.at/presse/?newsId=9090780

According to the organizers, the jury was impressed by Tanin's "youthful virtuoso drive and surprising creative power". The third prize went to 22-year-old Ziyu Liu, who comes from China. In the Max Littmann Hall of the Kissinger Regentenbau, those visitors who had booked all the concerts also voted for Sergey Tanin as the winner of the Audience Award.

On October 4, 2020, Swiss Television (SRF) broadcast the documentary "Sergey Tanin - The pianist who came in from the cold from". The final concert of the KlavierOlymp was recorded by Bayerischer Rundfunk and will be broadcast on 17.10. at 15:05 in the program On stage on BR-Klassik.