Important Swiss composer in the first half of the 20th century: Willy Burkhard

[Toni]

There is growing interest in the rediscovery of composers who dominated the music scene regionally and, in some cases, internationally before the Second World War. Their innovations survived somehow hidden during the Second World War and were then marginalised or even forgotten at the beginning of the musical avant-garde after 1945. The Swiss composer Willy Burkhard is one of these composers. He studied in Bern, Leipzig, Munich and Paris. As a convinced Protestant, he contributed to the renewal of church music in his time, in particular with his oratorios 'The Face of Isaiah' (1934) and 'The Year' (1940/41), but he left behind a large oeuvre in all genres, from chamber music and orchestral music to opera ('The Black Spider', 1948), comprising 99 opus numbers. The Burkhard collection is now in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.

Burkhard's life was not only affected and restricted by the Second World War, but also privately by a protracted lung disease. From 1933 onwards, he lived remotely and far away from the active music scene in the lung health resorts of Montana and Davos, before being appointed as a teacher of theory and composition at the Zurich Conservatory in 1942. Burkhard's unexpected, premature death in 1955 prevented any further development of his compositional approaches.

His 20-minute, single-movement but clearly three-part violin concerto was composed in 1943. Walter Labhard, a connoisseur of 20th century Swiss music, describes this composition as a combination of neo-classical musicianship with 'a sound treatment of masterly transparency modelled on French examples. The composer uses an intervallic structure based on a sequence of thirds extended to the seventh and constantly varied secondary motifs to achieve a unity that is neither jeopardised by different expressive elements nor by the increased virtuosity in the final section."

The following remarkable letter excerpt from September 1939 serves as motivation to listen to this violin concerto by Willy Burkhard from 1943 today: 'It is something special when someone tells me today that my music will still have a task to fulfil. I have said often enough in the last few days and weeks that it is now highly unimportant whether this or that performance takes place or not. [...] But in the end we only need to ask ourselves who means more to us, Hitler or Goethe, Goering or Schubert, Goebbels or Kant (to speak only of the Germans), and we are (sic!) not at a loss for an answer. And it is very doubtful whether our spiritual goods can be destroyed, however bitter and black the future looks. Every now and then I feel quite funny when I write music instead of joining in and playing politics. [...] And - I can't help it - but somehow even such bad and worst times must act as a stimulus!" (Willy Burkhard in a letter to the Indermühle family dated 12 Sept. 1939).
 
These lines are still highly topical in 2024.

More about Willy Burkhard's Violin Concerto: cf:
https://unbekannte-violinkonzerte.jimdofree.com/e-4/burkhard/

[Alan Howe]

The Violin Concerto can be heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP4e90VT3gY

This fine work probably lies beyond the bounds of this website, but I have left the above post out of respect for its author and the story associated with the composition involved.

[jimsemadeni]

More music of Burkhard even if not romantic music. https://neo.mx3.ch/home/search?q=willy+burkhard

[Alan Howe]

This topic is now locked as the music lies beyond our stated remit.