A veritable premiere of an orchestral piece found amongst Jean Barraqué’s unpublished works, and now newly edited, will take place in Cologne: the WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne under Jean-Michaël Lavoie performs Melos, a ballet music, which was entered for the Prix Biarritz in 1951. The scenario by Marie-Laure de Noailles tells of a young man’s search for the ideal art, which can easily be translated to the situation of the young composer – and culminates in an apotheosis of music. The reconstruction of the incomplete orchestration by Laurent Feneyrou, Aurélien Maestracci and Frédéric Durieux will be performed on 24 June 2017 as part of “Musik der Zeit” in the Cologne WDR Funkhaus.

The concerto, commissioned from Maurice Ravel  by Paul Wittgenstein, is the most famous work written for the pianist injured in the war.  Now it is available in an Urtext edition reflecting the latest evaluation of the sources.

Manfred Trojahn’s great composition for soloists, choral groups and ensemble, Les dentelles de Montmirail receives its premiere at the Festival “Acht Brücken” in Cologne on 1 May. It is part of his cycle Quitter after René Char. The “Dentelles de Montmirail” is a mountain range near Mont Ventoux, which René Char took as the theme for his third last poem in his cycle. Of the eight poems, Trojahn has already set four to music and premiered these. With this poem, the most extensive section now follows, both in terms of scoring and of length. The premiere will be given by the Vokalsolisten Köln and Ensemble Modern conducted by Duncan Ward. – (photo: Dietlind Konold)

Miroslav Srnka’s move 03 for large orchestra will be premiered at the Printemps des Arts in Monte-Carlo on 2 April. move 03 belongs to a series of short orchestral pieces which Srnka has been working on since 2015. Miroslav Srnka: “Initially I started from a loose combination of pieces in the tradition of symphonic dances.  ‘move’ is also reminiscent of ‘movement’ – the English name for a symphonic setting. Of the three existing moves, move 03 is closest to such a ‘movement’. It is the most independent of the three pieces, because it is also the most heterogeneous …”. The premiere with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice is conducted by Pierre-André Valade. – (photo: Vojtĕch Havlík)

For the anniversary year “Luther 2017. 500 Jahre Reformation" Charlotte Seither has composed Inschrift for choir and orchestra, a commentary on Bach’s cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden  BWV 4. It can be performed following on from this cantata, but also as an independent work, and is scored for the same forces as the original work (choir and strings), with the addition of two recorders and (several) trombones playing the chorale melody. The premiere on 30 April in the Erlöserkirche Herten/Recklinghausen will be given by the Hertener Kantorei with members of the Dortmund Philharmonie conducted by Elke Cernysev. – (photo: Marco Bussmann)

Bärenreiter-Verlag has embarked on a major new project devoted to French music with the launch of a large-scale editorial project to publish the instrumental music of Camille Saint-Saëns in a 36-volume, historical-critical complete edition. The first volume to be published is a new edition of the Symphony in C minor op. 78, known as the Organ Symphony, edited by General Editor Michael Stegemann. The new edition will be launched on 11, 12 and 13 Dezember in the Philharmonie Cologne, performed by the Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne under the baton of its chief conductor François-Xavier Roth. His father Daniel Roth, titular organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, plays the organ. The concert will be broadcast on DeutschlandRadio Kultur, together with an in-depth studio discussion with the editor Michael Stegemann.

Asrael, Josef Suk’s symphony dedicated to the memory of Antonín Dvořák and his daughter, Suk’s wife Otilie, who died young, is a major work by the Czech composer and of Czech music of its time. A critical new edition of this work has long been overdue, a task which has now been taken up by Jonáš Hájek, editor at Bärenreiter Praha. The first performance will be conducted by Tomáš Netopil, Music Director in Essen, and one of the leading Czech conductors of the younger generation. He conducts the work on 17 and 18 November 2016 with the Essen Philharmonic, when Josef Suk’s Asrael Symphony will be performed for the first time using the new Bärenreiter material. The concert will be recorded live by Oehms Classics and released on CD.