< World Premiere >
PAUL HINDEMITH : Concerto for Organ and Orchestra
Thursday 25 April, 1963
Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Paul Hindemith
Anton Heiller, Organ
Schott Music GbmH & Co., Mainz, 1964 (Ed. 40872)
< World Premiere >
JULIAN ANDERSON : Four American Choruses
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Saturday 24 April, 2004 – The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam Netherlands Radio Choir, cond. Simon Halsey
Faber Music, Ltd., 2008
Texts: Mary S. B. Dana, William O. Cushing, Victoria Stuart,
and P. P. Bliss
“The texts of these four choruses were chosen from Ira D. Sankey's popular 'Gospel Hymn Book' from the mid-nineteenth century, a volume much beloved by Charles Ives who quoted numerous Sankey tunes in almost all of his mature works. I have not used any of the tunes, being struck more by the optimism and artless directness of the texts themselves. There is something socially very moving about them, providing as they did a means of solace, comfort and hope for a better life for people whose lives were, on average, probably terrible.
Some of the phraseology and turns of phrase may also have been an influence on American poets in the latter half of the nineteenth century. I hear pre-echoes of Emily Dickinson, at least, in the texts of both 'I'm a pilgrim' and 'Beautiful valley of Eden'. In all four cases, the chosen texts generally avoid any specifically denominational religious references, as I wanted to focus on the social idea of collective hope and celebration.” — Julian Anderson
I. I'm a pilgrim:
< World Premiere >
STEVE REICH : Music for 18 Musicians
Saturday 24 April, 1976 – Town Hall, New York City
Steve Reich & Musicians
Hendon Music / Boosey & Hawkes, 1976 (HPS 1239)
— Ensemble Intercontemporain (2014)
< World Premiere >
ALEX FREEMAN : A Wilderness of Sea
(for unaccompanied SATB-SSSAAATTTBBB choir)
Saturday 23 April, 2016 – Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki Chamber Choir, cond. Nils Schweckendiek
Fennica Gehrman Oy, Helsinki, 2021
Texts : William Shakespeare (from 'Sonnet 64', 'The Tempest', and 'A Comedy of Errors')
< World Premiere >
MATTHEW MARTIN : The Lamentations of Jeremiah
(for unaccompanied SSATTB choir)
Wednesday 20 April, 2016
The Tallis Scholars, cond. Peter Phillips
Faber Music, Ltd., 2017
< World Premiere >
ALBAN BERG : Violinkonzert
("To the memory of an angel")
Sunday 19 April, 1936 – Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona
(XIV Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music)
Pau Casals Orchestra, cond. Hermann Scherchen
Louis Krasner, Violin solo
Universal Edition, 1996 (UE 34119)
“The 'Violin Concerto' is in a sense Alban Berg's farewell to this world: a painful, melancholic, devotional language (the last such one) to everything that was dear to him; a purely personal witness of his relationship to the world — to death — to God.”
– Helene Berg (1958)
< World Premiere >
PRIAULX RANIER : Requiem
(for unaccompanied SATB divisi choir & Tenor solo)
Sunday 15 April, 1956 – Victoria & Albert Museum, London
The Purcell Singers, cond. Imogen Holst
Peter Pears, Tenor
Text: David Gascoyne
Schott Music Ltd., 2003 (Ed. 13335)
< World Premiere >
GEORGE PERLE : Adagio for Orchestra
Tuesday 13 April, 1993 – Carnegie Hall, New York
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, cond. David Zinman
In 1937, Perle made his first connection with the revolutionary innovations of Schönberg and his school when he came upon a copy of Berg's Lyric Suite. “It wasn't until I came upon the Lyric Suite that I realized that there was something going on in contemporary music that implied really significant new ways of thinking about harmony...”
< World Premiere >
WOLFGANG RIHM : Sieben Passions-Texte
(for unaccompanied S A T T B B soli)
Friday 13 April, 2001
Basilica dei SS. XII Apostoli, Rome, Italy
Singer Pur
< World Premiere >
JAMES MacMILLAN : Tenebrae Responsories
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Wednesday 4 April, 2007
St. Andrew's in the Square, Glasgow, Scotland
Cappella Nova, cond. Alan Tavener
Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd., 2008 (BH11954)
“ ... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Mason Temple, Memphis, Tennessee
Wednesday 3 April, 1968
< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 2
Friday 25 March, 1960 – Juilliard School, New York
The Juilliard String Quartet
Winner of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Music
“My Second String Quartet, commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet, was begun in August, 1958, and finished in May, 1959. In it, the four instruments are individualized, each being given its own character embodied in a special set of melodic and harmonic intervals and of rhythms that result in four different patterns of slow and fast tempi with associated types of expression. Thus, four different strands of musical material of contrasting character are developed simultaneously throughout the work. It is out of the interactions, combinations, cooperations, and oppositions of these that the details of musical discourse as well as the large sections are built.
Up to the end of the second movement (Presto scherzando) the various facets of each instrument’s character are presented quite distinctively. After that, in the third and fourth movements (Andante espressivo & Allegro), there is a growing tendency to cooperate and exchange ideas, while, in the cadenzas, opposition between the solo and accompanying instruments grows. The Conclusion returns to the state of individualization of the first part of the work.”
— Elliott Carter
GABRIEL JACKSON : Stabat mater
(for unaccompanied SSSSAATTBB choir)
Friday 23 March, 2018 – Merton College Chapel, Oxford
The Marian Consort & Merton College Girls' Choir,
cond. Rory McLeery
Oxford University Press, 2018
< World Premiere >
BELA BARTÓK : Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117
Thursday 23 March, 1939 – The Royal Concertgebow, Amsterdam
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, cond. Willem Mengelberg
Zoltán Székely, Violin
< World Premiere >
CHRISTOPHER BROWN : To Musick, Sing!, Op. 82
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli)
Wednesday 17 March, 1993
Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, England
Clare College Choir, cond. Timothy Brown
Texts: Thomas Traherne, Robert Herrick, Sir John Davies, William Barnes
< World Premiere >
GEORGE ROCHBERG : Concerto for Violin & Orchestra
(Final Definitive 2002 Version)
Sunday 17 March, 2002 – Saarbrücken, Germany
Saarbrücken RSO, cond. Christopher Lyndon-Gee
Peter Shepperd-Skærved, Violin
“... a representative example of the synthesis of his free tonal style that Rochberg characterizes as “hard romanticism”, with a more lyrical, elegiac, “tonal” manner; indeed it is this opposition that primarily articulates the dramatic structure of this powerful work.”
– Christopher Lyndon-Gee
< World Premiere >
PATRICK BURGAN : Stabat Mater
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli)
Saturday 16 March, 1996 – Auch (France), Festival "Eclats de Voix"
Les Eléments, cond. Joël Suhubiette
Editions Jobert (JJ1741-7)
< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Das Jahr
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Sunday 16 March, 1941 – Berlin
Chor der Berliner Kirchenmusikschule, dir. Gottfried Grote
Texts: Josef Weinheber
Schott Music GbmH & Co., 1941 (ED 2913)
< World Premiere >
BENJAMIN LEES : Piano Concerto No. 2
Friday 15 March, 1968 – Boston, MA
Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Erich Leinsdorf
Gary Graffman, Piano
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 1978 (HPS 1108)
< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Passionsbericht des Matthäus
(for unaccompanied SATB-SATB choir)
Saturday 10 March, 1951 – Leipzig, Germany
Thomanerchor Leipzig, dir. Günther Ramin
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1950 (BA2276)