Swiss Composers in the 20th Century

[Roy Bland]

https://www.facebook.com/sfcfestival/

https://www.compositeursgenevois.ch/

[Roy Bland]

[Roy Bland]

This is physically available asking at stiftung@petermieg.ch  MR.Hediger

[Roy Bland]

A book on Gerber
https://www.editions-attinger.ch/produit/rene-gerber-compositeur-homme-de-lart/

[Roy Bland]

https://oeuvressuisses.ch/

[lunar22]

I've taken this thread out of hibernation as I did not want to start a new one for a Soviet/Swiss/Russian/German composer of the 21st Symphony. I wanted to mention this most interesting CD. I'm currently listening to the Symphony No.4 (2014-2015) by Alexander Brincken (born 1952) I found the long opening paragraphs very moving. Sure, the tonal language is anachronistic but so what? Rather than ramble on about it I've attached the Musicweb review. Frank Schmidt's 4th Symphony came to mind most of all, at least in the opening movement with its searching/visionary motto theme. The finale reminded me, at times, of the hopeless defiance of Schulhoff's magnificent 5th Symphony.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jan/Brincken_orchestral_v1_TOCC0550.htm

Brincken's 4th symphony is quite simply my favourite of the 21st century. His 5th is very good too (only available in a poor mock-up) and the much earlier 1st performed by the Leningrad Phil no less is a worthy successor to Bruckner -- unfortunately, the composer was not happy with the live performance and has refused to put more than 4 minutes from the slow movement on YouTube which is a crying shame.  At the moment, there is no prospect of further recordings unless he can find a sponsor. Even as things stand, I think he is the most important standard-bearer of the German Bruckner/Schmidt tradition, although of course that won't silence the debate about whether one should be writing that sort of music nowadays -- I have my own clear views on that (and myself write symphonies which in some cases also follow that tradition).

[Roy Bland]

[Roy Bland]

[Roy Bland]

very conservative

[Roy Bland]

[Symphonic Addict]

Not familiar with Pierre Wissmer, but this release could be enlightening (to be released on 7 June):

[pjme]

[Roy Bland]

appreciate highly Gerber

[pjme]

Interesting : NEO.mx3

Welcome to neo.mx3!
neo.mx3 is the new platform for Switzerland's contemporary and improvised music. The website, developed by SRG, was officially launched on June 21, 2019 at the "Fête de la musique" in Geneva.
 
As pilot project for the whole of Switzerland, neo.mx3 comprehensively portrays the Swiss contemporary music scene in sound, image and video. Neo.mx3 explores composition, improvisation, transdisciplinary, performative or multimedia formats from the four language regions and parts of the country as well as from abroad, united in all their variety.
 
The aim of the site is direct exchange and flow of information between musicians and SRG broadcasters (SRF, RTS, RTR, RSI), organisers, festivals and music conservatories and accademies, researchers as well as other disciplines and all those interested in contemporary music in Switzerland and abroad.

https://neoblog.mx3.ch/index.php/about/

I am listening to Robert Blum's Lamentatio angelorum  - a lovely work, reminiscent of Hindemith and vaughan Williams....

https://neo.mx3.ch/robertblum

[Mandryka]

Any thoughts on the most interesting Michael Jarrell piece?

[Toni Bernet]

 Willy Burkhard (1900 - 1955): Violin Concerto op. 69 (1943)

 There is growing interest in the rediscovery of composers who dominated the music scene regionally and, in some cases, internationally before the Second World War. Their innovations survived somehow hidden during the Second World War and were then marginalised or even forgotten at the beginning of the musical avant-garde after 1945. The Swiss composer Willy Burkhard is one of these composers. He studied in Bern, Leipzig, Munich and Paris. As a convinced Protestant, he contributed to the renewal of church music in his time, in particular with his oratorios 'The Face of Isaiah' (1934) and 'The Year' (1940/41), but he left behind a large oeuvre in all genres, from chamber music and orchestral music to opera ('The Black Spider', 1948), comprising 99 opus numbers. The Burkhard collection is now in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.

Burkhard's life was not only affected and restricted by the Second World War, but also privately by a protracted lung disease. From 1933 onwards, he lived remotely and far away from the active music scene in the lung health resorts of Montana and Davos, before being appointed as a teacher of theory and composition at the Zurich Conservatory in 1942. Burkhard's unexpected, premature death in 1955 prevented any further development of his compositional approaches.

 

His 20-minute, single-movement but clearly three-part violin concerto was composed in 1943. Walter Labhard, a connoisseur of 20th century Swiss music, describes this composition as a combination of neo-classical musicianship with 'a sound treatment of masterly transparency modelled on French examples. The composer uses an intervallic structure based on a sequence of thirds extended to the seventh and constantly varied secondary motifs to achieve a unity that is neither jeopardised by different expressive elements nor by the increased virtuosity in the final section."

The following remarkable letter excerpt from September 1939 serves as motivation to listen to this violin concerto by Willy Burkhard from 1943 today: 'It is something special when someone tells me today that my music will still have a task to fulfil. I have said often enough in the last few days and weeks that it is now highly unimportant whether this or that performance takes place or not. [...] But in the end we only need to ask ourselves who means more to us, Hitler or Goethe, Goering or Schubert, Goebbels or Kant (to speak only of the Germans), and we are (sic!) not at a loss for an answer. answer. And it is very doubtful whether our spiritual goods can be destroyed, however bitter and black the future looks. Every now and then I feel quite funny when I write music instead of joining in and playing politics. [...] And - I can't help it - but somehow even such

even such bad and worst times must act as a stimulus!" (Willy Burkhard in a letter to the Indermühle family dated 12 Sept. 1939).

These lines are still highly topical in 2024.

You will find a listening companion on:
https://unbekannte-violinkonzerte.jimdofree.com/e-4/burkhard/

[Christo]

Nobody knows so many surprisingly "unknown" composers like you! Just great, many thanks.