A book for Tibor Varga's studio
One of Switzerland's most beautiful recording studios is threatened with demolition. A book tells its story.
Tibor Varga's studio in Grimisuat (VS) is one of the two most suitable locations in Switzerland for recording classical music. The other is the famous Salle de Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which can prove too expensive to rent for today's productions with increasingly limited budgets, and depending on conditions can suffer from neighborhood noise. Nothing like this in Grimisuat. Yet this magical place is in peril: closed since 2009, it is threatened with demolition.
Musicologist Vincent Arlettaz recently published an in-depth study of this building, designed by Tibor Varga himself - with the uncertain help of an acoustics professor - its history, the recordings made there, and its hypothetical future. The book is published by the HEMU and is available free of charge on request.
We discover the studio's astonishing qualities, mainly its acoustics - described by regular sound engineer Jean-Claude Gaberel - but also the beauty and serenity of the landscape, and the welcome Tibor Varga's son-in-law Jean-Noël Rybicki extended to visiting musicians. We also learn about the difficulties of its construction, the insulation and waterproofing defects and the financial disputes that took its owner to court. We discover a hidden side to the life of Tibor Varga, an inveterate handyman who involved his whole family in the work of soldering cables and adjusting recording equipment. Tibor Varga died when he fell while moving a large tape recorder, in the manner of Lully, who died from a blow to his foot from a steering stick.
Today, the studio's situation is tenser than ever. The demolition was put out to tender on November 1. The main remaining hope is that a group of buyers will come together to buy the part of the estate where the studio is located, estimated at around one million francs. This would be neither a gift nor an investment, but a co-ownership, with no profitability, at least initially. Vincent Arlettaz and the people trying to save this unique place from sinking are therefore urgently seeking patrons.
To order the book: Vincent.Arlettaz@hemu-cl.ch
