Niklaus Keller knows no fear of contact. The catalog of works by the percussion teacher, who studied composition under Hans U. Lehmann in Zurich and Paul Glass at the Lugano Conservatory, begins in 1994 with a Ländler-Fox for marimba, electric guitar, drum set, vibraphone, melodica and electric bass. His last three works, available via Bandcamp, range from ecclesiastical-mysterious choral chants to a cheerfully rushing Sicerto for string orchestra through to country & western persiflage White Coffee.

Chrome Shuffle - a cycle of eleven pieces for a nontet with vibraphone, electric bass, electric guitar, drums, trumpet/flugelhorn, tenor saxophone, trombone and two synths/samplers (one of which is operated by Keller himself) - is yet another completely different "kettle of fish". The idea behind it was to write pieces that did not make any great technical demands, "so that I could devote myself to the music as such as quickly as possible without technical difficulties interfering with the performance", explains the composer, who works in Bologna. At the same time, however, he also notated the solos, "because improvised solos usually sound standardized and standardized".

The results - each piece a sonic short story - are incredibly difficult to describe. Vibraphone and horns characterize the consistently heartfelt mood, the rocky, funky rhythms, breaks and hooks pull you along, the melodies remind this ear, for rather inexplicable reasons, of the music of British eccentrics such as Kevin Ayers, Lol Coxhill or Art Bears. Conclusion: double and triple bass music that is reminiscent of many things, but remains uncompromisingly itself.

Niklaus Keller: Chrome Shuffle. Bandcamp

The Austrian guitarist, music teacher and publisher Michael Langer has enriched the "Saitenwege" series from Edition Dux with two more music books, this time with a total of 88 pieces for two guitars. The structure of the albums corresponds exactly to the editions The very easy entry and The easy introduction to the world of classical guitar Each volume presents between five and eleven more or less representative pieces from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Multicultural and Pop styles. The only difference, apart from the duo instrumentation: instead of the categories "very easy" and "easy", the two volumes are assigned to the categories "easy" and "moderately difficult".

Michael Langer deals freely with the musical material, with a good sense for a sensible middle way between faithfulness to the original and technically easy to realize interpretation. Most of the pieces are newly arranged by him. Thus we encounter not only typical guitar pieces, but also, for example, excerpts from Vivaldi's Four seasons or Mozart's Magic flute. Only a few duos - for example by Maria Linnemann - appear in the original musical text, and some arrangements were originally solo pieces.

Within the stylistic areas, the pieces tend to be arranged in progressive levels of difficulty. One focus, especially in the second volume, is on Latin American numbers from the simple Bailecito to the Libertango by Astor Piazzolla. In the pop category, there are real hits from Queen, George Ezra and Ed Sheeran included Happy by Pharrell Williams. If you don't know how this is supposed to sound on two classical guitars, you can download all of the publisher's recordings with a download code or listen to them on Spotify.

Michael Langer: Saitenwege for two guitars. Six centuries of guitar music for guitar duo; vol. 1, easy, D 918; vol. 2, medium, D 919; € 29.80 each, Dux, Manching

In 1680, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) wrote six suites as table music for his brother, Prince Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf von Kuenburg in Salzburg. They are deliberately not too difficult, in clear forms and do without virtuoso "show effects" - in contrast to most of Biber's instrumental works.

The editor has provided the first two partitas with modern clefs and time signatures. In the Partita I a Largo Sonata encloses the dance movements Allemanda, Courante, Sarabanda, Gavotte and Gigue. In the Partita II an Intrada opens three balletti in alla breve time, separated by two quiet sarabands. As the first viola never takes up the C string, there is an additional second violin part, so these suites could well be played with a string quartet (or orchestra) and continuo.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: Mensa Sonora, Partitas I and II, for violin, 2 violas (2 violins, viola) and basso continuo, edited by Markus Eberhardt, EW 1051, € 19.80, Walhall, Magdeburg

Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a successful composer in her time. She lived in Mecklenburg and Berlin. Her works include symphonies, concert overtures, a singspiel, four-part choral pieces, piano and chamber music. Despite performances in numerous major European cities in the 19th century, most of her compositions remained unpublished.

The pianist Katharina Sellheim came across the unpublished manuscripts of the four piano trios and recorded three of them on CD with her Hannover Piano Trio (Missing Link: Emilie MayerGenuin 22790). Now, assisted by the members of her ensemble, she is in charge of publishing at Furore-Verlag Kassel.

Her efforts pay off: Emilie Mayer's piano trios radiate freshness and vitality; the composer was a master of her craft. Stylistically, this music lies between Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Anyone who goes on a treasure hunt, playing or listening, away from the main pillars of the repertoire and the "great" masters will make a delightful discovery with the Piano Trio in E flat major. Works by female composers of the 19th century are also rarely found in concert programs. Wrongly so, as Emilie Mayer shows us here!

In terms of playing technique, this piano trio is also accessible to experienced amateurs. It is less difficult than the works by Beethoven and Schubert. All instruments, especially the violoncello, can develop beautifully.

Emilie Mayer: Piano trio in E flat major, for violin, violoncello and piano, edited by Katharina Sellheim, score and parts, fue 10346, € 69.00, Furore, Kassel

Müliradverlag has published another interesting book of sheet music for violin or other melody instruments. It contains folk dance music from the first third of the 19th century and thus offers an insight into the early days of couple dance music; the collections known to date are almost all from later decades.

The booklet contains one hundred dances, most of them in three-four time. The discovery of the collection is due to the editor Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser. Nothing is known about the original owner Anton Hotz, but Bachmann credibly locates the dances in the Höfe/March area in the canton of Schwyz thanks to her immense knowledge of the sources.

Co-editor Christoph Greuter has transcribed the dances and provided chord indications, which are very useful for the accompaniment. You can tell that Greuter is an excellent expert on the subject. The dances are written down with a practical orientation, without ornaments and without first and second endings in the repetitions. At the time, it was left to the players' taste to make the pieces appealing. The notes were merely a template or reminder for the individual performance.

The pieces are attractive to play because the tonal language of the early dances differs significantly from those at the turn of the 20th century. In some cases, modal influences are still present, which later give way to cadential harmony. However, the booklet also offers historically interesting insights: Half of the dances are still in two parts, the other half are already in three parts. The term "Ländler" appears in some of the dances and is thus the earliest evidence of the term being used in Switzerland; others are referred to as "Walz" or "Walzer", some also as "Langus". The few two-quarter dances are entitled "Allemander" or "Allimand"; "Polka", "Galopp" or "Schottisch", on the other hand, do not yet appear.

The booklet, which is supplemented with informative information on its origin and edition, is therefore not only a pleasure to play, but also a rich source for the development of dance music in Switzerland.

Old Schwyz violin dances - The dance book by Anton Hotz, Höfe/March around 1830, edited by Christoph Greuter and Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser, Mülirad no. 1069, Fr. 38.00, Mülirad, Altdorf

Holzschuhverlag has published another valuable book in the "Tastenforscher" series. As a répétiteur and conductor, Guido Klaus is well aware of the importance of sight-reading skills. As a pedagogue, he advocates the inclusion of sight-reading from the very beginning in order to support playing by ear and learning by imitation. In doing so, he pursues the goal of guiding learners towards a musical independence that is often lacking.

The booklet is clearly structured and cleverly structured in terms of progression. I like the fact that Klaus first gives a big overview of the notes and keys and then, with the notes C and G, allows the whole keyboard to be explored with reading exercises without a fixed pulse. Recognizing small groups of notes in combination with fluently reading the next beginning note in advance is intended to promote summary reading as a basic skill. In addition, there are sections with pure rhythm training before pitch and rhythm are combined in small monophonic, later two-part melodies.

Another basic skill for fluent reading is recognizing and grasping individual intervals and triads. There are numerous examples of exercises and music puzzles. After the theoretical introduction of the accidentals, they are to be placed in scales by ear. The importance of active listening for sight-reading cannot be emphasized enough.

This booklet is probably aimed more at older children and young people and is also ideally suited as an opening in lessons, as rhythmization or for "lazy weeks" in which not enough practice could be done.

Guido Klaus: Keyboard researcher, sight-reading training from the beginning, VHR 3418, € 14.80. Holzschuh, Manching

There is hardly any other music that is so difficult to make music from. Johann Sebastian Bach's cello suites are a challenge - and quite a few have already failed. Many recordings of the suites sound brittle, without arcs, spelled out from note to note. Bernhard Maurer increases the risk by recording all six suites live. Not in the studio, but in medieval churches around Thun. "Whenever I had the opportunity to play a Bach suite in a Romanesque church, it seemed to me that this was the ideal space for this music, even if the music was composed half a millennium after the building," explains Maurer. And so no sound documents were created, but six films in light and dark church rooms, which can be viewed on the website bachsuites.ch can be accessed as a YouTube link.

There is the recording of the sixth cello suite in Blumenstein church. In front of an empty audience, Maurer plays a five-string cello piccolo, built in 2012 by Stephan Schürch after a model by Nicolò Amati. The instrument of baroque provenance does not sound as domesticated as the modern cello, but it is brighter and perhaps also more honest. Maurer not only plays with somnambulistic assurance, but also with a clear, low-vibrato tone and a pronounced sense of timbre and dynamics. The intimate setting, the solitude of the church, emphasizes the private character of the suites. Various camera angles show the virtuoso fingering of the left hand, the bow in close-up, the colorful church windows or the long shot with Maurer in the center of the church. This Bachian concentration on the essentials would have done the films good; sometimes the changes of perspective seem unnecessarily hectic and take away from the tranquillity of the music.

The third suite, captured on film in the sparse Schlosskirche Spiez, sounds darker and more familiar. Here Bernhard Maurer plays on a more common baroque cello from the school of Giovanni Battista Maggini. Once again, you can feel that Maurer has been studying the suites for decades. There are no intonation uncertainties, the tempi seem natural, no gigue, which others sometimes turn into a superficial virtuoso piece.

So: It's worth visiting the website, which also offers good background information in addition to the links. Of course, the usual advertising interruptions on YouTube are terrible - perhaps something could be done about this and the films could be linked directly on the site? These sensitive works in particular really don't need screaming commercialism.

bachsuites.ch

Goethe - as much musical authority is granted to him here - was moved by her playing, but also by her charisma, and wrote a poem to her, which ends with the words: "There felt - oh that it would last forever! - /the double happiness of sound and love." He was deeply moved by his encounter with the Polish pianist Maria Szymanowska: "Talent would crush you if her grace did not make it forgivable." [That was in Marienbad in 1823, and it is natural to hear all the undertones of the gender understanding of the time in such statements today. An artist who moved so freely in the world was astonishing (one could at best place her alongside Hélène de Montgéroult), and this led to descriptions such as the "female Vulcan" and the "Queen of Tones".

The Polish musicologist Danuta Gwizdalanka, who published a biography of Witold Lutosławski with her husband, the composer Krzysztof Meyer, is a profound connoisseur of Polish music, and in her portrait she approaches Szymanowska with admiration as well as caution and calm. She presents her works with a critical eye and points out details. However, the result is neither a musicological book nor a sentimental biography. Szymanowska is described as a "charming, enlightened and pragmatic woman". She died all too young at the age of 41, from cholera, a stroke or fatigue, perhaps from all of the above.

Gwizdalanka tells this biography from the testimonies and details of a richly lived life. Szymanowska, who separated from her husband at an early age, was independent and self-reliant, traveled extensively and was celebrated throughout Europe. How she fared, but also how she coped with everyday life, often accompanied by siblings and children, gives a deep insight into her way of life. The book closes a serious gap in the reception of female composers, which certainly existed at the time, but unfortunately did not last.

Danuta Gwizdalanka: The "female Vulcan". The pianist and composer Maria Szymanowska, translated from Polish by Peter Oliver Loew, 176 p., € 19.80, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2023, ISBN 978-3-447-11913-9

Anyone who first thinks of Czech chamber music for string instruments should not overlook the fact that one of the most frequently performed flute sonatas is by a Czech composer. Together with the sonatas by Poulenc and Prokofiev, Bohuslav Martinů's sonata, written in 1945 in exile in America, is one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire. The long chain of recordings has now been extended by a Swiss production that makes you sit up and take notice. With the Zurich-born solo flutist of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sarah Rumer, and the pianist Ulrich Koella, who teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts, the Zurich label Prospero is releasing a new recording under the motto Slavonic Journey CD, which offers not only standard works but also little-known curiosities.

Martinů's masterpiece already receives an admirable interpretation. In addition to wide-ranging breath bows in nimble semiquaver passages, the pianissimo transitions from vertical sections to horizontal-linear ones, played with the finest rubato, stand out. The flutist and pianist owe nothing in terms of brilliance to the musical corner movements of Jindřich Feld's sonata. In Feld's Quatre pièces for solo flute quotes the "Hommage à Bartók" from his Concerto for orchestra. The duo charges Erwin Schulhoff's frequently encountered sonata with the necessary joy of playing the many ostinati and harmonic frictions.

Through her marriage to the writer Jiří Mucha, the son of the Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha, the London composer Geraldine Thomson became a Czech citizen and was therefore included in this production. Her Naše cesta (Our Journey) is characterized by elegance and folksong-like melodies. The imaginatively designed booklet features various photos of Prague's main railway station to reflect the travel theme.

The wind sextet Mládí (youth) integrated, shrill repeating March of the bluethroats by Leoš Janáček for piccolo and piano derives its supposedly ornithological title from blue choirboy uniforms. With Sarah Rumer's curious transcription of the Slavic fantasy by Fritz Kreisler is a transcription of a transcription, the latter consisting of Kreisler's arrangement of two themes by Dvořák.

Slavonic Journey (Martinů, Feld, Schulhoff, Mucha, Janáček, Dvořák/Kreisler). Sarah Rumer, flute; Ulrich Koella, piano. Prospero PROSP0049

Fritz Stüssi (1874-1923), like so many Swiss composers of this generation, would have been long forgotten were it not for the enthusiasm and dedication of his grandson Ulrich Stüssi. Stüssi was a "Zurich native" and attended music school there; Lothar Kempter and Fritz Hegar were his teachers. He was later joined in Berlin by Max Bruch. From his home in Wädenswil, Stüssi dominated the musical landscape on Lake Zurich for a long time.

He left behind an extensive oeuvre that is strongly rooted in the Romantic tradition. His main focus was on sacred works such as cantatas and motets. The sheet music is kept in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

His most important work is the oratorio, which premiered in Wädenswil in 1914 and lasts around thirty minutes Decay and resurrection, which is now available at Claves together with the Psalm 28 as well as other short pieces. Stüssi was not a dramatist, but rather a composer strongly rooted in Protestant religiosity who courageously confronted his role models. He begins his oratorio with "All flesh is like grass", which Brahms wrote in the German Requiem into one of the most touching movements. In Stüssi's work, it is the bass who begins with a moving recitative after a few bars of orchestral introduction. The model of Mendelssohn with the Elias is unmistakable, the striding ductus is also strongly reminiscent of Wagner's Parsifal. However, Stüssi is only able to build on the promising beginning in fragments.

For long stretches, the soloists dominate the action recitatively, which at times seems somewhat uniform, even though the lower voices in particular are formidably cast with Ingeborg Danz (alto) and Krešimir Stražanac (bass). The way in which the Zürcher Sing-Akademie under Florian Helgath celebrates the choral passages with outstanding vocal culture is also magnificent.

It is a pity that the CD is supplemented by other short choral pieces in a similar style, which makes listening to it somewhat tiring. Stüssi certainly has other works to offer, such as a C minor suite, which the Avalon Quartet has already played.

Red. The documentary short film offers an insight into his life and work Fritz Stüssi - Where you are going by Esther Kempf and Julia Ann Stüssi, to be seen on YouTube. Over 30 of the 134 works have been digitized and are available from the music publisher Musica Mundana.

Fritz Stüssi: A Swiss Romantic. Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Zürcher Kammerphilharmonie, conductor Florian Helgath. Claves 50-3085

Deletion at the instigation of Verena (Mail 12.1.24)

Although Albin Brun (*1959) and Kristina Brunner (*1993) come from different generations, they are committed to a common vision: Both the Lucerne native and the Bernese are eager to constantly develop Swiss folk music. While Brun, who was awarded the Swiss Music Prize in 2017, is regarded as one of the key figures between jazz and contemporary folk music, Brunner has made a name for herself thanks to her virtuoso playing on the cello and Schwyzerörgeli.

After the two met at the Lucerne School of Music, they began working together in 2017. The duo rehearses weekly, developing dense sound poetry and coming up with magnificently sophisticated chamber music. Their debut from 2020, MidnangBrun and Brunner are now Inland follow. An album made up of 13 original compositions, which, in addition to reduced instrumentation, also offers atmospheric excursions and constantly varying melodies.

Although the opener presents itself Fex initially lively, but the piece soon turns to more contemplative motifs, which seem to be driven in particular by a nameless longing. In songs like Shovidar! or Aube it also becomes clear that wanderlust and homesickness are lurking around the next corner. This results in a mood that ranges from melancholy to dreamy and is touching throughout.

Brun and Brunner have fun using changing combinations of instruments: Sometimes cello and organ play around each other, at other times two organs bait each other. The result is convincing. Schratteflue for example, draws on the melancholy and testifies to alpine closeness, while the W., the fish proves to be related to the chanson. With Inland Brun and Brunner have released an album that is so playful, profound and wonderful that you'll want to play it again.

Albin Brun & Kristina Brunner: Innerland. Self-published, www.albinbrun.ch

On January 1, 2024, the management of G.-Henle-Verlag changed: Wolf-Dieter Seiffert retired after more than thirty years with the publishing house, initially as an editor and since 2000 as managing director of the publishing house. The board of the Günter Henle Foundation appointed Norbert Gertsch, the previous deputy publishing director, as his successor.

Norbert Gertsch, born in 1967, studied concert piano at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and, as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation, musicology and philosophy at the universities of Salzburg and Heidelberg. In 1996, he was awarded a doctorate in Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa solemnis doctorate.

The following year, Gertsch joined the G. Henle publishing house, becoming chief editor in 2003 and deputy publishing director and program director in 2009. Gertsch has published numerous Urtext editions, including a new edition of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Murray Perahia. He is also co-editor of the Beethoven catalog of works published in 2014 and is primarily responsible for the development of the Henle Library app.

The G. Henle publishing house, founded in 1948, is the global market leader for Urtext sheet music editions. It also publishes scholarly complete editions of the works of Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms and Haydn. Around 30 employees work at the publishing house's headquarters in Munich.

Exactly 40 years ago, the Obwalden horn player, organist, composer, teacher and mediator Francesco Raselli, who had his roots in the Poschiavo village of Le Prese, died at the age of 35. His reputation still resonates today. So, on the initiative of the three editors and co-authors Josef Gnos, Niccolò Raselli and Peter Bucher, companions, friends, experts and those born after him have delved into Raselli's life and work and rummaged through their memories. The result is a book that illuminates all facets of this exceptional artist and his orchestral engagements (General Music Society Lucerne, Festival Orchestra of the Lucerne International Music Festival, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra).

Raselli was not above leaving his mark in brass and folk music, for example as a section leader and soloist in the Feldmusik Sarnen, one of the most powerful brass orchestras in Central Switzerland. As a teacher, he taught at the Sarnen Music School and soon also as a main subject teacher at the Lucerne Conservatory, but always remained connected to the canton of Obwalden. His pupil Walter Dillier quotes him with the bon mot: "Only the first horn player is allowed to play, not the second." In addition to Raselli himself, the book also features the musical personalities Mario Venzago, Thüring Bräm, Lukas Christinat, Jakob Hefti and Wolfgang Sieber, among many others.

Raselli composed around forty works in fifteen years, including around a third for the legendary Nyynermuisig instrumentation he invented. In his extensive and meticulous analysis, Roman Brotbeck deals in detail with the twelve-tone conception of the Septet from 1974, the brass quintet from 1982, the undated Solo for A clarinet and finally with Raselli's legacy, the Diary for 16 clarinets and double bass from the year of his death in 1983. The book is supplemented by specialist texts, facsimiles of sheet music, caricatures and recipes by Raselli, numerous photos from his life and work as well as watercolors and drawings by Josef Gnos and his daughter Anna Raselli.

Francesco Raselli 1948-1983, ed. by Josef Gnos, Niccolò Raselli and Peter Bucher, 208 p., Fr. 40.00, self-published by the editors, 2023, ISBN 978-3-033-10003-9, source of supply: Vreny Guardiano, Lindenstrasse 14, 6060 Sarnen, vreny.guardiano@bluewin.ch

Perhaps the author Anna Reichert has taken Manfred Spitzer's words to heart: "A good teacher will tell stories ... Stories drive us, not facts." Starting with each key of the root scale, this booklet develops "finger exercises" that stimulate basic pianistic playing movements. Key C, for example, is inspired by Coco, the high-spirited chimpanzee who loves to swing from tree to tree. Coco swings from branch to branch using tied groups of two notes, addressing themes such as weight and relaxation and the slight withdrawal of the hand after the second note.

In an accompanying text, the author explains the technical objectives of each exercise and points out further ideas for playing. In the foreword, she encourages children to be imaginative with the examples and to find their own variations together with the children: explore different sounds by transposing, include black keys, break up the rigid five-finger position as often as possible, move freely across the entire keyboard and vary the distances between the fingers. All of this is intended to enrich the learning process on various levels. For this reason, the basic structure of the individual exercises has been simplified as a guide for parents and teachers.

I like the simplicity and at the same time the versatility of the system, which is able to stimulate the imagination of both learners and teachers.

Anna Reichert: Play with us! Animal story finger exercises for beginners at the piano, VHR 3518, € 11.80, Holzschuh, Manching

"Quietly my songs plead / Through the night to you..." - the setting of Ludwig Rellstab's Serenade by Franz Schubert in the posthumously published song collection Swan song has inspired many other composers and editors to make instrumental arrangements. The version for two guitars, as now presented to us by Winterthur guitarist Jury Clormann, is also musically rich and also easy to play on the twelve strings.

The piece was part of the repertoire of Clormann and his duo partner Elisabeth Trechslin and can be listened to on Youtube be. Clormann cleverly based his arrangement not only on Schubert's original, but also on the piano version by Franz Liszt and the solo guitar version by Johann Kaspar Mertz. He adopted Liszt's small-scale fugal triplet motifs, but borrowed from Mertz in the final section with its various arpeggios. What Mertz had omitted from Schubert's musical material was added to by Clormann. All of this in the service of the romantic intimacy of Schubert's music and Rellstab's lyric: "Let your chest move too, (...) Come, make me happy!"

The sheet music edition also contains the arrangements of three short piano pieces: Minuet and Trio, a Waltz (the first of 36 original dances from op. 9 and D. 365) and a German dance and Ecossaise - all exemplary edited, with score and individual parts, but without fingerings.

Franz Schubert: Serenade, Minuet, Waltz, German Dance and Ecossaise, edited and published by Jury Clormann, first edition, BP 2883, Fr. 19.50, Amadeus, Winterthur