[10.10.2012] Three premieres by Beat Furrer can be heard in quick succession: linea d’orizzonte will be performed in Donaueschingen on 21 October by Ensemble ascolta, and Enigma V by the choir Les Cris de Paris under Geoffroy Jourdain on 26 October in Paris. With this Furrer concludes his series of five “Enigmas” for unaccompanied choir, after Leonardo da Vinci’s late “Profezie”. Furrer composed Ira - Arca for bass flute and double bass for the Erste Bank Composition Award, which receives its premiere from Eva Furrer and Uli Fussenegger on 3 November in Vienna.

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s opera Der Sandmann, after themes by E. T. A. Hoffmann, receives its German premiere on 18 September at the Frankfurt Opera, taking over from the Theater Basel Christof Loy's original production. Like his first work in the genre, WUT, Scartazzini’s second opera introduces an equally exciting subject to the operatic stage. The libretto is by Thomas Jonigk, who transfers the story of the Sandman to the present, setting it in the milieu of a budding writer who inhabits a world between delusion and reality. The conductor in Frankfurt is Hartmut Keil. Further performances after the premiere are scheduled for 24 and 30 September, 3, 8, 13 and 23 October 2016. – Der Sandmann has just been released on CD: Musiques Suisses, MGB 6288. (photo: Janis Huber)

[15.06.2012] George Benjamin’s new opera Written on Skin receives its premiere on  7 July at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. The composer conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a production by Katie Mitchell. The centerpiece of this major, full-length opera for five singers and orchestra, is a Provençal legend from the 13th century which tells of the horrifying death of a troubador – a multi-layered parable about the limits of power. The production will then be staged at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Covent Garden London, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Wiener Festwochen and Munich Opera Festival. (Photo: Maurice Foxal)

(20.11.2012) The extended version of Matthias Pintscher’s Uriel for violoncello and piano  receives its premiere by Alisa Weilerstein (violoncello) and Inon Barnatan (piano) at the Alte Oper Frankfurt on 13 january 2013. Pintscher, recently appointed new artistic director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, has just been guest composer and conductor at the Huddersfield Festival. He travels to the USA in December to conduct at the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Curtis Institute Philadelphia, immediately following the premiere of his Chute d’Étoiles, written for the Roche Commissions 2012, at Carnegie Hall New York

[15.06.2012] The composer Charlotte Seither and her varied output are the focus of a special concert series in St. Martin’s Kassel. As an accompanying project to dOCUMENTA (13), a series of portrait concerts entitled “Weg mit Abschied” will be given beginning on 17 June 2012. These feature 23 works by the composer including four premieres: Gehen lassen. Feinstaub for voice with hand percussion, Cry for violin solo, Fünf Stücke um den Fluss zu queren [Five pieces to cross the river] for orchestra, and the sound installation Crossing/Space will be premiered as part of the concert series in St. Martin’s. The Artistic Director of the project series is Eckhard Manz.

[15.06.2012] Miroslav Srnka has composed Eighteen Agents for nineteen strings for the Munich Chamber Orchestra, a multi-perspective exploration of string sound. Following his major music-theatre works of recent years, this piece is a concentration on the potential string instruments have for blending sound – from unison writing to the complete sharing out of the parts. The premiere on 21 June in the Prinzregententheater Munich was conducted by Alexander Liebreich.

[16.2.2012] Ein Gedicht des russischen Futuristen und Sprachkünstlers Viktor Chlebnikov aus dem Jahr 1918, ein beinahe unübersetzbares Kunstwerk in einer deutschen Nachdichtung von Alexander Nitzberg, wird zum Ausgangspunkt von Philipp Maintz’ Komposition für Bariton und Orchester. Wenn steine sich gen himmel stauen wird am 25. März beim Printemps des Arts Monte Carlo von Otto Katzameier (Bariton) und dem Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo unter Leitung von Jean Deroyer uraufgeführt. Kurz zuvor, am 10. März, präsentiert Garth Knox (Viola) die Uraufführung eines Neuen Werks für Bratsche und Live-Elektronik sowie Stephane Ginsburg (Klavier) die revidierte Fassung von gelände/zeichnung. musik für klavier und live-elektronik beim Festival Ars Musica in Brüssel. In Paris spielt das Ensemble Alternance die französischen Erstaufführungen von tourbillon und NAHT (yo no pido a la noche explicaciones).