Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem has appeared in a new Urtext-Edition by Marco Uvietta. In this new scholarly-critical edition the editor, on the basis of all available sources, succeeds in presenting practical suggestions to solve musical problems and those concerning the interpretation of this famous work. A hitherto unexamined handwritten reduction for voice and piano casts a new light on the evaluation of several known sources and leads to new philological and editorial decisions.

A masterwork by the bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka has been found: the large-scale Missa Divi Xaverii for soloist, chorus and orchestra, composed in 1729 in Vienna. This new discovery by Václav Luks and his ensembles brings a magnificent sacred work to light.

(4.10.2014) Philipp Maintz has composed a concerto for piano and large orchestra for the Festival Musica Strasbourg. The composer describes his work as “an exciting approach to a form steeped in historical tradition, but at no point in the compositional process did I think of breaking it down.” It receives its premiere on 10 October 2014 in Strasbourg with Jean Frédéric Neuburger as soloist and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Peter Hirsch. The same day his orchestral work archipel can be heard in Saarbrücken, with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken conducted by Robert HP Platz. And finally, ferner, und immer ferner. music for organ solo receives its Polish premiere in Wroclaw on 11 October 2014 at the World New Music Days 2014, performed by Piotr Rojek.

(7.10.2015) Matthias Pintscher has described his orchestral work idyll as a shining, light image of a place of yearning. The composition receives its British premiere on 3 December 2015 in Glasgow, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. There are numerous first performances of Pintscher’s works this autumn. First performances include bereshit given in the Netherlands by the Ensemble intercontemporain, and his cycle Profiles of Light (Now I and II for piano and violoncello) and beyond (a system of passing) for flute in the USA. Sarah Maria Sun and Jan Philipp Schultze give the Spanish premiere of his Lieder und Schneebilder on 15 December 2015 in Bilbao. – (photo: Franck Ferville)

It’s music of international stature. Smetana’s orchestral work Vltava (Moldau) from the cycle Má vlast (My fatherland) is played by orchestras throughout the world and much loved by audiences. Now this famous work is available in an authoritative edition reflecting the latest research.

(5.6.2014) Manfred Trojahn has immersed himself in some major literary texts for two of his new works: he has set Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Terzinen über Vergänglichkeit as orchestral songs for Marlis Petersen. These will be premiered on 18 June at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen by the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Ulf Schirmer. The Aix-en-Provence Festival is devoting a composer portrait to Trojahn with vocal and chamber music, including a first performance: Trois morceaux de “Quitter” to poetry by René Char will be premiered by Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) and the Ensemble Modern conducted by Franck Ollu on 13 July. A month before, Ungewisses Licht. 4 Fragmente für Chor receives its premiere in a portrait concert in the “Musik am 13.” concert series in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt.

(6.6.2014) The “vertical poetry” of the Argentinian poet Roberto Juarroz is the model for three orchestral songs by Philipp Maintz. His tríptico vertical will be premiered in Munich by soprano Marisol Montalvo and the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. The music and poetry are explorations of the unknown and portray with forceful images the dimensions of endlessness, glancing into the vertical in the abyss. Performances are on 25, 26 and 28 June 2014.