Peter Wettstein was born in Zurich. Following completion of his 'Maturität', he studied at the University of Zurich and the Musikakademie and subsequently at the Musikhochschule Detmold. Courses in Darmstadt, Paris, Hilversum and New York supplemented his graduate studies (1961 until 1965) in the subjects violin, sound engineering and conducting. He has won numerous prizes offered by various competitions and institutions in his role as a conductor and composer.
In 1965 he was appointed a teaching position in theory and conducting at the then Musikakademie Zürich. He became the director of the vocational department of the conservatory and Musikhochschule in 1976 and was the Director of the Musikhochschule Zürich from 1999 until summer 2003. He additionally taught at the University of Zurich from 1978 until 2001.
Predominantly in the field of new-music, Wettstein's involvement with various cultural committees has resulted in multifaceted accomplishments within the Swiss music scene.
He has received various awards for his compositional, music-pedagogic and politico-cultural work. Peter Wettstein is currently engaged as a general expert at the Basel, Luzern and Zurich schools of music, manages the oldest Swiss music festival, the 'Musikwoche Braunwald', and is active involved with various politico-cultural organisations.
His catalogue of works contains ca. 80 compositions covering almost every genre from solo to chamber music through to works for orchestra and musical theatre.
The names of the movements: ‘Invocazione’, ‘InterMezzo’, ‘Reazione’ indicate the compositional ideas. The string orchestra is transparent and often used in a chamber musical fashion.
Instrumentation: for transverse flute and harpsichord
The rigorous tone of the harpsichord and the modulatory tonal capacity of the flute were the starting points for this sound game. The individual passages proceed sometimes with and sometimes against each other.
Invocations of a higher entity and the invocations of the partner. Whereas the invocation of the co-player produces musical reactions, the evocation of a Godly power happens in another dimension; it remains abstract and can only be experienced subjectively.
Instrumentation: for large orchestra (pic.2.2(2ca).2(2Ebcl).bcl.2.cbn/4.3.2.0/3perc/hp/str)
The people of Tessin call their southern most situated lake ’Il Ceresio’, the Celtic word ‘Keresios’ (Cernunnos) means ‘the horned’ and characterises the fantastically formed see, hill and mountain landscape “…a more sentimental impression than painting….”
Based on a poem by Paul Celan: “above the grey-black wilderness.
A tree-high thought tunes in to light's pitch: there are still songs to be sung on the other side of mankind.” (Paul Celan, Tr. Michael Hamburger)
Instrumentation: for Soprano, clarinet, viola and organ
Texts: Bibel / Liturgie
Part of a joint composition: Proprium part of the Whitsunday mass by H. Holliger, H.U. Lehmann, J. Haselbach, P. Wettstein, G. Bennett and J. Wildberger.
Instrumentation: for twelve solo strings (4.3.2.2.1) and Clown ad lib
This work is broken down into twelve pieces in four groups:
Evolution - Phantom I - Phantom II
Aufgang - Tangran - Evolution
Fata morgana - Charade I - Charade II
Aufforderung... - Vision
A scenic version was developed in 1986 in close cooperation with Dimitri. A version with any other clown must be adapted in respect to the personality of that clown.
Instrumentation: for oboe, violin, harpsichord and strings
As a counterpart to Bach's double concerto for oboe and violin. This piece stems from a commission by a good amateur orchestra. A colourful single-movement concerto grosso stamped with aleatoric and firmly fixed sections.
This work lives from a sonority rising from an environment of whispered tremoli and the slightest of tonal movements. Ascending to multi coloured sotto-voce effects and dialogues spoken under breath eventually falling back to the soft vibrations of the beginning. It is signed over to Janus, and so it develops around a short intermezzo, two strings whose affinity is audible but who have absolutely separate lineaments; where it comes to refined sound effects in Face I, Face II departs into melodic developments and contrapuntal associations…(NZZ)
Instrumentation: for male and female voices, wind ensemble and staff music instrument (SATB-each min.4)/2fl(pic:afl).ob.ca.cl.bcl.bn/hn.tpt.tbn/1perc)
“Pictures full of poetic beauty emerge here, rooted in the original experience of the human condition. Fear and lust, cruelty and love (referring in its multi faceted ways to the process of dying) become intimately associated with words in sound and in music.”
A play on the subject of the past and future of our word
Instrumentation: for instrumental ensemble, voices (2S1A1T2B) and moving players (1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/2perc/1.1.1.2.1)
This two-part mystery play was written as a commission from the Swiss Confederation for its 700th anniversary. Music and movement are intertwined, the instrumentalists are implicated in the visual handling. The texts are derived from various sources and compiled by the composer.
Instrumentation: for violin and orchestra (2(2pic).2.2(2bcl).2/2.2.1.0/2perc/str)
“….a fantasy full discourse between the pre-existing and the powerful tradition of the virtuoso concert. It centralises the soloist, a soloist who multiplies and finds himself in partnership with five subsidiary soloists who, from various parts of the concert hall, offer support. Even the orchestra is not the collective against which the soloist stands out - it presents itself much more as a group of individuals who act, in certain parts, even independent of the conductor….”
(NZZ, 19.3.93)
‘Annäherungen’ and ’ Spiele’ are the names of these interconnected parts in which the gesticulatory actions and movements of the performers are important.
Instrumentation: for sixteen string instruments and percussion (9.3.3.1/2perc)
Sixteen solo strings are separated into chamber music groups and arranged around the percussion ensemble. From a light relaxed transparent sound surface and rhythmically pulsating figures, there develops chordal and melodic but also harmonic coloured structures which, like coloured glass splinters in a kaleidoscope, continually produce new combinations. Single soloists and small formations are set against each other resulting in an interplay between effectively fixed and improvised segments: tensions begin to mount leading to discharges; relationships develop from contacts which then lead to consensus or dissent.
Instrumentation: for baritone, m and f orators, choir, clarinet (also piccolo, clarinet in Eb, bass clarinet), three violins, viola, two violoncelli, four-handed piano, two percussion and pantomime (ad libitum)
Texts: Dante Alighieri, Giuseppe Ungaretti
Scenic or concertante performance with demanding solo parts (baritone and clarinet), but simple choir and instrumental parts.
Instrumentation: for clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, violoncello and double-bass
Five centrally placed string instruments are combined with three decentralised wind instruments. The numbers 5 and 3 also stand for the fifth and third intervals which constitute the characteristic cell of the piece. In a wider sense, rhythmic forms and formal organisation are similarly derived from the 5:3 relationship.
Instrumentation: for small orchestra (1(pic).1.1.1/1.1.1.1/1-2perc/pf/str)
Part of the feature-length project (KREUZENDE WEGE), of the Zurich ‘Komponistensekretariat’. The motives came from composer colleagues Werner Bärtschi, Ulrich Gasser, Max Eugen Keller and Martin Sigrist (at least one motive from an earlier piece, one especially "invented" for this project, and one which is "borrowed" from an especially appreciated contemporary composer), forming the basic material that gives the piece its character.
Instrumentation: for three clarinets and three brass instruments (2cl-b.bcl/hn/tpt.tbn)
The three clarinettists are positioned on the concert podium; the three brass players are decentralised to the side and to the back of the concert room. The segments are to be played partly in strict coordination and partly in a looser coordination.
'BLAUE STUNDE' (the blue hour) a time of dawn / twilight, the margin between night and day, day and night. A moment of potential metamorphosis, which can alter existential orientation and lead to increased awareness and intensified perception.
Ein musikalisches Patchwork oder die Kunst des Fügens
Instrumentation: for nonet (oboe, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, viola, double-bass, accordion, piano and percussion)
A collaboration between members of the 'Komponistensekretariats Zürich' (Werner Bärtschi, Ulrich Gasser, Max Eugen Keller, Martin Sigrist und Peter Wettstein): The score is sent back and forth between the five composers, each fills in a 50-second section before sending it on to the next.
Instrumentation: for four soloists, four choirs, two wind, clarinet ensemble and string orchestra
For the inauguration of the ‘Hesli-Halle’ in Küsnacht.
Hesli-Fanfare - an interlude for violin solo, flute, clarinet, trumpet and ensembles - Fanfare intervention for trumpet and wind orchestra - New sounds on old grounds for clarinet and soloists.
Instrumentation: for flute, violin, two violas and violoncello
The Sumeric myth of the moon god Inanna, who loses herself in the underworld and is born anew, stimulates combinations and scenes in the world of sound.