Music of Swiss composer Albert Moeschinger again this week – this time Concerto Lyrique for Saxophone and Orchestra in this radio performance featuring Sigurd Rascher, Saxophone and Jean-Marie Auberson leading the Radio Orchestra of Beromünster on May 9, 1960.
Albert Moeschinger is considered one of the most gifted Swiss composers of the 20th century. His hometown Basel, where he was born, regards itself as melting-pot of various cultural influences due to sharing borders with Germany and France. This geographical position between different cultures may help to explain Moeschineger’s life-long odyssey through the flourishing diversity of contemporary music styles.
Sigurd Rascher was an American saxophonist born in Germany. He became an important figure in the development of the 20th century repertoire for the classical saxophone.
Throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century, a preponderance of the significant new saxophone solo and chamber repertoire would appear with the familiar dedication to Sigurd Raschèr, the outcome of not just his ongoing commitment to motivate some of the world’s finest composers, but also in part the result of genuine close friendships he developed with so many. Among them were Larsson, Glaser, and von Koch in Sweden; Jacobi, Dressel, von Knorr and Hindemith in Germany; Haba, Macha, and Reiner in Czechoslovakia; and Benson, Brant, Cowell, Dahl, Erickson, Husa, Hartley and Wirth in the United States. And it is not without significance that among all the pieces written for and dedicated to him during his life, not one was commissioned. He inspired new music, he never needed to purchase it.
The Swiss-born conductor (and violinist), Jean-Marie Auberson, studied at the Lausanne Conservatoire, where his tutors were Victor Desarzens (violin) and Alfred Pochon (viola).
In the years 1943-1946 Jean-Marie Auberson was engaged as a violinist with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne – OCL), which was founded in 1940 at the initiative of its first conductor Victor Desarzens. Between 1946-1949 Auberson played the viola in the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In the years 1950-1951 he studied conducting with Günther Wand in Köln and was also a pupil of Ernest Ansermet and Carl Schuricht. Auberson was a conductor with the Swiss-based Radio Beromünster Orchestra during 1956-1960 and was appointed second conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra for the period 1963-1965. Auberson was on the roster at the Hamburg State Opera for its 1968-1973 seasons. He was conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta between 1984-1986.
Enjoy.
