Robert Oboussier was born in Antwerp and spent much of his youth in Germany. As a staunch opponent of National Socialism he emigrated to Zurich in 1939 where he held a number of important musical positions. However, the circumstances of his death in 1957 served to plunge his name into immediate obscurity and only now is his music being revived. This selection of mostly world premiere recordings demonstrates his personal use of twelve-tone rows, abrupt contrasts and a fondness for fantasia patterns. Oboussier's radical piano miniatures, 25 Abreviations, are heard here in their original versions and in excerpts arranged for plucked string ensemble by Christian Wernicke.

Clarinettist Bernhard Röthlisberger and pianist Benjamin Engeli return to the Musiques Suisses label and are joined by violinist Fióna Kraege and cellist Milena Umiglia, in an album of mostly world premiere recordings. The artists write: “The genesis of the present album is closely linked to that of the Swiss Clarinet Music album (Musiques Suisses NXMS 7002) that we recorded in the summer of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, as a reaction to the lockdown. Further scores had come to light in the course of researching that project, which have hitherto been largely ignored. Five of these works, by Johann Carl Eschmann, Paul Juon, Richard Flury and Paul Müller-Zürich, are brought together here. What they all have in common, regardless of the dates of composition, which span a century, is that their musical idiom is deeply rooted in Romanticism and late Romanticism.”

REVIEW:

All of the works here share a musical idiom that is deeply rooted in Romanticism. The surprising harmonic turns of Eschmann's pieces are reminiscent of Schumann and Mendelssohn, while Juon (the trio is from 1901) has been described as "the missing link between Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky". Flury's trio was written in 1950 to mark the 25th anniversary of Radio Bern, and Müller-Zürich, one of the most significant figures in Swiss 20th-century mystical life, demonstrates the utmost technical refinement in his 1937 quartet.

-- Records International

What makes a vintage year? What does the 2016 vintage of Swiss folk music taste like? 27 hours of live recordings from the Zurich Tonhalle have been put in the wine press and have here been reduced to 80 minutes of music - 20 tracks by 19 different ensembles are the result. Folk music is a cultural heritage that has grown up over thousands of years, nourished by the topography of Switzerland and by the life and love for music of our predecessors. Every generation passes on the fruits of the generations before it, and adds its own life experiences to the mix. All kinds of things are tried out and tested, and even the blues is ground up among the glaciers until it comes out singing à la Suisse. Here, then, are the main characteristics of 2016.

“Altfrentsch” is a rarely used concept in Appenzell dialect that has its origins in the German expression “altfrankisch” (“old Franconian”), which itself derives from the Middle High German “altvrenkisch”, thus “in the manner of the old Franks.” It means roughly “old fashioned” or “in the old manner.” “Altfrentsch” is also used to denote the original forms of Appenzell string music. “Altfrentsch” is thus the name given to the oldest collection of dances from Canton Appelzell. The dances in this collection, dating from the late 18th century, were only discovered in Gonten in 1998, and have thus not been frequently recorded or performed.

The pieces of Swiss pianist and composer Yves Theiler focus on the jazz universe, and seamlessly fuse together world music influences and minimalism. Dance In A Triangle includes seven of Theiler’s compositions. The works are performed by the Yves Theiler Trio, which includes the composer on piano, Luca Sisera on bass, and Lukas Mantel on drums. The ensemble is currently nominated for one of the most exclusive jazz-prizes of Switzerland.

An exploration of the music of the Swiss born, Singapore based contemporary composer Martin Jaggi featuring a breadth of top notch ensembles including Luzerner Sinfonieorchester; Collegium Novum Zürich, Mondrian Ensemble, the Basel Sinfonietta and more.

This new release from Musiques Suisses includes the three string quartets by composer Friedrich Theodor Froehlich. The Beethoven Quartet is premiering his works on this recording. Froehlich was a Swiss composer who wrote many orchestral works, chamber and piano music, as well as vocal works. The Beethoven Quartet was founded in 2006 in Beethoven's hometown of Bonn and are based in Basel today. Matyas Bartha and Laurentius Bonitz play violin, Vahagn Aristakesyan plays viola, and Carlos Conrad plays violoncello.

Beat Furrer’s art of composition is like an exploration of fundamental principles, an exploration that is made accessible in the work and through the act of hearing it. Aggregate states in sound, musical processes, the nature of time itself and the contrast between the subject and the world are the topics of his works – though they are at the same time expressive snapshots of the moment. This portrait CD with works by Beat Furrer from 1991-2011 affords a twenty-year overview of his works. Aer, …cold and calm and moving, and Lied belong to a group of works that he wrote after completing his first opera Die Blinden (1989). Auf tönernen füssen (2001) after Friederike Mayröcker belongs to the time when he wrote his music theatre piece Begehren, while Studie, for piano (2011) was composed most recently, shortly after his music theatre work Wüstenbuch.

In Switzerland, 1915, as WWI raged beyond its borders, Igor Stravinsky, unfit to fight, and the writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz created the basis for their future joint works, first and foremost A soldier’s tale, an early example of a multifaceted, highly vital music culture that knows no borders. The works on this Grammont Sélection, 12 world premières from 2013, offer contemporary examples of these open boundaries. Featuring composers born between 1931-79 and a slew of artists and ensembles, the diversity of works, sounds and styles makes for a most enticing 2 ½ hours of listening.

The four men on this ‘Swiss songs after 1900’ CD - Emil Frey (1889-1946), Walter Lang (1896-1966), Marcel Sulzberger (1876-1941) and Max Zehnder (1901-72) - can stand for a whole generation of Swiss composers who practiced varying forms of Modernism, but succumbed to long-term obscurity. Marcel Sulzberger must be regarded as the first-ever Swiss to compose atonal music. His works are occasionally reminiscent of the music of Arnold Schoenberg, but his main influence always remained Debussy. Edward Rushton is an internationally active composer, song accompanist and chamber musician.

Swiss composer Hermann Suter's works reflects that of the German late-Romantics of his era, including Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, many of whom he conducted when posted in Basel. Suter's three great string quartets document different stations of his musical awareness, thereby revealing much of his artistic personality and of his intellectual world the Beethoven Quartet, founded in 2006 in Beethoven's home town of Bonn, is today based in Basel.