Zadok the Priest and The King shall rejoice were composed in 1727 on the occasion of the coronation of George II. Since then, they have gone on to become extremely popular choral concert pieces throughout the world.

Premieres of two works by Manfred Trojahn will be given in Salzburg and Paris on two consecutive days in March 2016:  in Four Women from Shakespeare for soprano and ensemble at the Salzburg Easter Festival on 22 and 26 March 2016, the composer continues with his intensive study of Shakespeare, and pays homage to a “favourite instrument”, the female voice. The interpreter of the four portraits is Juliane Banse with soloists from the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by the composer. The new ensemble work Nocturne – Minotauromachie, with its references to Picasso, will be premiered in Paris by the Ensemble intercontemporain under Matthias Pintscher on 23 March 2016.

Matthias Pintscher’s new cello concerto, Un despertar for violoncello and orchestra, develops out of a “continuous slow, soft, tender and intimate song in the lower register of the cello”. It was written for the cellist Alisa Weilerstein and is inspired by the dark, warm tone of her playing. – (Photo Alisa Weilerstein: Jamie Jung)

Ľubica Čekovská has written a large-scale symphonic work for the Essen Philharmonic, an extremely multi-faceted piece of music. The title Palingenia is the scientific name for the mayfly.

The Bamberg Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck perform Thomas Daniel Schlee’s Rufe zu mir for orchestra and solo organ with Christian Schmitt as soloist. Schlee describes his concertante music as a “symphonic scene”. It begins with an invocation, a “De profundis” in the orchestra, which symbolizes mankind, the world. Its eloquent title reveals the sacred allusion which acts “as a magical power” in the imposing work. Performances take place on 16 and 17 January 2016. – (Photo: Herbert Lehmann)

The source material for Bach’s Mass in B minor is complicated. In order to create a practical performance version, compromises had to be made. Uwe Wolf describes how he approached his edition.

Miloslav Kabeláč is one of the most important Czech composers of the 20th century. He can indisputably be described as the greatest symphonist of the generation after Bohuslav Martinů..