The Bayerische Staatsoper and its former Music Director Kirill Petrenko commissioned the opera “South Pole” from the Czech composer Miroslav Srnka in 2016. Now Music Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Petrenko has commissioned a major new symphonic work from Srnka for his orchestra. His “Superorganisms” receives its world premiere conducted by Petrenko. Superorganisms are forms of life in which homogenous living beings work together synergetically and organised between themselves – a “multiplication of the positive power of individuals”, as the composer explains. Typical examples of superorganisms are ant colonies and swarms of bees. An example of superorganisms in human culture is the symphony orchestra – and this is where Miroslav Srnka’s new piece begins.

The rental material of the renowned music publisher Ut Orpheus Edizioni, founded and based in Bologna in 1993, will now be distributed worldwide by Alkor-Edition, with the exception of Italy. The attractive catalogue, dedicated primarily to early music, includes the complete editions of Francesco Geminiani, Luigi Boccherini (portrait) and Muzio Clementi. Of particular interest is the “Napoli e l‘Europa” series initiated by Riccardo Muti, featuring previously unpublished operas and oratorios of the Neapolitan School, including “I due Figaro” by Saverio Mercadante and “Demofoonte” by Niccoló Jommelli, A real gem is the Dramma per musica “Francesca da Rimini” by Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870), premiered in 2016 at the Festival della Valle d'Itria Martina Franca. It will be performed for the first time beyond the Alps in the current season as a co-production of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and Oper Frankfurt, in Erl from 28 December 2022, in Frankfurt from 26 February 2023.

This new publication offers a source-critical edition of Mozart’s fragmentary “Requiem” (Bärenreiter-Verlag) as well as an alternative to the traditional Süßmayr version. When completing the fragment, the editor Michael Ostrzyga drew on comprehensive comparative and analytical studies of Mozart’s church style and compositional workmanship. The influence of Handel and Bach manifested in his final years, particularly in the “Requiem” fragment, is taken into account in those sections requiring completion or fresh composition. At two points readers may choose between alternative movements (or sections), since proceeding from Süßmayr’s historical version, two divergent options cannot be weighed against each other but each one may well reflect Mozart’s intentions. The new completion offers choirs and orchestras the opportunity to perform this legendary work in a well thought through version based on the most up-to-date research.

Miroslav Srnka has composed a concerto for the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and the Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne. François-Xavier Roth conducts the world premiere of "Standstill" on 11 September in Cologne. Three questions on his new work to the composer.

To celebrate the 200th birthday of the Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg in 1884 Edvard Grieg was commissioned to write an open-air cantata for the ceremony. But he also refers to Holberg in his instrumental music. The result was a “powdered wig piece” (as Grieg wrote to his publisher) that hearkens back to Holberg’s era – a historicising suite of baroque dances for piano, ranging from an exhilarating prelude and several dance numbers to a Bachian “air” and an impetuous “rigaudon”. Later Grieg arranged his suite for string orchestra. This version became one of his most popular compositions. For the new scholarly-critical Urtext edition (Bärenreiter-Verlag) Christoph Rinne-Schroeder has meticulously examined the original print and compared it with previously neglected performance material annotated by Grieg himself.

The return to life is the evocative title of this year’s Festival Berlioz in the composer’s birthplace of La Côte-Saint-André. In the second half of August leading Berlioz interpreters such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Francois-Xavier Roth, Jérémy Rhorer, John Nelson and Valery Gergiev perform key works from Berlioz’s output including Les Troyens à Carthage, La Damnation de Faust, L’Enfance du Christ, Requiem, Symphonie fantastique, Lelio ou Le retour à la vie and Les nuits d’été. The fact that music can finally be performed again after a long period of enforced silence is also another reason for traditional summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Munich, Salzburg and Lucerne – to name just the most prominent – to celebrate. Bärenreiter features many times with its critical new editions and performance material of Baroque and classical-romantic operas, and in addition, first performances of new concert works by Beat Furrer and Miroslav Srnka feature. Here is an overview of dates. Please check these with the respective organisers beforehand.

Fittingly coinciding with the commemorative year in 2021 to mark the 100th anniversary of Camille Saint-Saëns’ death, a rediscovered choral work by the composer will be published for the very first time. “Super flumina Babylonis” will then be available in three versions.