Urs Joseph Flury: 6 Lieder (1965), 6 Lieder auf Gedichte von Olga Brand, Kleine Legende, Salve Regina - Kaiser Joseph I: Regina coeli (Live) - Juliette Bise, Soprano

Urs Joseph FLURY / Ullrich TESCHE: 6 Lieder (1965): I. Herbstgefühl – II. Der Nacht entrang sich grau der Tag – III. Venedig und Dein Lächeln – IV. Entsagung – V. Wahn – VI. Frühling

Juliette Bise, Soprano
Eugen Huber, Piano

Urs Joseph FLURY / Olga BRAND: 6 Lieder auf Gedichte von Olga Brand: I. In der Frühe – II. Sommernacht – III. Der Gärtner – IV. Nun ist es Nacht – V. Nacht – VI. Schlimme Nacht – Kleine Legende

Juliette Bise, Soprano
Werner Giger, Piano

Urs Joseph FLURY: Salve Regina

Juliette Bise, Soprano
Urs Joseph Flury, Violin
Rita Flury, Violin
Walter Kägi, Viola
Jost Meier, Cello
Eugen Huber, Conductor

Kaiser JOSEPH I: Regina coeli

Juliette Bise, Soprano
Solothurner Kammerorchester, Urs Joseph Flury, Conductor
Peter Reinhart, Organ

Juliette Bise (1922 – 2011)

The soprano Juliette Bise was born in Fribourg. She was a soloist at the Geneva Opera from 1948 to 1955 and also performed throughout Europe as a concert singer and lied recitalist until 1974. She is particularly well known for her recordings with orchestra under the batons of Ernest Ansermet, Michel Corboz and Jörg Ewald Dähler. A highly sought-after singing teacher, she also taught at the conservatories of Fribourg and Lausanne from 1954 to 1988.

My father and I got to know Juliette through our friend Eugen Huber, who worked as a pianist at Radio Bern in the 1950s and 1960s and recorded 35 of my father’s songs with her. In around the 1970s, I played the violin in several chamber concerts in which Juliette and Huber also participated. One of these concerts took place on 4 February 1971 in the Franciscan Church in Solothurn, where Bise sang the 6 Songs to poems by Ullrich Tesche and Kurt Kocher that I had composed in 1965.

As Juliette unfortunately retired from the podium far too soon, I only had one opportunity to accompany her with the Solothurn Chamber Orchestra that I conducted at the time. This was in in 1971, when we performed a Salve Regina by the Habsburg Emperor Joseph I. Later, she introduced me to her former students Pierrette Péquegnat and Philippe Huttenlocher (who soon became well-known in their own right), who sang under me in performances of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Devin du Village and my own Christmas Oratorio.

When the Solothurn society ‘Töpfergesellschaft’ held a memorial evening in honour of our dear friend the poet Olga Brand (1905–1973) on 27 March 1974, I managed to persuade Juliette to perform for me one last time. She sang my 6 Songs to Poems by Olga Brand that I had composed especially for the occasion. These songs already display impressionistic features. Juliette furthermore sang my Kleine Legende (‘Little Legend’), also to a text by Olga Brand, which was one of many romantic songs that I had composed as a high school student. She was accompanied on this occasion by my former teacher and later friend Werner Giger.

The story behind the composition of my Salve Regina is as follows. In 1967, I deputised my colleague Jost Meier for several weeks as conductor of the Choir of the Franciscan Church (which belongs to the separate denomination of the ‘Old Catholic Church’, called the ‘Christkatholische Kirche’ in Switzerland). I was tasked with rehearsing a mass with soprano that Jost had composed for a festive occasion. This circumstance prompted me to contribute a Salve Regina of my own for soprano and string quartet. Before the event, however, I was informed that the short work could not be performed in a mass of the Old Catholic Church because the latter is always given in the local tongue, whereas my work used the Latin text (this rule no longer applies today). Appropriately, Juliette Bise’s performance took place in the Franciscan Church at the abovementioned concert of 1971, accompanied by the Flury Quartet. Until his death in 1967, my father had played the viola in the Quartet, and I remain especially pleased to this day that his place was afterwards taken by my revered teacher Walter Kägi, as was also the case on the occasion of the concert in question here.

Regina Coeli

Joseph I was the last of the three composing Habsburg emperors (the others being his father Leopold I, and Ferdinand III). During his short life (1688–1711), this versatile emperor (who was also active as a military commander in the War of the Spanish Succession) regrettably composed only the Regina coeli recorded here, a dozen arias, and an aria for lute. When I pick up the score of his Regina coeli today, I am amazed at the imaginative manner in which its four lines of text have been set to music over the space of 17 minutes (the singer’s coloratura are highly instrumental in conception). The orchestral accompaniment is also worthy of any well-known Baroque master.

Unfortunately, the recording quality of the songs by my father Richard Flury that Juliette Bise performed with the Flury Quartet is so poor that they cannot be transferred for release here. However, I will never forget a little episode before a concert that took place in the Jesuit Church in Solothurn in 1968. The last song – a setting of Mörike’s poem ‘Nimmersatte Liebe’ (‘Insatiable Love’) – posed a problem to this devout woman from Fribourg. In order to be allowed to sing the words ‘So ist the Lieb! So ist the Lieb! Mit Küssen nicht zu stillen!’ (‘Such is love! Such is love! It can’t be satisfied with kisses!’) in church, she asked the parish priest, Father Walz, for absolution in advance, which she duly received.

My encounters with Juliette Bise were formative moments that enriched my life, and I will always remember her with great gratitude.

Urs Joseph Flury

https://ujflury.ch/inhalt/

CD-1774 Booklet.pdf