Jubilee concert of the Swiss RISM Association on 14 June 2016 in Berne

Thursday, May 26, 2016

The association “Swiss Office of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)” celebrates its 20th anniversary on 14 June 2016 with a public concert. An ample choice from Maurizio Cazzati’s “Messa e Salmi”, op. 36, will be performed by the Basel vocal ensemble Voces Suaves. On this occasion, a speech on the topic “Music (Culture) - Politics - Science” will be delivered by the former Councillor Christine Egerszegi-Obrist. The concert in the French Church in Berne starts at 7.30 p.m. Admission is free (donations welcome at the exit).

The performance of the jubilee concert is entrusted to the young Basel vocal ensemble Voces Suaves under conductor Francesco Saverio Pedrini. It is accompanied by the instrumental ensemble Opera Prima. Relying on a good knowledge of the historical context, Voces Suaves specializes in one-to-a-part performances of Renaissance and Baroque music. The repertoire includes a wide range of Italian madrigals, works of the German early Baroque and Italian oratorios and masses for larger performing forces. The choice of programmes ensures that in addition to the works by renowned artists such as Monteverdi and Schütz also those of forgotten composers like Domenico Sarro or, actually, Maurizio Cazzati are performed. The ensemble was founded 2012 by Tobias Wicky and consists of a core of nine professional singers. Most members are connected to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 2014-2016 Voces Suaves took part in the European funding programme eeemerging, Emerging European Ensembles, which promoted the artistic development of the ensemble.

The “Messa e Salmi”, op. 36 by Maurizio Cazzati was issued on CD in March 2016 under the title “From Bologna to Beromünster” with Claves Records (CD 1605) as a collaborative project between RISM Switzerland and Voces Suaves and is presently on sale.

RISM Switzerland is one of the official working groups within the international RISM community, which aims to document as fully as possible all historical musical sources in the world and make them available to the public. The Swiss branch, based in Berne, concerns itself with all documents present in Switzerland, mainly in libraries, archives and monasteries. The foundation of the working group goes back to the year 1956. Since 21 June 1996, it is organized as an independent association and has the support of numerous scientific and library institutions, such as the Swiss Musicological Society (SMG), the Association of Swiss Music Collections (ASCM), the Swiss Society for the Rights of Authors of Musical Works (SUISA) and the Swiss Music Council (SMR). Since its foundation in 1956 the Swiss RISM branch has recorded systematically more than 50,000 manuscripts from after 1600 (a quarter of them autographs), more than 10,000 individual prints from before 1800, collective prints from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and writings on music, and nearly 21,000 printed music editions of the 19th and 20th centuries.