With the Ninth Symphony, a new chapter of publishing history began for Bärenreiter in 1996. Today, the editions by Jonathan Del Mar and others have become standard in the music world – and this will be the case for the 2027 anniversary year.

“Memory is something sacred”, wrote Thomas Daniel Schlee in a work commentary. “In order to keep it alive, humanity has invented ritual, has invented repetition imbued with deep meaning, for in memory, knowledge transcends the confines of time.” He was a composer whose multifaceted body of work was characterised not only by masterly musical development and a sensuousness of sound, but was also always contained within an intellectual framework which stretched far beyond purely technical-musical thinking. “Thomas Daniel Schlee is an open spirit and a cultured man. He loves music passionately”, is how his teacher Olivier Messiaen summed him up: “He is an outstanding organist and an extremely gifted composer. His works reflect a high intellectual striving and a true originality with regard to their ‘écriture’ and sound colours.”

“Leonore”, the earliest version of “Fidelio” premiered in 1805, contains especially interesting differences, particularly in the characterisation of Leonore and Florestan.

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has been invited by the Bremer Philharmoniker to write a work for their 200th anniversary. It addresses the earthly in the sense of an approach to human life here.

Overshadowed by the well-known 1st Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns, and undiscovered until recently is a youthful composition by the French composer, a “Grande symphonie triomphale” which has now been published.

“Martinů and his World” is the theme of the Summer Festival in August 2025 in Bard, 170 km north of New York, once again offering an opportunity for discoveries and renewed encounters with his music.

Despite several recordings, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Septet in E flat major op. 65 for piano, trumpet and string quintet of 1880/1881 remains something of a chamber music rarity because of its unusual scoring – rather like the E flat major Septet op. 20 by Beethoven. But is it “chamber music” at all?