< World Premiere > BÉLA BARTÓK : Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta Thursday 21 January, 1937 – Basel, Switzerland Basler Kammerorchester, cond. Paul Sacher Universal Edition, 1937 "In the summer of 1936, the 55-year-old Béla Bartók, having by then achieved considerable international fame as a performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist, tackled a formidable array of compositional challenges in his 'Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta', a work of astonishing synthesis, organicism, and technical brilliance." — Christopher Gibbs

< World Premiere > RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : Sinfonia Antartica (Symphony No. 7) Wednesday 14 January, 1953 Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England Hallé Orchestra & Choir, cond. John Barbirolli Margaret Ritchie, Soprano solo

Go Ravens!

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Piano Sonata No. 2 Monday 13 January, 1922 Kammersaal, Musikverein, Bödendorferstrasse, Vienna Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano

< World Premiere > ROBIN WALKER : I have thee by the hand, O Man (A Madrigal for 40 Voices a cappella ) Friday 10 January, 2003 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England The Tallis Scholars, cond. Peter Phillips

< World Premiere > ALFRED SCHNITTKE : Penitential Verses (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB div. choir) Monday 26 December, 1988 - Moscow USSR Ministry Culture Chamber Choir, cond. Valery Polyanski Compozitor Saint Petersburg, 2017 (No. 6993) “The importance of the theme of repentance to Schnittke is shown in his 1987 work 'Penitential Verses', a large scale composition for unaccompanied choir which, at around 40 minutes duration, is comparable in scale to his 'Concerto for Mixed Choir' (1984-1985). The work, written for the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Russia, was inspired by a collection of early Russian literature which includes these spiritual lines or poems by anonymous monks. Although thematically these texts might seem to offer much less variety than those of St. Gregory of Narek (whose words Schnittke used in his 'Choir Concerto'), the music employs essentially the same techiques and is characterized by the same degree of technical virtuosity. In both pieces there are very strong echos of the Russian sacred repertoire of the 19th and early 20th centuries; this imparts a sense of belonging to a tradition which, in turn, provides much of the music's strength.” — Ivan Moody

< World Premiere > COLIN MATTHEWS : A Rose at Christmas (for unaccompanied SATB div. choir) Friday 21 December, 1990 St. Albans Church, Birmingham BBC Singers, cond. Simon Joly Text: Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Lost', Act 1, Scene 2 Faber Music Ltd., London, 1990

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Toccata Seconda per pianoforte, KSS57 Wednesday 16 December, 1936 Stevenson Hall, Glasgow, Scotland Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano solo

< World Premiere > ERNST PEPPING : Die Weihnachtsgeschichte des Lukas (for unaccompanied SATB div. choir) Sunday 13 December, 1959 – Göttingen, Germany Göttinger Stadtkantorei, dir. Ludwig Doormann Bärenreiter Verlag, 1959 (BA3947)

< World Premiere > CHRISTOPHER BROWN : Hodie Salvator Apparuit, Op. 28 - A Sequence for Christmas (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli) Wednesday 9 December, 1970 – St. Andrew's Church, London Salterello Choir, cond. Christopher Seaman J. & W. Chester, Ltd., 1976 (CH55008)

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Le Jardin Parfumé, KSS35 Tuesday 7 December, 1976 – Wigmore Hall, London, UK Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano solo J. Curwen and Sons Ltd., 1927 (999.019)

< World Premiere > RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : Mass in G minor (for unaccompanied SATB-SATB choir & SATB soli) Wednesday 6 December, 1922 – Town Hall, Birmingham City of Birmingham Choir, cond. Joseph Lewis J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 1922

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Symphonic Nocturne, KSS97 Thursday 3 December, 2015 Miryzaal, School of Arts, Koninklijk Conservatorium Gent, Belgium Lukas Huisman, Piano solo

< World Premiere > ESA-PEKKA SALONEN : Two Songs from Kalender Röd (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Saturday 2 December, 2000 – Stockholm Swedish Radio Choir, cond. Stefan Parkman Texts : Ann Jäderlund Chester Music Ltd., 2005 (CH63470) “I became enchanted with Ann Jäderlund's poetry because of its sensual intensity and lack of sentimentality. She describes sensations with amazing effectiveness, with few words, but with a rhythm that immediately awakens mystical associations ... The songs are dedicated to the Swedish Radio Choir on the occasion of their 75th anniversary.” – Esa-Pekka Salonen

< World Premiere > DAVID MATTHEWS : The Ship of Death (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Tuesday 1 December, 1992 – Pebble Mill, Birmingham Finzi Singers, cond. Paul Spicer Text: D. H. Lawrence Faber Music, Ltd., 1996 (Cat. No. 0571554148)

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Opus Clavicembalisticum, KSS50 Monday 1 December, 1930 - Stevenson Hall, Glasgow, Scotland Kaikhosru Sorabji, Piano J.Curwen and Sons Ltd., 1931 “It is so difficult to know how to convey to those who are unfamiliar with Sorabji's work just how strange and profoundly rewarding he can be. In many respects it could be said to be a new, and thus far quite distinct, form of music. His 'Opus Clavicembalisticum' is a major, if little appreciated, piece of twentieth century abstract modern art, being to music what Joyce's 'Ulysses' is to literature, or Pollock's 'Lavender Mist' is to painting. It is music as stream of consciousness, and to understand it one must arguably learn new ways of listening, to hear the music of the music, so to speak. Its sheer scale and duration insist that one can only engage with it as ritual, requiring one to set aside a chunk of life in which to be with it.” — John Ferngrove – Pars Altera, VII. Cadenza I :

< World Premiere > RICHARD STRAUSS : Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 Friday 27 November, 1896 – Frankfurt, Germany Richard Strauss, cond.

< World Premiere > WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI : Concerto for Orchestra Friday 26 November, 1954 – Warsaw, Poland Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Witold Rowicki J & W Chester / Edition Wilhelm Hansen London, 1972 ( JWC55276) “... It is the music of Béla Bartók that seems the obvious point of comparison to Lutosławski’s 'Concerto for Orchestra' — its title recalling Bartók’s famous composition of a decade earlier. Disciplined style, tight formal construction, and a clear sense of logic in the development of themes are already manifest in this relatively early piece, and they would remain hallmarks of Lutosławski’s style. But here we find the composer leaning to a notable extent on folk melodies. Lutosławski protested that his flirtations with folk sources were not forced on him by the government, but his protestation had a ring of ambivalent obscurity about it: "It didn’t interest me as profoundly as it interested Bartók, for instance. . . . I used this kind of material in the 'Concerto for Orchestra' because I was not ready yet to realize what I wanted. It had nothing to do with the regime or with pressure. It’s very often misunderstood. Some people write comments in program notes that I was compelled to use folk melodies. It’s not true at all." Direct impetus for this work came via an invitation from the conductor Witold Rowicki, who in 1950 asked Lutosławski to write a piece based on folk material for performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which Rowicki founded that year. As Lutosławski grappled with the piece, it grew into a full three-movement composition. Lutosławski would often work on pieces over long periods of time; the four-year gestation period of the 'Concerto for Orchestra' was not unusual. What Rowicki received is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that, like Bartók’s 'Concerto for Orchestra', is a virtuoso vehicle for the ensemble as a whole.” — James M. Keller

< World Premiere > EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA : Missa A Cappella (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Friday 25 November, 2011 – Jacobikerk, Utrecht Netherlands Radio Choir, cond. Celso Antunes Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 2011

< World Premiere > HERBERT HOWELLS : Mass in the Dorian Mode (for unaccompanied SATB choir) Sunday 24 November, 1912 - Westminster Cathedral, England Westminster Cathedral Choir, dir. Dr. Richard Terry Oxford University Press, 1994 “The 'Mass in the Dorian Mode' is fascinating because of the extreme purity of style. On one level it could be described as a technical exercise because Howells was obviously flexing new-found musical muscles, and yet the music itself raises it way above the level of mere academe. Howells was simply “in tune” with this style and wrote as happily in it as in any style which he was forming of a more individual hue. The polyphonic example learned from the likes of Byrd and Tallis infused his work for the rest of his life. It is interesting that in 1903 the Vatican issued a Motu Proprio encouraging composers to learn from their ancient forebears in the style and restraint of their works for the church. Howells needed no such encouragement at this time, as this Mass clearly shows.” — Paul Spicer