Once again, dipping into the Swiss Radio archives for more of the unfamiliar, as it was recorded for Swiss Radio going back to the 1940s.
Tonight it’s Sinfonie (1952) by Arthur Furer, performed by the Bern Stadtorchester conducted by Walter Kägi in this broadcast from October 11, 1954.
Arthur Furer graduated from the Cantonal Teachers’ College and subsequently studied violin, school singing, and choral conducting at the Bern Conservatory. Studies at the University of Bern completed his education. He subsequently performed as principal violist in the Bern Chamber Orchestra, as violinist in the Symphony Orchestra, and as a versatile chamber musician, including in the Radio Bern Chamber Ensemble. From 1952 to 1988, Furer was responsible for the musical education of students at the Marzili Municipal Seminary in Bern. He also directed various traditional choirs.
Due to this extensive activity, in which the composition of his own works also played a key role, Furer was awarded a Swiss Pro Arte Foundation Prize in 1966 and the Grand Music Prize of the Canton of Bern in 1984.
Furer loved working with young people, even describing it as a dream job. His seminar choir, like himself, was known far beyond Bern’s city limits. This was also because Furer composed his own works for them. Such as the cheerful Herbarium – the Flower Songs. It was important to the composer that they be playable and sung. He always wanted to balance reason and emotion, intellectual challenge and emotional enrichment in his works. He stated that he was not affiliated with any contemporary school, but rather sought the style that best served the content of each of his compositions.
Arthur Furer wrote his last composition “contre cœur,” as he put it. It was a sonorous lament for flute, in which he encapsulated his “tinnitus fate” with sharp, alternating notes. The musician had lost his hearing. And his psyche was incessantly plagued by tinnitus. His favorite thing, music, had become a torment. Furer gave away his grand piano and sold his violin. He no longer owned a radio. Instead, the tireless thinker and versatile creator began to re-engage with painting and literature. With the old masters who meant so much to him: Meyer, Rilke. He knew them all by heart. Or Gottfried Keller: “Do you see the star in the distant blue, shimmering, almost fading? Its light takes an eternity to reach your eye.” It was one of his favorite poems.
Enjoy.
