Over to Basel Switzerland this weekend for a performance of Petite Suite Number 3 by Albert Moeshinger for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon as played by Hubert Fauquex, Osvaldo Megassini and Henri Bouchet – recorded at the Radiostudio in Basel for Swiss Radio on October 10, 1951.
Born in Basel, Albert Moeschinger, son of a merchant, completed his musical studies in Bern, Leipzig (composition with Paul Graener, piano with Robert Teichmüller) and Munich (composition with Walter Courvoisier). After several seasons as an ensemble pianist in café houses, Moeschinger settled in Bern, where he taught privately as a piano and theory teacher, and from 1937 also at the University of the Arts Bern, and resumed his compositional activities.
In 1943, health problems led him to settle in the Valais mountain village of Saas Fee. From this time on, he devoted himself exclusively to composition. Reading Thomas Mann’s musical novel Dr. Faustus and the subsequent correspondence with the writer in 1948 encouraged him to integrate the twelve-tone technique into his work. After 1956, Moeschinger lived mainly in Ascona. He spent the rest of his life in Thun, where he died on 25 September 1985 at the age of 88.
Moeschinger’s oeuvre, which includes all genres except opera, comprises over 400 titles. He received the following awards: in 1952 the Culture Prize of the City of Basel [de], in 1957 the composition prize of the “Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein” and in 1981 the music prize of the Canton of Bern. The Albert Moeschinger Foundation in Basel was established in 1987 and is committed to ensuring the continued existence of his work.
His estate is housed in the Basel University Library.
Traces of Moeschinger’s church music can be found in the hymnal of the Protestant Reformed Churches of Switzerland: Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-reformierten Kirchen der deutschsprachigen Schweiz [de] 215 Herr wir warten arm und hungrig (same melody also 318, 553 and 717) and 256 Es ist ein Wort ergangen.
On to the music.
