Sägesser has been head of cultural promotion in the canton of Lucerne since May 2015. According to the canton's press release, he has been particularly responsible for the development and establishment of regional cultural promotion over the past eight years, in cooperation with partner organizations in the cultural sector.

The introduction and further development of selective production and work funding also fell within his term of office. Sägesser also focused on strengthening cooperation in Central Switzerland in the fields of theater, dance, music and film, as well as promoting the corresponding networking and mediation centers. In addition to numerous projects, his activities over the last three years or so have focused heavily on measures such as compensation for lost working hours in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

From next spring, Stefan Sägesser will be taking a short break to devote himself to new projects and reorient himself professionally. His position will be advertised as part of the restructuring of the former Higher Education and Culture Office DHK into a separate Culture Office.

Merlin began his musical training at the Clermont Conservatory and in Paris with Igor Kiritchenko, Xavier Gagnepain and Philippe Müller (cello), Hortense Cartier-Bresson (chamber music) and Janos Komives (conducting). He has been a cellist with Quatuor Ebène since 2002. In 2014, he also founded the ensemble Les Forces majeures.

The OCG will also be working with two artists who will perform as part of the orchestra's concert season. One is the young conductor Holly Hyun Choe, who has already made guest appearances throughout Europe and the USA, and the other is the ensemble's desire to strengthen its ties with Gábor Takács-Nagy, a long-time friend of the orchestra.

Magali Barras will take up her post on April 1, 2023, according to the canton's press release. Originally from Sion, Magali Barras, who graduated from the University of Lausanne with a degree in French, English and archaeology and has been working as a professional journalist since 2003, initially worked for the Edipresse Group before returning to Valais in 2008 to work in the editorial department of Canal9 | Kanal9.

As head of cultural affairs at the regional television station, Magali Barras has "excellent knowledge of the Valais cultural scene and a very broad network, which she has built up over the past few years by traveling through the canton for the cultural magazines L'agenda and Tandem, among others", the canton added.

The Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939 is similar in many respects to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and Finland has once again become the focus of public attention. Especially before the two terrible world wars, choral singing in Scandinavia was an expression of political, liberal-national emancipation. To this day, the composer Jean Sibelius is the all-encompassing figure of identification for Finland, just as Edvard Grieg is for Norway. And the Singing Revolution of 1989 in the Baltic states shows that the power of song can also be quite relevant.

Breitkopf & Härtel has now published two exemplary Urtext single editions from the complete edition of Jean Sibelius' works in its Chorbibliothek series: the early Four songs from op. 18 and the Two songs op. 65, each for mixed choir a cappella. The relatively short pieces paint wonderful pictures of nature and love romances. Due to their moderate level of difficulty and the fact that the Finnish script is almost phonetic, they are highly recommended for amateur choirs. In addition to detailed prefaces, there are also singable German translations. A real enrichment.

Jean Sibelius: Four songs for mixed choir a cappella from op. 18, edited by Sakari Ylivuori, choral score, ChB 5372, € 7.50, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

id.: Two songs op. 65, ChB 5373, € 8.70

In his Review of volume 7 of the Studien zur Orgelmusik (SMZ 3/2020) the reviewer had regretted that the volume on Felix Mendelssohn's organ works published by Butz-Verlag in 2018 (edited by Birger Petersen and Michael Heinemann), despite a wealth of analytical and historical information, did not deal much with explicitly practical questions of interpretation. Fortunately, the present book (a doctoral thesis submitted to the Frankfurt University of Music) now seems to create a kind of "complementarity" to this. Using comprehensive source texts from the composer's historical environment, the author Burkhard Wind sheds light on the essential practical performance aspects of Mendelssohn's organ music (and, more generally, the music of the early German Romantic period), i.e. questions of fingering, pedal technique, articulation, phrasing and punctuation, accentuation, ornamentation and tempo. Only Mendelssohn's instrumental preferences and his registration practice are not further elaborated on by the author - with reference to existing works. The wealth of material testifies to a meticulous examination of the available primary sources, primarily German organ schools from the first third of the 19th century (often written for teacher training at seminaries and therefore relatively fundamental), piano schools and writings on music aesthetics from the time of Mendelssohn and his teachers. In addition, there is a thorough examination of numerous secondary sources relating to Mendelssohn's organ music up to recent times, which are briefly presented in the introductory "literature report" and then commented on in the individual chapters, in some cases in more detail and sometimes critically.

Conclusion: an important and fundamental work that impressively demonstrates that an in-depth examination of practical performance issues has also become necessary with regard to 19th century music, as our time no longer stands in an unbroken "line of tradition" to Mendelssohn's era.

Burkhard Wind: On the performance of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's organ works, 280 p., € 48.00, Georg Olms, Hildesheim and others, 2021, ISBN 978-3-487-16935-1

At the CITES Conference CoP19, which ended on November 25, 2022 in Panama, it was decided, according to the German Music Council, that pernambuco wood will remain in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This means that the feared serious registration obligations for pernambuco wood, which would have affected the trade and transportation of many instrument bows, are off the table for the time being. Only the first export of pernambuco wood from Brazil now requires a permit.

According to Christian Höppner, Secretary General of the German Music Council, the decision not to transfer pernambuco wood to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora means that traveling and trading with bows made from pernambuco wood will continue to be relatively barrier-free for musical life. This is just as important for international musical life as it is for the traditional craft of bow making, which is particularly deeply rooted in Germany.

The Schumann letter edition is extraordinarily comprehensive - it is almost unbelievable what Robert and Clara wrote. The "Correspondence with Theodor Kirchner, Alfred Volkland and other correspondents in Switzerland" has just been published, offering a fascinating insight into the development of music in this country.
The most extensive correspondence is with Theodor Kirchner, who, on the recommendation of Mendelssohn and Schumann, held an organist position in Winterthur from 1843 and who later became close friends with Clara Schumann. The largest part of the collection of over 100 documents was written by Clara Schumann; unfortunately, many of Kirchner's letters have been lost. Thanks to Clara Schumann's contributions, however, we learn a great deal about Kirchner's work in Switzerland and indirectly about Jakob Rieter-Biedermann.

The Winterthur publisher, with whom Clara Schumann published her late husband's works, was one of a large number of recipients of letters, many of which were only a few pages long. In Basel, for example, it was the Riggenbach-Stehlin couple, whom Clara Schumann had met at a concert there in 1857, whereupon a friendship soon developed. There is evidence of 58 letters in total, although not all of them have survived.

One particular example is the composer Wilhelm Baumgartner, of whom only a single letter from December 1851 has survived. In it, he introduces Robert Schumann as the dedicatee of his piano songs op. 10. It is precisely such "micro-correspondence" that provides a comprehensive picture. And not only through the letters themselves, but also through the extremely helpful and instructive editorial work of Annegret Rosenmüller. Not only is the annotation apparatus meticulously designed, there is also a short biography for each person, in which the relationship to the Schumanns and to Switzerland is illuminated.

Rosenmüller has thus created a veritable treasure trove, allowing us to linger and, thanks to her extensive research, learn a great deal about the enormous upswing in music in Switzerland that began in 1850. For example, in the brief correspondence with the Basel composer August Walter or with the musician Heinrich Szadrowsky, who organized a guest performance for Clara Schumann in St. Gallen, which was apparently arranged by Rieter-Biedermann. Or from his correspondence partner Joseph Viktor Widmann, a companion of Brahms. The latter had introduced his friend Clara to the Widmann couple in Baden-Baden in 1889.

The "Swiss Letters" are so numerous that it would take two volumes with a total of over 1000 pages to contain everything.

Schumann-Briefedition, Serie II Briefwechsel mit Freunden und Künstlerkollegen, Band 10, Briefwechsel Robert und Clara Schumanns mit Theodor Kirchner, Alfred Volkland und anderen Korrespondenten in der Schweiz, ed. by Annegret Rosenmüller, 2 Teilbände, 1121 p., € 158.00, Dohr, Cologne 2022, ISBN 978-3-86846-021-6

It is actually a wonderful idea to dedicate a comprehensive encyclopaedia to the orchestra. The Laaber publishing house, which took on this challenge, decided to include articles about individual orchestras, countries, conductors, instruments and specialist topics (e.g. employment contract, general music director, rental material, audition or baton), as well as articles about composers who have written for orchestras. The articles were written by well over 200 contributors. Due to the wide variety of topics, there are around 1500 pages spread over two heavyweight volumes. Unfortunately, the quality of the contributions varies greatly.

If you study the composer biographies a little more closely, you will find passages that are not convincing. The author of the article on Charles Koechlin, for example, writes that his love of Alsatian folk music characterized his music, but this is not true. Several of Koechlin's work titles are misspelled, but one work is also mentioned (Les temples), which does not even exist. Rather incomprehensible is the observation: "In his orchestral works, Koechlin frequently uses contrapuntal procedures, even going as far as counterpoint with complex chordal structures."

Other articles contain truisms such as "Moreover, he consciously gives each of his pieces its very own face" (Peter Eötvös) or debatable conclusions such as "Suk's compositional legacy Epilogue on the other hand, is particularly impressive in terms of its consistently modernist tonal language, which at the same time contradicts normative ideas of late works" (Josef Suk). It remains to be seen whether the statement "Profane topoi often obscure the separation of artificial and functional music in Schreker and suggest new scenic contexts" in the article on Franz Schreker really helps.

It is understandable that the pieces in the catalogs of works are often selected very subjectively, but the fact that no works after 2014 are mentioned for Peter Eötvös, Kaija Saariaho, Georg Friedrich Haas or Erkki-Sven Tüür, for example, does not exactly make the encyclopedia up-to-date.

Of course, the encyclopedia contains many conductor biographies. But how can it be explained that there are no detailed biographies of three of the most important Czech conductors, namely Václav Talich, Karel Ančerl and Václav Smetáček? Part of the text on Teodor Currentzis, with its effusive praise, could have been taken from an advertising brochure: "Without a baton, with original, eruptive gestures, Currentzis demands unconditional devotion to the seriousness and truth of the music without regard for traditions and listening habits."

There is particular excitement in a Lexicon of the orchestra to the articles about the individual orchestras and orchestral culture in different countries. There is, of course, a wealth of information here, especially with regard to German orchestras. However, an unnecessary number of names are misspelled (examples: Frank von Hoesslin instead of Franz von Hoesslin, Toshiyuki Kamioki instead of Kamioka, both former GMD in Wuppertal). The fact that the Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek died in 2017 should be mentioned in an encyclopaedia published in 2021, as should the fact that the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing in a new concert hall within the Dresden Kulturpalast since 2017. The details in the orchestra articles are also not to be trusted. For example, it is claimed that Henze's Symphony No. 7a work commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker, was premiered by the RSO Stuttgart. Many changes of chief conductor at the end of the 2010s are also not mentioned in the corresponding orchestra articles, which rather diminishes the relevance of the encyclopedia.

If you are interested in Norwegian music and orchestral culture, you will be fobbed off with very unsatisfactory information. The important orchestras are Oslo Filharmonien with 69 members (in reality there are 108), the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra (an amateur orchestra founded in 1919) and the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra. Not mentioned are the equally important orchestras of Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim, Tromsø/Bodø and Kristiansand (not to be confused with Kristiansund).

Switzerland, however, fares no better: only the Basel Chamber Orchestra (which existed until 1987), the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich are described in detail. The information on the orchestras in the canton of Bern is particularly sparse - and also outdated or simply incorrect: "The Bern Symphony Orchestra has existed since 1877; in 2011, the orchestra and the Stadttheater Bern were merged into the Konzert Theater Bern Foundation. Mario Venzago has held the position of chief conductor since 2010. In 2012, the Sinfonie Biel Solothurn, founded in 1969, merged with the Orchester Theater Biel Solothurn to form the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn. Since the year of the merger, the orchestra has been conducted by Kaspar Zehnder."

Since some articles on specialist topics and instruments were also written by authors who have only superficially dealt with their topic, the Lexicon of the orchestra not convincing in some respects.

Encyclopedia of the orchestra. Orchestras and ensembles worldwide, history and performance practice, composers and conductors, orchestral practice, edited by Frank Heidlberger, Gesine Schröder and Christoph Wünsch, 2 vols. with a total of 1488 p., € 198.00 (until 31.12.2022), Laaber, Lilienthal 2021, ISBN 978-3-89007-551-8

One would like to know how the wanderer Schoeck would have set the texts of the stroller Walser, his contemporary, to music. But apparently they did not notice each other, just as the non-reception of some Swiss art seems to be inherent. In any case, the intensive reception of Walser by musicians only began long after his death - although there are exceptions. And Roman Brotbeck tells of these in the first chapters of his thick book: how a forgotten Berlin composer and critic (James Simon) set two poems to music as early as 1912. How a choirmaster working in Biel (Wilhelm Arbenz) found a different tone with three songs. How a composer who immigrated to Switzerland (Wladimir Vogel) misunderstood Walser's texts and transformed them into an artist's drama. It was only with Urs Peter Schneider that a continuous and highly fruitful preoccupation with Walser began, in this case extending over half a century and giving rise to a veritable, extremely multifaceted cosmos.

Brotbeck tells these stories of reception in a well-founded manner. He analyzes, but not in a bean-counting way. Instead, he lets the details speak for themselves and works out the contexts. Of course, this is hardly enough to capture the sheer exponentially growing number of Walser settings. Brotbeck therefore varies the presentation in an inventive way, so that the reader does not tire of reading the list, but continues with curiosity. Individual chapters are devoted, for example, to Heinz Holliger, the most prominent composer of musical settings, and to the Greco-Frenchman Georges Aperghis, who worked with Walser, Paul Klee and Adolf Wölfli during his time in Bern. One chapter each deals with operas based on Walser novels and other dramatizations. Brotbeck then picks out a single poem, the short "Beiseit", and presents it in 21 settings. And so on. The final point is set by unperformed/unrealized projects by Johannes Fritsch and Hans Zender.

Behind this is - otherwise it would be boring and one would only use this book as a reference work - an immense wealth of analytical methods, which access the purely musical level, but also shed light on the relationships to the word, illuminate the dramatizations with their backgrounds and finally also include Walser himself. The poet as "his own composer": the opening chapter is dedicated to this theme. Sequences of sounds, polyphonic constellations, intricate rhythms can be found in the texts, showing Walser as an extremely conscious, listening designer - despite the seemingly casual lightness that his texts always have.

The publication, which was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, is therefore a compendium that no one researching Walser settings in the future will be able to avoid. Naturally, it cannot be complete, as Walser continues to be set to music, and there may still be discoveries to be made in the past. Shortly before going to press, Brotbeck received a reference to a song that the illustrator and amateur composer Marcus Brehmer once even played and sang to the brothers Karl and Robert Walser in Berlin, which, as he writes, "created a wonderfully sublime, quite unearthly mood of togetherness". The song seems to have been lost, but we can imagine its effect in the most beautiful way.

Roman Brotbeck: Sounds and sounds. Robert Walser-Vertonungen 1912 bis 2021, 660 p., € 79.00, Brill Fink, Paderborn 2022, ISBN 978-3-7705-6686-0, Open Access

"Music from the Czech Republic enjoys a high reputation all over the world (...). The piano music of Czech composers, on the other hand, is not very well known beyond the borders of the Czech Republic (...)." The Czech pianist Ivo Kahánek is probably not entirely wrong with this statement. Every now and then you hear a work by Janáček. Beyond that, piano pieces by Smetana, Dvořák, Suk or Martinů are quite rare on our stages, not to mention lesser-known composers.

With its collector's booklet A journey of discovery through Czech piano musicpublished by Bärenreiter Praha, Kahánek aims to counteract this shortcoming. It contains compositions by fifteen composers from the pre-classical period to the present day. Among them, of course, well-known works such as the indestructible Humoresque in G-flat major by Dvořák or three pieces from Janáček's cycle On an overgrown path. Smetana is represented with two album sheets and a polka, Josef Suk with two enchanting Idylls are represented. In addition, however, there are numerous miniatures by Milan Dlouhý, Jiří Vřešťál, Luboš Sluka and many other composers whose names are not very familiar outside the Czech Republic.

Particular mention should be made of Bells for the night by Petr Eben, a very simple but beautiful-sounding tone poem. Also the Preludio ostinato by Miloslav Kabeláč, with its constant repetition of a short motif, has a suggestive effect (reminiscent of Janáček). But it is not always about meditative music. Jiří Vřešťál's witty study in sixths is very entertaining and should be fun for many. However, the prerequisite for this is loose wrists ...

In order to appeal to as many pianists as possible, Ivo Kahánek has endeavored to include compositions in the collection "that can also be played by beginners or slightly advanced players. Even the most demanding pieces do not exceed the level of the lower grades in their technical difficulty ...", he writes in the foreword. This is probably a somewhat over-optimistic assessment. Because even the easy Sonatina III by Jiří Antonín Benda or the Rondo in G major by Jan Václav Voříšek are of course not for beginners. And a few pieces demand a virtuoso level, such as the grotesque Devil's polka by Vítězslav Novák. Overall, however, the focus is on artistically ambitious works that require a great deal of tonal sense and creative imagination with moderate technical effort. Therein lies the special educational value of this Voyage of discovery.

Incidentally, one gladly agrees with the editor's hope that one may be "inspired to track down even more treasures of Czech piano music".

Journey of discovery through Czech piano music, pieces for slightly advanced players, selected and revised by Ivo Kahánek, BA 11560, € 17.95, Bärenreiter, Prague

If you are only interested in the construction or history of the Langnauerli and Schwyzerörgeli, you are in the wrong place: this book is not a history or technology book - there is already one by Ernst Roth - but a lively cultural history of these amazingly diverse and widespread instruments. Although the glossary explains the most important basic terms and differences between the models, the emphasis is on documenting the scene with portraits of players, hand organ makers and restorers, tuners and dealers.

Journalist and publicist Beat Hugi and organ virtuoso Thomas Aeschbacher visited around 40 representatives of the Langnauerli, Stöpselbass and Schwyzerörgeli scene and give a vivid account of the conversations. As Thomas Aeschbacher is a proven connoisseur of the organ, the interviews get to the point very quickly and the reader gains an insight into the richness of the sound possibilities and differences between the various organs. The different approaches to and demands on the music of the players also become clear.

It is noticeable that, although there are plenty of young people playing the Örgeli, the number of Örgeli makers and restorers is clearly ageing. What this means for the future of the instrument remains to be seen. The richly illustrated and beautifully designed book gives a lively impression of the variety of concepts and playing styles and, thanks to the accompanying CDs, also of the diversity of the different tunings and sounds.

The reviewer was so fascinated by what he read that he bought a Langnauerli and has regularly enjoyed the beauty of the instrument's sound ever since.

Beat Hugi and Thomas Aeschbacher: Langnauerli. Stöpselbass. Schwyzerörgeli. - The game. The craft. The virtuosos, 440 p., 202 illustrations, 2 CDs, texts by Franz Hohler, Corin Curschellas, Pedro Lenz and others, Fr. 49.00, Weber-Verlag, Thun, 2021, ISBN 978-3-03818-296-2

"Finally a drumset school for beginners that stands out from the numerous other schools!" - Instead of the boring practicing of two-bar patterns and endless explanations with long text passages, Michael H. Lang's course provides a lot of playing material with a clear structure. With 107 exercises and pieces as well as 14 solos in various levels of difficulty, the author combines learning, practicing and making music in a methodically sensible way on over 140 pages.

Learning rhythmic building blocks is easier and quicker with words that the pupils already know. The author has selected 6 basic figures and suitable names to start with, which are gradually introduced without the need for long explanations. In the field of percussion, cowbell, glockenspiel, cymbal bell and wood block are common, understandable words anyway; as objects, they are tangible and can be found in the classroom. These words have their own rhythm and when they are spoken while playing, the figures played are automatically in tune.

"Our pupils are curious, they want to learn, they want to play, they want to have fun. And fun only comes from playing. They have fun because they can do something. That's why we shouldn't be afraid to teach the children a lot," writes Michael H. Lang.

So why should the children be plagued with 1e+e 2e+e 3e+e 4e+e, for example, which is very abstract and plays no role at all at the beginning? The pupils only need a few, but easily understandable basics to be able to play, and not abstract and complicated idioms. The children quickly learn the basic rhythms set out by Michael H. Lang from the very first lesson and on all the instruments that the drum kit has to offer. This is because they want to play on the entire drum set right from the start. Once they have mastered these basic rhythms, everything else goes much more smoothly.

Michael H. Lang: Drumset-Schule, modified new edition, GN 114590, € 26.80, Musikeigenverlag Michael H. Lang 2022, www.michaelhlang.de

"I discover an infinite number of new sounds every day, completely without electricity. It's also unecological to use so much electricity." You can tell a lot in just a few words. Heinz Holliger has a wit that - these sentences are from the year 2022 - is not lost on him, even at an advanced age and in our dystopian times. The daily discovery of new sounds in turn points to Holliger's unbridled inspiration, which is based on a broad educational horizon and was also made possible by a somewhat "peculiar" way of thinking, which generally suits artists well.

The anthology Heinz Holliger does not bring up much that is new. But it does surprise with a broad view of the composer: choral works are analyzed by Heidy Zimmermann, who is in charge of the Holliger archive at the Paul Sacher Foundation. Tobias Eduard Schick approaches the string quartets, Jörn Peter Hiekel the opera just as sensitively LuneaThomas Meyer's unbiased and refreshing approach to Swiss folk music and dialect. Across genres, it is clear that Holliger is a child of his time in that he deals intensively with musical duration and density, as well as with traces of serialism and questions of indeterminate notation. Ultimately, however, it is not the "what" but the "how" that is decisive for him - or in the words of Helmut Lachenmann, quoted by Hiekel: Holliger is always concerned with the possibilities of "rediscovering even the familiar".

Perhaps some readers will miss information about the oboist, who was also an accomplished pianist and conductor. Nevertheless, the 182 pages about the "musical universalist" (according to the editor Ulrich Tadday) are definitely worth reading - especially as they provide many illuminating insights into Swiss music history en passant. Incidentally, Holliger also had some surprising words to say about his home country: "At the same time, Switzerland has something crazy about it - I often say that the greatest Swiss have lived in a madhouse." Well then, he too is a great Swiss. Fortunately, he's doing well. Physically and apparently also mentally.

Heinz Holliger, edited by Ulrich Tadday, Musik-Konzepte issue 196/197, 197 p., € 38.00, Edition Text+Kritik, Munich 2022, ISBN 978-3-96707-600-4

Today, César Franck is mainly regarded as the father of French Romantic organ symphonies and the inspiration for his pupils Widor, Vierne, Tournemire and Debussy. His organ works and the Symphony in D minor in particular are still very popular today. However, his operas, songs, masses and oratorios tend to lead a shadowy existence. It is therefore all the more commendable that Carus-Verlag Stuttgart has published his main choral symphonic work, written in 1879, in time for the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. Les Béatitudes published for the first time in a scholarly Urtext edition.

The monumental, two-hour work in French sets the Beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, can be classified as something between a sacred opera and an oratorio and impresses with its contrasting alternation of folk song-like, lyrical, dramatic and hymn-like episodes. Some movements were composed as early as 1870 during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War. After a prologue, the words of Christ "Blessed are ..." are preceded in each of the eight movements by earthly or heavenly choruses in an antithetical and commentary style.

The orchestral scoring is opulent in a contemporary French style and requires a choir with good numbers and voices. Despite the eight solo parts, some of which can be reduced by a clever division of roles as suggested in the preface, the choral part is quite large and not too heavy. A rewarding and worthwhile work for oratorio choirs.

César Franck: Les Béatitudes op. 25, oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra, edited by Hans Christoph Becker-Foss and Thomas Ohlendorf; score CV 10.393/00, € 119.00; piano reduction CV 10.393/30, € 29.95; Carus, Stuttgart

This weighty book provides intimate insights into the biography of violin virtuoso Stefi Geyer, a pupil of Jenő Hubay, who died in 1956. As a child prodigy, she played a Bériot concerto in Budapest at the age of 10, Spohr's concerto In Form einer Gesangsszene at the age of 12 and soon a large repertoire throughout Europe, e.g. the Brahms concerto in Berlin at the age of 20. In 1907/08, at the age of 19, she exchanged letters intensively with the 26-year-old Béla Bartók. Bartók was busy collecting folk songs at the time. He admired Stefi's skills and was flattered by her interest in his work. They had contradictory discussions about faith in God, various forms of friendship and, again and again, about their work. Bartók wrote a stylistically new violin concerto for Stefi, whose leitmotif d-f sharp-a-c sharp is always mentioned as an unspoken declaration of love. She received the manuscript of the concerto as a gift from Bartók, kept it unplayed and gave it to Paul Sacher on her deathbed. It was premiered by Hansheinz Schneeberger in Basel in 1958.

Shortly after their unhappy love affair ended, Bartók married Marta Ziegler and Stefi married the Viennese E. O. S. Jung, who died of the Spanish flu in 1918. Her acquaintance with the Zurich pianist, composer and concert organizer Walter Schulthess led to their marriage in 1920. Zurich became a center of international concert life. This led to a renewed rapprochement with Bartók, which became tangible in a new correspondence from 1928 until Bartók's death in 1945. In this correspondence, the two couples (Bartók had been married to his pupil Ditta Pásztory since 1923) soon became very familiar thanks to vacations spent together and later became increasingly caring. In addition to her intensive teaching activities in Zurich, the care of her daughter Rosmarin, born in 1921, her work as concertmaster of the Zurich Collegium Musicum, participation in the Lucerne Festival Weeks and concerts worldwide, Stefi Geyer cared for her relatives in Hungary who were suffering under Soviet administration; the letters from the years 1925 to 1956 bear witness to this. 21 letters from Jenő Hubay give us an idea of his continued support for Stefi.

The book reads like an exciting epistolary novel. The letters are valuably supplemented by a photographic curriculum vitae, several introductory texts by the editors Dominik Sackmann and Helga Váradi and the contributors László Vikárius and Kornel Zipernowsky. The elaborately compiled chronological list of all of Stefi Geyer's concerts and performed works is commendable.

Stefi Geyer. Materialien zu ihrer Biografie, edited by Helga Váradi and Dominik Sackmann, Zürcher Musikstudien Vol. 11, 522 p., Fr. 103.00, Peter Lang, Bern et al. 2021, ISBN 978-3-0343-3769-4 (Print)