Turfblossom writes:
NS
Hermann Scherchen conducts an orchestration by Roger Vuataz of BWV 1080, recorded in Zürich, 21 November, 1949
I am hearing the Art of Fugue for what seems like the first time. Yet I know this is not Bach. It is very much an 'interpretive' orchestration, inauthentic in every way but the
notes intervals.
For the first time in a long time I am inwardly compelled to listen to something as long as this twice in a row. It is now spinning for the second time, actually.
Thoughts are spinning too: the orchestration is quite bizarre. Vuataz ran the Geneva
Conventions Radio for about 20 years. Whom did he study with? I have never heard of his teachers, nor have I seen such a biography before:
(b Geneva, 4 Jan 1898; d Geneva, 2 Feb 1988). Swiss composer, conductor and organist. He studied at the Geneva Academy and at the Geneva Conservatoire (with G. Delaye, A. Mottu and Otto Barblan). From an early age he was a leading figure in the musical life of Geneva. He was organist of the Protestant Église Nationale (1917–18), and between 1920 and 1942 he was choirmaster in Nyon and Yverdon. He conducted many orchestras, both in Switzerland and abroad. He worked for Radio Geneva in various capacities (1927–71) and from 1944 to 1964 he was head of its music department. In 1961 he became a professor at the Geneva Conservatoire. He took an interest in all kinds of innovations, particularly of a technical nature;
he studied the ondes martenot in Paris in 1931 and became the first qualified ondes martenot player in Switzerland. 
In 1936 he won the Jaques-Dalcroze diploma of eurhythmics. He also worked as a journalist and music critic, and was an active member of many musical organizations. In 1967 he was awarded the music prize of the city of Geneva, and in 1975 the music prize of the Musicians’ Union. During World War II he did not conform to national opinion, and defended Hermann Scherchen against unjustified attack.
His work as a composer was extremely prolific and he wrote in all genres. Sacred music is at the heart of his output, and in particular a concern with the music of Bach. Vuataz’s arrangement of the Art of Fugue attracted much interest in the 1930s. Later he adopted a free tonal style, picking up 20th-century currents in a very individual manner.
[emphasis and agape smiley mine]
Has anyone heard compositions by Vuataz? I don't expect them to be an enormous discovery, but am very curious.
