FRIEDRICH CERHA : Vier Hölderlin-Fragmente (for unaccompanied SATB div. choir) Tuesday 18 February, 1997 – Berlin, Germany RIAS-Kammerchor, cond. Erwin Ortner Text: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) Universal Edition, Vienna, 1996 (UE 30407)

< World Premiere > HANS SCHANDERL : Meerwunder (for four unaccompanied SATB choirs) Saturday, 14 February, 2004 – Konzerthaus, Berlin RIAS Kammerchor & Rundfunkchor Berlin Carus Verlag, 2003 (CV 07.356) “The composition is based on the concept of acoustic quadrophony, in which four choirs placed on four sides of the room 'sing around' the auditorium. Here, sound movements are composed as surround sound.” – Hans Schanderl

< World Premiere > GRANVILLE BANTOCK : Vanity of Vanities (Symphony for Unaccompanied 12 part choir) Saturday 14 February, 1914 Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, cond. Harry Evans Text: Book of Ecclesiastes, Old Testament J. Curwen & Sons, 1913

< USA Premiere > ELLIOTT CARTER : Musicians Wrestle Everywhere (for unaccompanied SSATB choir) Tuesday 12 February, 1946 – New York Times Hall, New York Randolph Singers, cond. David Randolph Text: Emily Dickinson Theodore Presser Company (35200119)

< World Premiere > JOSEPH JONGEN : Symphonie Concertante for Organ & Orchestra, Op. 81 Saturday 11 February, 1928 - Royal Brussels Conservatory cond. Désiré Defauw; Joseph Jongen, Organ “The 'Symphonie Concertante' is not an organ concerto, but rather an orchestral work in which the organ is another orchestra that takes the leading role it rightly deserves. There is no thematic or rhythmic connection between the four movements of this extensive work; the focus is set on the stylistic unity of the different movements.” — Joseph Jongen

< World Premiere > KALEVI AHO : Symphony No. 10 Thursday 6 February, 1997 – Lahti, Finland Lahti Symphony Orchestra, cond. Osmo Vänskä

< World Premiere > ELLIOTT CARTER : Concerto for Orchestra Thursday 5 February, 1970 – Philharmonic Hall, New York, NY New York Philharmonic, cond. Leonard Bernstein Associated Music Publishers, 1972 (HL50225800) “I had been thinking about writing a work which treated most of the players in the orchestra as soloists, when the commission from the New York Philharmonic started me off. In casting about for a plan, a dramatic and musical structure for such a multiple concerto, I came across St. John Perse’s 'Vents' (Winds), a long poem about America which suggested a way of ordering a piece. I realized at once, of course, that the broad, Whitmanesque rhetoric of the poem could only partially be reflected in the music whose main aim was to give individual, human expression to a great variety of players; yet the poem’s fluidity and its changes of character offered a useful model.” — Elliott Carter

< World Premiere > MICHAEL TORKE : Ash Friday 3 February, 1989 – Ordway Center, St. Paul, Minnesota St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, cond. by John Adams Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. (HPS1138) “In trying to find a clear and recognizable language to write this piece, I have chosen some of the most basic, functionally tonal means: tonics and dominants in F minor, a modulation to the relative major (A-flat), and a three-part form which, through a retransition, recapitulates back to F minor. What I offer is not invention of new "words" or a new language but a new way to make sentences and paragraphs in a common, much-used existing language. I can create a more compelling musical argument with these means because, to my ears, potential rhetoric seems to fall out from such highly functional chords as tonics and dominants more than certain fixed sonorities and pop chords that I have used before. My musical argument is dependent on a feeling of cause and effect, both on a local level where one chord releases the tension from a previous chord and on the larger structural level where a section is forced to follow a previous section by a coercive modulation. The orchestration does not seek color for its own sake, as decoration is not a high priority, but the instruments combine and double each other to create an insistent ensemble from beginning to end. Only occasionally, as in the middle A-flat section, do three woodwind instruments play alone for a short while to break the inertia of the ensemble forging its course together.” — Michael Torke

< World Premiere > ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 3 Tuesday 23 January, 1973 – Julliard School, New York The Julliard String Quartet Associated Music Publishers, 1973, 1998 (AMP 7303) Awarded the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Music “My String Quartet No. 3, commissioned by The Julliard School for the Julliard String Quartet, divides the instruments into pairs: a duo for Violin & Cello that plays in rubato style and a duo for Violin & Viola in more regular rhythm. The Violin–Cello duo presents four different musical characters – an angry, intense 'Furioso'; a fanciful 'Leggerissimo'; a 'Pizzicato giocoso'; and a lyrical 'Andante expressivo' – in short sections one after the other in various orders, sometimes with pauses between. The Violin–Viola duo, meanwhile, presents the six contrasting characters: 'Maestoso'; 'Grazioso'; 'Pizzicato, giusto mechanico'; 'Scorrevole'; 'Largo tranquillo'; and 'Appassionato'. During the Quartet each character of each duo is presented alone and also in combination with each character of the other duo to give a sense of ever-varying perspectives of feelings, expression, rivalry and cooperation.” – Elliott Carter

< World Premiere > ROBIN HOLLOWAY : The Consolation of Music, Op. 38, No. 1 (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Monday 22 January, 1979 – Queen Elizabeth Hall, London The BBC Singers, cond. John Poole Texts : Robert Herrick (1591-1674), William Strode (1598-1645) Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 1979 (B&H 20628)

< 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

< 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 : Pœnitential 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 choir) Friday 21 December, 1990 – St. Albans Church, Birmingham BBC Singers, cond. Simon Joly Text: from Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Lost', Act 1, Scene 2 Faber Music Ltd., London, 1990

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Toccata No. 1, KSS46 Tuesday 18 December, 2001 British Music Information Centre, London, England Jonathan Powell, Piano solo

< 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 > MAX REGER : Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 110, Nr. 2 – Motette „Ach, Herr, strafe mich nicht“ Thursday 11 December, 1913 Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Städtischer Gesangverein, dir. Fritz Busch Text: Psalm 6,2-3; 4,2.9; 6,7a; 7,11; 18,2; 16,11 Edition Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1911