Unlike Bach’s other oratorio compositions, there is no definitive version of the St. John Passion. The first version of 1724 which is today’s standard version represents a mixture of different readings but it was not performed like this during Bach’s lifetime. On the other hand, the second version of 1725, now edited by Manuel Bärwald for Bärenreiter, was performed under the direction of Bach himself and can therefore be considered authentic. In addition to a change in order of several movements, the second version differs from the earlier version by the use of the opening chorus “O Mensch, bewein”. The score and the complete performance material correspond to the Urtext edition of Version II which was published 2021 as part of the “New Bach Edition – Revised Edition” (NBArev). – More Information

Miroslav Srnka’s orchestral work “Superorganisms” will be premiered by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Wigglesworth in Tokyo on 27 June 2023 after the scheduled premiere in Berlin had to be postponed due to illness. Superorganisms are forms of existence in which kindred beings work together synergistically and in a self-organized manner. An example for superorganisms in human culture are symphony orchestras – and this is where Miroslav Srnka’s new work comes in.

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 Of particular interest is the “Napoli e l‘Europa” series initiated by Riccardo Muti, featuring previously unpublished operas and oratorios of the Neapolitan School, including “I due Figaro” by Saverio Mercadante and “Demofoonte” by Niccoló Jommelli, A real gem is the Dramma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.

Posterity has never really been satisfied with Süßmayr’s completion of Mozart’s Requiem, so that many other completions have been made. Now Michael Ostrzyga (b. 1975) has presented a new version. As conductor, composer and Music Director at the University of Cologne, Ostrzyga is someone with practical experience. But he is also a composer, trained and experienced in analysis, arranging, orchestrating and creating works in different styles. He has immersed himself long and intensively in Mozart’s musical language. In conversation, he told Christoph Schulte im Walde about his approach.

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.