Wendelin Bitzan

Wendelin Bitzan

Musicians on Music: A No-Go

Dear fellow musicians and performers, please do me a favour. Do not write music-related texts or documents on your own unless you really, really know how to do this! In any other case, have somebody write these for you (or at least show your writings to somebody) who is specialised in this field. You may be wonderful as performers, but I recently made so many encounters with poorly written, awkward, or even embarrassing texts authored by musicians that I cannot suppress this plea. So if you need professional assistance with your CV, concert announcement, work introduction, liner notes, or texts for your website: Please do let me know! I’ll be more than happy to help you.

Guitar and marimba pieces

The repertoire for guitar and marimba duo is not what you would call a cornucopia (no horns involved, naturally). However, I made a contribution. Guitarists and percussionists are invited to have a look at my composition At the Forest Verge which is now finished and typeset, consisting of four short pieces inspired by my favourite trees and their specifically-shaped leaves. You can download the sheet music here on my IMSLP page.

Music Theory Faculty Concert

Dear folks, I’ll have the considerable pleasure to perform two of my own compositions in a faculty concert next Friday, 10 February, 7:30 pm, at Joseph Joachim hall, Berlin University of the Arts. As the opener to a versatile programme including viola d’amore, jazz vocals, and improvisations on Schubert, my piano cycle Children’s Kaleidoscope will experience its first complete performance, along with the sombre November Lament (yes, still not matching the month of presentation). Admission is free—it’d be so much of a delight if you joined the audience!

Lied and Recitation Concert

Cordial invitation to a noteworthy concert at the Berlin University of the Arts, Joseph Joachim hall, on Saturday, 28 January, 7 pm: We’ll take the term Recital seriously and confront a German Lieder programme with recitations of the corresponding poems. Students from the voice classes of professors Julie Kaufmann and Elisabeth Werres will be performing a colourful variety of songs, including two of my own compositions, while my colleague Alwin Müller-Arnke declaims Goethe, Heine, Rilke, and George, accompanied by some lofty introductions from my lips. Admission is free—do pay us a visit!

New SoundCloud Channel

There were a number of live and studio recordings, mostly from my school and university years, that used to linger on my hard disks. In addition to my composer profile and that of my choir, I have now launched a separate SoundCloud page dedicated to performances of other people’s piano music. Here you will find some pieces by Bach, Schumann, Franck, Scriabin, and Gershwin. I’d be so delighted if thou wouldst kindly lend me thine ears!

Update: I uploaded additional recordings dating from 2005–2009, including piano music, duo chamber music, and some romantic lieder and musical songs. Particularly recommendable are the compositions by Enrique Granados, Leoš Janáček, Alban Berg, Francis Poulenc, Viktor Ullmann, and Dmitry Shostakovich, but you’ll also find pieces from the standard canon of keyboard music such as Bach’s, Chopin’s, and Brahms’s. Have a look at my SoundCloud performer profile!