Hirschmann Masterclass Europe

SJMW

The Hirschmann Masterclass Europe 2022 in Arc-et-Senans

The 2nd Hirschmann Masterclass EU for contemporary chamber music with the composer Oscar Bianchi was held between 9th and 16th September 2022 in the Saline Royale at Arc-et-Senans in France.

The masterclass was supported at the location by a member of staff from the SJMW office (Valentina De Marchi and Thibault Jaccard 4 days each).  

The lecturers

A team of five lecturers was responsible for the lessons:
• Oscar Bianchi, teaching his own works 
• Urs Walker, violin and artistic director 
• Peter Tilling, cello and conductor 
• Mats Scheidegger, guitar
• Sergej Tchirkov, accordion 

They responded to the needs of the course participants with a great deal of flexibility and spontaneity and so provided the best possible support.

The composer Oscar Bianchi

Oscar Bianchi gave a longer lecture on 12.09.22. This gave the participants and lecturers an insight into his style of composition and the chance to get some background information about his works. Oscar Bianchi took questions from the floor and gave detailed answers to these. The lecture ended with Oscar Bianchi leading all of the participants in an experimental singalong.

A high standard of music 

The number of works and the level of difficulty meant that each participant had a lot of work to do, but not too much. At the start, Oscar Bianchi’s music was hard for the participants to understand, but having the composer there helped them with their performance a great deal. A total of 14 musicians came to France - two violinists, one viola player, two cellists, four flautists (these also included one bass flautist and one piccolo player), one clarinettist/bass clarinettist, one bassoonist, one pianist, one guitarist and one accordionist. 

Concerts

Two concerts were held during the week. These were also open to the guests of the Saline Royale and the wider public. Almost all of the 20 works by the 16 composers that were rehearsed during the course were performed in the varied programmes: Oscar Bianchi, Krzysztof Penderecki, Isabel Mundry, Hans Werner Henze, Rudolf Kelterborn, Sofia Gubaidulina, Mauricio Kagel, Jaques Ibert, Willy Burkhard, André Jolivet, Toru Takemitsu, Charles Ives, Jean Françaix, Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.