Kleines Hauskonzert

Erich Schmid (1907 - 2000) was an orchestra conductor, choir director and university lecturer who promoted world premieres and radio broadcasts of contemporary music in Switzerland. He himself studied with Bernhard Sekles, among others, then with Arnold Schönberg and followed the aesthetics of the New Viennese School in his compositions. The historical-critical Erich Schmid Edition publishes for the first time all sixteen opus-numbered works as well as three additional piano works. The playfully inventive cycle for voice, piano and string quartet, dedicated to his "dear wife" Martha, brings together short compositions written in 1937-40. "These are," says Schmid, "12 small pieces in a wide variety of instrumentation and different forms - some of them twelve-tone pieces, some of them in a technique that comes close. An attempt to write music that is technically easier to perform." The arch-like overall form combines folksong-like vocal numbers on text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with solo pieces, quartet movements and counterpoint art on the name of "BACH" and expresses Schmid's view of music in a subtly personal way.