Audio biography and works by companions

As the first ensemble of its kind in Switzerland, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1920 by Alexander Schaichet (1887-1964) with the intention of performing "works that were rarely heard, never performed or particularly valuable". The violinist, violist, conductor and music teacher, who was born in Nikolayev (Ukraine) and trained in Odessa and at the Leipzig Conservatory, was a member of the Jena String Quartet, lived in Switzerland from 1914, married the Hungarian pianist Irma Löwinger in 1919 and conducted the Zurich Chamber Orchestra until 1943. From 1940 until his death, he taught violin at the Zurich Music Academy.

In less than two and a half decades, he and his orchestra gave around 50 world premieres and well over 200 first performances, mainly of contemporary composers. New works by Swiss composers such as Robert Blum, Emil Frey, Paul Juon, Walter Lang and Werner Wehrli could already be heard during the first decade, followed shortly afterwards by works by Conrad Beck, Ernest Bloch, Willy Burkhard and Arthur Honegger. With international music by Béla Bartók, Alfredo Casella, Heinrich Kaminski, Ernst Křenek, Bohuslav Martinů, Darius Milhaud, Alexander Mossolow, Bernhard Sekles, Rudi Stephan, Ernst Toch and Leó Weiner, the "Golden Age of New Music" dawned for Zurich in the 1930s thanks to Schaichet's passionate commitment.

Published as a New Year's edition by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, two very different CDs and a richly illustrated booklet remind us of Shaykhet's pioneering work, but also of his systematic marginalization and discrimination as a Jew. The texts on CD 1 are enriched with many quotes from letters and sound samples, A musical biographyare narrated by Laura Lienhard, Graziella Rossi, Peter Hottinger and Helmut Vogel. On CD 2, the pianist and musicologist Andrea Wiesli, who is responsible for the musical concept, Mirjam Tschopp (violin, viola) and Jonas Kreienbühl (violoncello) interpret the Musical works by Alexander Schaichet's companions.

Of the rarities, all of which are expressively arranged in first recordings, the following are worthy of special mention alongside the particularly imaginative Small variations in etude form for piano by Lily Reiff-Sertorius the Six Israeli Melodies for violoncello and piano and Soliloquy "In Memoriam Alexander Schaichet" for viola solo by his closest friend Joachim Stutschewsky.

The first chamber orchestra in Switzerland. Alexander Schaichet 1887-1964.Solo Musica SM 368 (2 CDs)