Covering rare performances by familiar figures this weekend. The music of Arthur Honegger as played by Radio Orchestra Beromünster conducted by Ernest Ansermet in this May 7, 1944 broadcast.
The work at hand is Honegger’s Battements du Monde Radiophonische Dichtung für Solo, Chor, Sprecher und Orchester H 176 written in 1944 and no doubt this performance may be the first. The performance also features Margrit Conrad-Amberg, soprano Leopold Biberti, Alfred Lohner, Sigfrit Steiner, Helene Pastorini and Robert Campiche. It also features the Childrens Choir and the Women of the Beromünster Chamber Choir.
Battements du Monde,”a work for Radio was produced by Radio Lausanne with the assistance of the Beromünster and Monte-Ceneri studios, under the patronage of the International Union for the Relief of Children, whose headquarters were in Geneva and whose charter was the General Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Its production was widely announced and discussed in the press, and the work was to be broadcast in three of our four national languages: in French on the Sottens station, in German on the Beromünster station, and in Italian on the Monte-Ceneri station.
Since the work was to be broadcast in three languages, it was therefore necessary to make three separate recordings: the French version at the Lausanne Studio and the German version at the Zurich Studio. The Italian-language version will be edited at Radio-Lugano in a few weeks. On Ascension Day, Monte-Çeneri will broadcast the program in French in collaboration with Radio-Lausanne. Hence the need to form three different groups of performers: a group of French-speaking actors and choristers in Lausanne and two groups of actors and choristers in Zurich and Ticino, one speaking German, the other Italian. On the other hand, it is Mr. Ernest Ansermet who directs the overall editing of the three versions.
Arthur Honegger was unable to attend the premiere of Battements du Monde, as the Germans refused him visas for Switzerland. Very surprising, because other musicians living in Paris – such as Charles Münch – could travel to Switzerland at any time without hindrance: it was also shocking that a Swiss living in Paris out of love for France could not travel to his country of origin.
Special thanks to Rene-Gagnaux whose amazing website Impressium is a wealth of information as well as a vast array of links, including the one for the Swiss Radio Archives where this recording came from and which also houses numerous recordings long thought lost..
Enjoy.
