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The Swiss Muse
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19518 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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11 / 1991 |
2,269 Words |
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Andrew Clark
Andrew Clark is a broadcaster and critic living in Switzerland. |
It is time to stand up for Swiss music--not the folkloric world of yodeling and alpenhorns, which will always be the archetypal advertisement for Swiss mountain culture, but the underperformed underappreciated music of Switzerland's classical composers.
The Swiss have too long had to suffer the jibe that the cuckoo clock was their sole creative contribution to modern civilization. Not so: As a landlocked nation of only seven million people, splintered into four language groupings and surrounded by the cultural might of France, Germany, and Italy, the Swiss may not have established a national school as one might find, say, in Czechoslovakia, Sweden, or Finland. And music had little chance to flourish in the cradle of Calvinism, deprived of the courtly patronage found in neighboring states. But the Swiss have nevertheless played a valuable role in the development of European culture. Switzerland has always been a safe haven, a source of inspiration, and a beneficent patron for foreign artists. It also has its own nucleus of internationally recognized composers, whose music reflects Switzerland's traditions of fastidiousness, craftsmanship, and aesthetic high-mindedness.
This year--in which Switzerland has celebrated its seven hundredth anniversary as an independent, neutral country--has offered an opportunity to showcase Swiss musicians. The Lucerne Festival, normally the preserve of the Austro-German symphonic tradition and jet-setting international soloists, had a liberal sprinkling of Swiss instrumentalists and contemporary composers, Heinz Holliger (b. 1939) being the most prominent in both categories. The Geneva Chamber Opera honored the dean of Swiss opera composers, Heinrich Sutermeister (b. 1910), with a production of his one-act comic opera Seraphine. The Societe de Chant Sacre in Geneva uncovered a long-forgotten Brucknerian mass by Friedrich Klose (1862-1942). All the major Swiss symphony orchestras managed to pepper their programs with the music of Frank Martin (1890-1974) and one or other of the five symphonies written by Arthur Honegger (1892-1955).
Most welcome of all were the performances of music by two composers who were strongly influenced by the late Romantic movement in Germany. Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) was born in Brunnen, a small town along the shores of Lake Lucerne. After studying in Leipzig with Max Reger, he spent most of his life conducting symphony orchestras and choral societies in Zurich and Saint Gall. His reputation today rests largely on his lieder, which show a gift for setting music for the voice comparable with that of Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf. During his lifetime, however,
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