1926 Zurich

Jun 18, 1926 – Jun 23, 1926
Zurich, Switzerland

Festival info

Start: Jun 18, 1926

End: Jun 23, 1926

Locations: Zurich, Switzerland

Hosting member(s)

Description
Description

First ISCM Festival to combine chamber and orchestra concerts in the same week.

From contemporaneous reviews

“One noted with regret at the fourth festival presented by the International Society for Contemporary Music last June in Zurich, that no name entirely unfamiliar appeared on any of the six programs. … If we were spared a great bore, we were also vouchsafed no revelations. The program had an even, safe tone which augurs none too well for future festivals.

…

“One leaves these festivals with the distinct impression that the music played is after all a secondary matter; but that an international meeting place is offered where the composers and other musicians of all countries may come together seems in itself invaluable.”

— Aaron Copland, “Playing safe at Zurich,”
Modern Music, Vol. IV, No. 1 (November-December 1926), pp. 28 and 31.

“[M]an hatte all den mannigfachen Verschiedenheiten an Gattung, Ausdehnung und Herkunft der aufzuführenden Werke geschickt Rechnung getragen …. Chor- und je ein Kammermusik-, Orchester- und Kammerkonzert verteilt, von denen täglich immer nur eines stattfand, so daß den zahlreichen Teilnehmern aus aller Herren Länder die nötige Zeit und Gelegenheit zur Verarbeitung der erhaltenen Eindrücke, zur gegenseitigen Fühlungnahme, wie zum Besuch von Sitzungen und Proben blieb.”

…

“Die Aufführung der vielen Nummern war fast durchweg eine vorzügliche. Zur Ausführung war eine beträchtliche Menge in Zürich ansässiger und auswärtiger Künstler nötig gewesen. Ein Extralob verdient Walter Gieseking (Hannover), der für den plötzlich verhinderten Pianisten einspringend die enorm schwierige Klaviersonate von Mjaskowsky am Abend glänzend spielte, nachdem er sie am gleichen Morgen zum ersten Male in die Hände bekommen hatte.”

(“[A]ll the manifold differences in genus, extent and origin of the works to be performed had been skillfully taken into account … Of the choir, orchestral, and chamber concerts, only one took place each day, so that the numerous participants from all over the world had the necessary time and opportunity to process the impressions they received and to get to know one another as well as to attend meetings and rehearsals.

…

“The performances of the works was almost always excellent. A considerable number of artists based in Zurich as well as abroad were necessary for their realization. Walter Gieseking (of Hanover) deserves extra acknowledgement for taking the place of a suddenly indisposed pianist and brilliantly playing the enormously difficult piano sonata of Miaskovsky in the evening after he had got his hands on the score for the first time that same morning.”)

— Hermann Ensslin, “Internationales Musikfest in Zürich,”
Neue Musik, Vol. 20 (1926), pp. 438-439.

Programme information
Locations