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Last Notes

2026-05-28 02:02:22 CEST

< World Premiere >
GUSTAV MAHLER : Symphonie Nr. 6
Sunday 27 May, 1906 – Saalbau Hall, Essen, Germany
cond. Gustav Mahler
C.F. Peters Ltd & Co. KG, Leipzig
(Universal Edition UE 36520, 2010)

2026-04-16 02:21:47 CEST

< World Premiere >
PRIAULX RANIER : Requiem (1955)
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir & Tenor solo)
Sunday 15 April, 1956 – Victoria & Albert Museum, London
The Purcell Singers, cond. Imogen Holst
Peter Pears, Tenor
Text: David Gascoyne
Schott Music Ltd., 2003 (Ed. 13335)

2026-04-14 02:20:50 CEST

< World Premiere >
GEORGE PERLE : Adagio for Orchestra
Tuesday 13 April, 1993 – Carnegie Hall, New York City
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, cond. David Zinman
In 1937, Perle made his first connection with the revolutionary innovations of Schönberg and his school when he came upon a copy of Berg's 'Lyric Suite'. “It wasn't until I came upon the 'Lyric Suite' that I realized that there was something going on in contemporary music that implied really significant new ways of thinking about harmony.”

2026-03-28 01:34:28 CET

< World Premiere >
STEPHEN McNEFF : The Horizons of Doubt
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Friday 27 March, 2020 – St. Paul's Knightsbridge, London
BBC Singers, cond. Matthew Halls
Text : Aoife Mannix
Edition Peters Ltd., London, 2020 (EP 73485)

2026-03-26 01:23:58 CET

< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 2
Friday 25 March, 1960 – Juilliard School, New York
The Juilliard String Quartet
Winner of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Music, the 1960 NY Music Critics Award, and the International Rostrum of Composers Award (UNESCO), 1961
“My Second String Quartet, commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet, was begun in August, 1958, and finished in May, 1959. In it, the four instruments are individualized, each being given its own character embodied in a special set of melodic and harmonic intervals and of rhythms that result in four different patterns of slow and fast tempi with associated types of expression. Thus, four different strands of musical material of contrasting character are developed simultaneously throughout the work. It is out of the interactions, combinations, cooperations, and oppositions of these that the details of musical discourse as well as the large sections are built. Up to the end of the second movement (Presto scherzando) the various facets of each instrument’s character are presented quite distinctively. After that, in the third and fourth movements (Andante espressivo and Allegro), there is a growing tendency to cooperate and exchange ideas, while, in the cadenzas, opposition between the solo and accompanying instruments grows. The Conclusion returns to the state of individualization of the first part of the work.” – Elliott Carter

2026-03-24 01:12:29 CET

<World Premiere >
GABRIEL JACKSON : Stabat mater
(for unaccompanied SSSSAATTBB choir)
Friday 23 March, 2018 – Merton College Chapel, Oxford
The Marian Consort & Merton College Girls' Choir,
cond. Rory McLeery
Oxford University Press, 2018

2026-03-24 01:09:27 CET

< World Premiere >
BELA BARTÓK : Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117
Thursday 23 March, 1939 – The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, cond. Willem Mengelberg
Zoltán Székely, Violin
https://youtu.be/KbAaM9tIYhs?si=v117qgFPWJ27aPAN

2026-03-18 01:25:54 CET

< World Premiere >
GEORGE ROCHBERG : Concerto for Violin & Orchestra
(The final “Definitive 2002” Version)
Sunday 17 March, 2002 – Saarbrücken, Germany
Saarbrücken RSO, cond. Christopher Lyndon-Gee
Peter Shepperd-Skærved, Violin solo
Theodore Presser Company, 2007
“... a representative example of the synthesis of his free tonal style that Rochberg characterizes as “hard romanticism”, with a more lyrical, elegiac, “tonal” manner; indeed it is this opposition that primarily articulates the dramatic structure of this powerful work.” — Christopher Lyndon-Gee

2026-03-18 01:13:30 CET

< World Premiere >
CHRISTOPHER BROWN : To Musick, Sing!, Op. 82
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli)
Wednesday 17 March, 1993
Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, England
Clare College Choir, cond. Timothy Brown
Texts: Thomas Traherne, Robert Herrick, Sir John Davies, William Barnes

2026-03-17 01:12:11 CET

< World Premiere >
FRANK MICHAEL BEYER :
'Et resurrexit' für 12-stimmigen Chor oder 12 Solostimmen
Sunday 16 March 2003 – Berlin
Rundfunkchor Berlin, cond. Simon Halsey
Boosey & Hawkes / Bote & Bock, Berlin, 2002

2026-03-17 01:08:26 CET

< World Premiere >
PATRICK BURGAN : Stabat Mater
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli)
Saturday 16 March, 1996
Auch (France), Festival "Eclats de Voix"
Les Eléments, cond. Joël Suhubiette
Editions Jobert (JJ1741-7)

2026-03-17 01:05:37 CET

< United States Premiere >
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS :
Symphony No. 7 'Sinfonia Antartica'
Thursday 16 March, 1953
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Raphael Kubelik

2026-03-17 01:02:14 CET

ERNST PEPPING : Das Jahr
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Sunday 16 March, 1941 – Berlin
Chor der Berliner Kirchenmusikschule, dir. Gottfried Grote
Texts: Josef Weinheber
Schott Music GbmH & Co., 1941 (ED 2913)

2026-03-16 01:03:23 CET

< World Premiere >
BENJAMIN LEES : Piano Concerto No. 2
Friday 15 March, 1968 – Boston, Massachusetts
Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Erich Leinsdorf
Gary Graffman, Piano solo

2026-03-11 01:25:08 CET

< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Passionsbericht des Matthäus
(for unaccompanied SATB-SATB div. choir)
Saturday 10 March, 1951 – Leipzig, Germany
Thomanerchor Leipzig, dir. Günther Ramin
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1950 (BA2276)

2026-03-07 02:17:11 CET

< World Premiere >
LENNOX BERKELEY : Crux Fidelis, Op. 43 No. 1
(for unaccompanied SATB choir & Tenor solo)
Sunday 6 March, 1955 – Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Purcell Singers, cond. Imogen Holst
Peter Pears, Tenor
Chester Music Ltd., 2011

2026-03-04 02:42:34 CET

< World Premiere >
RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT : The Glory and the Dream
(for SATB div. choir & Organ)
Saturday 3 March, 2001
St. John's College, Cambridge, England
New Cambridge Singers, cond. Christopher Brown
Text: 'Intimations of Immortality' – William Wadsworth (1770-1850)
Novello & Company Limited, 2001 (NOV170376)

2026-03-02 02:07:41 CET

< World Premiere >
ARTHUR BLISS : River Music 1967
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Wednesday 1 March, 1967 – Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Text : Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–1972)
Novello & Company, Ltd., 1967 (19626)
Commisioned by the Greater London Council for the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 1 March, 1967

2026-02-27 02:06:02 CET

< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 1
Thursday 26 February, 1953
McMillan Theater, Columbia University, New York
The Walden Quartet of the University of Illinois
Awarded 1st Prize, Concours international de quatuors à cordes,
Liège, Belgium
... “With this quartet, I decided to focus on what had always been one of my own musical interests, that of ‘advanced’ music, and to follow out, with a minimal concern for their reception, my own musical thoughts along these lines. Now I think there is every reason to assume that if a composer has been well taught and has had experience, then his private judgment of comprehensibility and quality is what he must rely on if he is to communicate importantly.
The 'First Quartet' was written in the undisturbed quiet of the Arizona desert, and, like the desert horizons I saw daily while it was being written, the quartet present a continuous unfolding and changing of expressive characters – one woven into the other or emerging from it – on a large scale. The general plan was suggested by Jean Cocteau’s film 'Le sang d’un poète', in which the entire dream-like action is framed by an interrupted slow-motion shot of a tall chimney being dynamited. Just as the chimney begins to fall apart, the shot is broken off and the entire movie follows after which the shot of the chimney is resumed at the point it left off, showing its disintegration in mid-air, and closing the film with its collapse on the ground. A similar interrupted continuity is employed in this quartet’s starting with a cadenza for cello alone that is continued by the first violin alone at the very end.
On one level, I interpret Cocteau’s idea (and my own) as establishing the difference between external time (measured by the falling chimney, or the cadenza) and internal dream time (the main body of the work) – the dream time lasting but a moment of external time but from the dreamer’s point of view, a long stretch. In the 'First Quartet', the opening cadenzas also act as an introduction to the rest, and when it reappears at the end, it forms the last variation in a set of variations.”
— Elliott Carter

2026-02-23 04:32:09 CET

<World Premiere >
JULIAN ANDERSON : Magnificat (2016)
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir & soli)
Thursday 22 February, 2018
Manchester Cathedral, England
ORA Singers, cond. Suzi Digby
Schott Music, Ltd. London, 2018 (ED 13975)

2026-02-21 04:04:44 CET

< World Premiere >
FRANK FERKO : Stabat Mater
(for unaccompanied SATB-SATB choir and Soprano solo)
Saturday 20 February, 1999 – Evanston, Illinois, USA
His Majestie's Clerkes, cond. Anne Heider
Rauquaia Hale Wallace, Soprano
E. C. Schirmer Music Company, 2000

2026-02-21 04:02:47 CET

< World Premiere >
ERNST KRENEK : The Santa Fe Timetable, Op. 102
(for unaccompanied SSAATB choir)
Monday 20 February, 1961 – Los Angeles, CA
The Gregg Smith Singers, cond. Gregg Smith
Text: The Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway System Timetables (circa. April, 1945)

2026-02-19 03:42:58 CET

FRIEDRICH CERHA : Vier Hölderlin-Fragmente
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Tuesday 18 February, 1997 – Berlin, Germany
RIAS-Kammerchor, cond. Erwin Ortner
Text: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843)
Universal Edition, Vienna, 1996 (UE 30407)

2026-02-15 05:15:37 CET

< World Premiere >
HANS SCHANDERL : Meerwunder
(for four unaccompanied SATB choirs)
Saturday, 14 February, 2004 – Konzerthaus, Berlin
RIAS Kammerchor & Rundfunkchor Berlin
Carus Verlag, 2003 (CV 07.356)
“The composition is based on the concept of acoustic quadrophony, in which four choirs placed on four sides of the room 'sing around' the auditorium. Here, sound movements are composed as surround sound.” – Hans Schanderl

2026-02-15 05:12:47 CET

< World Premiere >
GRANVILLE BANTOCK : Vanity of Vanities
(Symphony for Unaccompanied 12 part choir)
Saturday 14 February, 1914
Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, cond. Harry Evans
Text: Book of Ecclesiastes, Old Testament
J. Curwen & Sons, 1913

2026-02-13 02:22:43 CET

< USA Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
(for unaccompanied SSATB choir)
Tuesday 12 February, 1946 – New York Times Hall, New York
Randolph Singers, cond. David Randolph
Text: Emily Dickinson
Theodore Presser Company (35200119)

2026-02-12 02:02:46 CET

< World Premiere >
JOSEPH JONGEN :
Symphonie Concertante for Organ & Orchestra, Op. 81
Saturday 11 February, 1928 - Royal Brussels Conservatory
cond. Désiré Defauw; Joseph Jongen, Organ
“The 'Symphonie Concertante' is not an organ concerto, but rather an orchestral work in which the organ is another orchestra that takes the leading role it rightly deserves. There is no thematic or rhythmic connection between the four movements of this extensive work; the focus is set on the stylistic unity of the different movements.” — Joseph Jongen

2026-02-07 02:03:34 CET

< World Premiere >
KALEVI AHO : Symphony No. 10
Thursday 6 February, 1997 – Lahti, Finland
Lahti Symphony Orchestra, cond. Osmo Vänskä

2026-02-06 02:18:44 CET

< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : Concerto for Orchestra
Thursday 5 February, 1970 – Philharmonic Hall, New York, NY
New York Philharmonic, cond. Leonard Bernstein
Associated Music Publishers, 1972 (HL50225800)
“I had been thinking about writing a work which treated most of the players in the orchestra as soloists, when the commission from the New York Philharmonic started me off. In casting about for a plan, a dramatic and musical structure for such a multiple concerto, I came across St. John Perse’s 'Vents' (Winds), a long poem about America which suggested a way of ordering a piece. I realized at once, of course, that the broad, Whitmanesque rhetoric of the poem could only partially be reflected in the music whose main aim was to give individual, human expression to a great variety of players; yet the poem’s fluidity and its changes of character offered a useful model.” — Elliott Carter

2026-02-04 02:04:34 CET

< World Premiere >
MICHAEL TORKE : Ash
Friday 3 February, 1989 – Ordway Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, cond. by John Adams
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. (HPS1138)
“In trying to find a clear and recognizable language to write this piece, I have chosen some of the most basic, functionally tonal means: tonics and dominants in F minor, a modulation to the relative major (A-flat), and a three-part form which, through a retransition, recapitulates back to F minor. What I offer is not invention of new "words" or a new language but a new way to make sentences and paragraphs in a common, much-used existing language. I can create a more compelling musical argument with these means because, to my ears, potential rhetoric seems to fall out from such highly functional chords as tonics and dominants more than certain fixed sonorities and pop chords that I have used before.
My musical argument is dependent on a feeling of cause and effect, both on a local level where one chord releases the tension from a previous chord and on the larger structural level where a section is forced to follow a previous section by a coercive modulation. The orchestration does not seek color for its own sake, as decoration is not a high priority, but the instruments combine and double each other to create an insistent ensemble from beginning to end. Only occasionally, as in the middle A-flat section, do three woodwind instruments play alone for a short while to break the inertia of the ensemble forging its course together.” — Michael Torke

2026-01-24 02:18:12 CET

- reply

Thanks for sharing this. 🙏🏾

2026-01-24 02:13:44 CET

< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 3
Tuesday 23 January, 1973 – Julliard School, New York
The Julliard String Quartet
Associated Music Publishers, 1973, 1998 (AMP 7303)
Awarded the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Music
“My String Quartet No. 3, commissioned by The Julliard School for the Julliard String Quartet, divides the instruments into pairs: a duo for Violin & Cello that plays in rubato style and a duo for Violin & Viola in more regular rhythm.
The Violin–Cello duo presents four different musical characters – an angry, intense 'Furioso'; a fanciful 'Leggerissimo'; a 'Pizzicato giocoso'; and a lyrical 'Andante expressivo' – in short sections one after the other in various orders, sometimes with pauses between. The Violin–Viola duo, meanwhile, presents the six contrasting characters: 'Maestoso'; 'Grazioso'; 'Pizzicato, giusto mechanico'; 'Scorrevole'; 'Largo tranquillo'; and 'Appassionato'.
During the Quartet each character of each duo is presented alone and also in combination with each character of the other duo to give a sense of ever-varying perspectives of feelings, expression, rivalry and cooperation.” – Elliott Carter

2026-01-23 02:08:45 CET

< World Premiere >
ROBIN HOLLOWAY :
The Consolation of Music, Op. 38, No. 1
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Monday 22 January, 1979 – Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
The BBC Singers, cond. John Poole
Texts : Robert Herrick (1591-1674), William Strode (1598-1645)
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 1979 (B&H 20628)

2026-01-22 02:09:47 CET

< World Premiere >
BÉLA BARTÓK : Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Thursday 21 January, 1937 – Basel, Switzerland
Basler Kammerorchester, cond. Paul Sacher
Universal Edition, 1937
"In the summer of 1936, the 55-year-old Béla Bartók, having by then achieved considerable international fame as a performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist, tackled a formidable array of compositional challenges in his 'Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta', a work of astonishing synthesis, organicism, and technical brilliance." – Christopher Gibbs

2026-01-15 02:16:23 CET

< World Premiere >
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS :
Sinfonia Antartica (Symphony No. 7)
Wednesday 14 January, 1953
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England
Hallé Orchestra & Choir, cond. John Barbirolli
Margaret Ritchie, Soprano

2026-01-14 02:14:37 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Piano Sonata No. 2
Monday 13 January, 1922
Kammersaal, Musikverein, Bödendorferstrasse, Vienna
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano

2026-01-11 02:21:25 CET

< World Premiere >
ROBIN WALKER : I have thee by the hand, O Man
(A Madrigal for 40 Voices a cappella )
Friday 10 January, 2003
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England
The Tallis Scholars, cond. Peter Phillips

2025-12-27 02:17:30 CET

< World Premiere >
ALFRED SCHNITTKE : Pœnitential Verses
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB div. choir)
Monday 26 December, 1988 - Moscow
USSR Ministry Culture Chamber Choir,
cond. Valery Polyanski
Compozitor Saint Petersburg, 2017 (No. 6993)
“The importance of the theme of repentance to Schnittke is shown in his 1987 work 'Penitential Verses', a large scale composition for unaccompanied choir which, at around 40 minutes duration, is comparable in scale to his 'Concerto for Mixed Choir' (1984-1985).
The work, written for the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Russia, was inspired by a collection of early Russian literature which includes these spiritual lines or poems by anonymous monks. Although thematically these texts might seem to offer much less variety than those of St. Gregory of Narek (whose words Schnittke used in his 'Choir Concerto'), the music employs essentially the same techiques and is characterized by the same degree of technical virtuosity.
In both pieces there are very strong echos of the Russian sacred repertoire of the 19th and early 20th centuries; this imparts a sense of belonging to a tradition which, in turn, provides much of the music's strength.” — Ivan Moody

2025-12-22 02:00:51 CET

< World Premiere >
COLIN MATTHEWS : A Rose at Christmas
(for unaccompanied SATB choir)
Friday 21 December, 1990 – St. Albans Church, Birmingham
BBC Singers, cond. Simon Joly
Text: from Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Lost', Act 1, Scene 2
Faber Music Ltd., London, 1990

2025-12-19 02:28:59 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Toccata No. 1, KSS46
Tuesday 18 December, 2001
British Music Information Centre, London, England
Jonathan Powell, Piano solo

2025-12-17 02:10:06 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SORABJI :
Toccata Seconda per pianoforte, KSS57
Wednesday 16 December, 1936
Stevenson Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano solo

2025-12-14 03:44:04 CET

< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Die Weihnachtsgeschichte des Lukas
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Sunday 13 December, 1959 – Göttingen, Germany
Göttinger Stadtkantorei, dir. Ludwig Doormann
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1959 (BA3947)

2025-12-12 02:06:11 CET

< World Premiere >
MAX REGER : Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 110, Nr. 2
– Motette „Ach, Herr, strafe mich nicht“
Thursday 11 December, 1913
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Städtischer Gesangverein, dir. Fritz Busch
Text: Psalm 6,2-3; 4,2.9; 6,7a; 7,11; 18,2; 16,11
Edition Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1911
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2RPbJKinHs

2025-12-10 02:14:30 CET

< World Premiere >
CHRISTOPHER BROWN :
Hodie Salvator Apparuit, Op. 28 - A Sequence for Christmas
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir & soli)
Wednesday 9 December, 1970
St. Andrew's Church, London
Salterello Choir, cond. Christopher Seaman
J. & W. Chester, Ltd., 1976 (CH55008)

2025-12-08 02:31:50 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Le Jardin Parfumé, KSS35
Tuesday 7 December, 1976
Wigmore Hall, London, England
Yonty Solomon, Piano solo
J. Curwen and Sons Ltd., 1927

2025-12-07 05:12:36 CET

< World Premiere >
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : Mass in G minor
(for unaccompanied SATB-SATB choir & SATB soli)
Wednesday 6 December, 1922 – Town Hall, Birmingham
City of Birmingham Choir, cond. Joseph Lewis
J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 1922

2025-12-04 02:00:49 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Symphonic Nocturne, KSS97
Thursday 3 December, 2015
Miryzaal, School of Arts, Koninklijk Conservatorium Gent, Belgium
Lukas Huisman, Piano solo

2025-12-03 02:28:14 CET

< World Premiere >
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN : Two Songs from Kalender Röd
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Saturday 2 December, 2000 – Stockholm
Swedish Radio Choir, cond. Stefan Parkman
Texts : Ann Jäderlund
Chester Music Ltd., 2005 (CH63470)
“I became enchanted with Ann Jäderlund's poetry because of its sensual intensity and lack of sentimentality. She describes sensations with amazing effectiveness, with few words, but with a rhythm that immediately awakens mystical associations.”
– Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen's 'Two Songs from Kalender Röd' was commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation for the 75th Anniversary concert of the Swedish Radio Choir.

2025-12-02 02:05:11 CET

< World Premiere >
DAVID MATTHEWS : The Ship of Death
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Tuesday 1 December, 1992 – Pebble Mill, Birmingham
Finzi Singers, cond. Paul Spicer
Text: D. H. Lawrence
Faber Music, Ltd., 1996 (Cat. No. 0571554148)

2025-12-02 02:02:05 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Opus Clavicembalisticum, KSS50
Monday 1 December, 1930
Stevenson Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Kaikhosru Sorabji, Piano solo

2025-11-28 02:03:47 CET

< World Premiere >
RICHARD STRAUSS : Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30
Friday 27 November, 1896 – Frankfurt, Germany
Municipal Orchestra of Frankfurt-am-Main, cond. Richard Strauss
... It came as no surprise that when Richard Strauss announced the subject of his new symphonic poem, a great outcry went up. Philosophy through music? Ridiculous! Yet, unknown to Strauss or anyone else, Nietzsche had confided to his journal that the nature of Zarathustra belongs “almost among the symphonies.”
On the eve of Zarathustra’s premiere in December 1896, Strauss felt it necessary to clarify his position and wrote: “I did not intend to write philosophical music or portray Nietzsche’s great work musically. I meant rather to convey in music an idea of the evolution of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Übermensch.” – Dr. Michael Fink

2025-11-27 02:37:55 CET

< World Premiere >
WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI : Concerto for Orchestra
Friday 26 November, 1954 – Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Witold Rowicki
J & W Chester / Edition Wilhelm Hansen London, 1972
“Direct impetus for this work came via an invitation from the conductor Witold Rowicki, who in 1950 asked Lutosławski to write a piece based on folk material for performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which Rowicki founded that year. As Lutosławski grappled with the piece, it grew into a full three-movement composition. Lutosławski would often work on pieces over long periods of time; the four-year gestation period of the 'Concerto for Orchestra' was not unusual. What Rowicki received is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that, like Bartók’s 'Concerto for Orchestra', is a virtuoso vehicle for the ensemble as a whole.” — James M. Keller

2025-11-26 03:01:56 CET

< World Premiere >
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA : Missa A Cappella
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Friday 25 November, 2011 – Jacobikerk, Utrecht
Netherlands Radio Choir, cond. Celso Antunes
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 2011

2025-11-25 03:08:26 CET

< World Premiere >
HERBERT HOWELLS : Mass in the Dorian Mode
(for unaccompanied SATB choir)
Sunday 24 November, 1912 - Westminster Cathedral, England
Westminster Cathedral Choir, dir. Dr. Richard Terry

2025-11-23 02:15:22 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Gulistān, KSS63
Tuesday 22 November, 1977
Wigmore Hall, London, England
Yonty Solomon, Piano solo
Sorabji wrote a number of nocturnes, from the earliest stages in his development until his final years. These include some of his better-known works such as 'Le jardin parfumé' and 'Djâmi'. Several works — such as 'In the Hothouse' of 1918 and the much later 'Villa Tasca', written 1979–80 — are not designated as nocturnes, but nonetheless occupy the same languorous, exotic atmosphere that characterises 'Gulistān' (1940), arguably his most succesful essay in the genre. The poet Sa‘dī of Shīrāz (ca. 1213–92) finished the extended 'Gulistān' in 1258, after many years of travelling. Although Sorabji’s nocturne is not a programmatic work, that the poem had significant influence on the work’s composition is undeniable.
— Jonathan Powell

2025-11-23 02:13:35 CET

< World Premiere >
HERBERT HOWELLS : Take Him Earth for Cherishing
“To the honored memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
President of the United States”
Sunday 22 November, 1964
The National Gallery, Washington DC
Choir of the Cathedral of St. George, Kingston, Ontario
cond. George N. Maybee
Text : from 'Hymnus circa Excequias Defuncti',
Aurelius Prudentius (348-413)
H. W. Gray Co. Inc., 1964
Take him, earth, for cherishing,
to thy tender breast receive him.
Body of a man I bring thee,
noble even in its ruin.
Once was this a spirit’s dwelling,
by the breath of God created.
High the heart that here was beating,
Christ the prince of all its living.
Guard him well, the dead I give thee,
not unmindful of his creature
shall he ask it: he who made it
symbol of his mystery.
Comes the hour God hath appointed
to fulfil the hope of men,
then must thou, in very fashion,
what I give, return again.
Not though ancient time decaying
wear away these bones to sand,
ashes that a man might measure
in the hollow of his hand:
Not though wandering winds and idle,
drifting through the empty sky,
scatter dust was nerve and sinew,
is it given to man to die.
Once again the shining road
leads to ample Paradise;
open are the woods again,
that the serpent lost for men
Take, O take him, mighty leader,
take again thy servant’s soul.
Grave his name, and pour the fragrant
balm upon the icy stone.

2025-11-19 02:44:25 CET

< World Premiere >
CORRADO MARGUTTI : Missa Lorca
(for Baritone / SSATTB soli, & double SSATBB choir a cappella)
Saturday 18 November, 2006 – St. Jacob's Church, Stockholm
Astrum Music Publications, Slovenia, 2007 (AS 34.010/01)
Texts : Federico Garcia Lorca, and the Ordinary of the Mass

2025-11-14 02:01:48 CET

< World Premiere >
MAX REGER : Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 110, Nr. 1
– Motette „Mein Odem ist schwach“
(for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir)
Saturday 13 November, 1909 – Leipzig, Germany
Der Thomanerchor, cond. Kurt Kranz
Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1909
~
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ST7d-7o0zKs

2025-11-11 02:10:22 CET

< World Premiere >
MAX REGER :
Motette „O Tod, wie bitter bist du“, Op. 110, Nr. 3
(for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir)
Sunday 10 November, 1912 – Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany
Kirchenchor St. Lukas, dir. Georg Stolz
Edition Bote & Bock, 1912

2025-11-11 02:06:49 CET

< World Premiere >
EDWARD ELGAR : Violin Concerto, Op. 61
Thursday 10 November, 1910 – Queen's Hall, London
London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Edward Elgar
Fritz Kreisler, Violin solo
“The violin was Elgar’s own instrument and his 'Violin Concerto' is almost like a personal confession: it was ‘too emotional’, Elgar admitted, adding that he loved it nonetheless. The Spanish inscription he wrote opposite the title-page – Aquí está encerrada el alma de . . . . . (‘Here is enshrined the soul of . . . . .’) – offers an Elgarian enigma, to which the most popular solution is that the soul belonged to Alice (five letters, corresponding to the five dots) Stuart-Wortley, a friend for whom Elgar invented the name ‘Windflower’ (a wood anemone, one of the first signs of spring), which he also attached to two of the gentler themes in the opening movement.
Elgar sketched a number of ideas in 1905 after reading a newspaper interview with Fritz Kreisler, in which the 30-year-old violinist said highly flattering things about Elgar’s music, and wished he would write something for violin. Elgar eventually got down to composing the concerto in earnest in 1909, and Kreisler gave the first performance at the Queen’s Hall in London on Monday 10 November, 1910, with Elgar himself conducting. Later on, Kreisler seems to have lost his initial enthusiasm for the work, made cuts, and resisted all attempts to persuade him to record it.
The solo part is one of the most exhausting in the repertoire – a veritable compendium of bravura violin techniques, in which Elgar, despite all his inside knowledge, sought the help of W. H. Reed, later to become leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. Reed and Elgar (at the piano) gave a run-through to a select group of listeners before the first performance proper. Kreisler also made small suggestions that were incorporated in the published score.
In his interview, Kreisler had ranked Elgar with Beethoven and Brahms. Elgar met the challenge, and his 'Violin Concerto' combines the singing quality of Beethoven’s with the symphonic drama of Brahms’s.”
— Adrian Jack

2025-11-11 02:02:14 CET

< World Premiere >
FERRUCCIO BUSONI : Piano Concerto, Op.39
Thursday 10 November, 1904 – Beethoven-Saal, Berlin
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, cond. Karl Muck
Ferruccio Busoni, Piano solo
Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906

2025-11-07 03:08:13 CET

< World Premiere >
THOMAS DANIEL SCHLEE : Carnet poétique, Op.39
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Tuesday 6 November, 2001
Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Anges, Paris
Ensemble Vocal Français, cond. Gilbert Martin-Bouyer
Editions Henry Lemoine, 1997
Texts: from “Gabardine de l’Hymette” by Patrick Frégonara

2025-11-05 02:11:33 CET

< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Der 90. Psalm
(for unaccompanied SSATBB choir)
Sunday 4 November, 1934 – Wuppertal, Germany
Bachverein Barmen, dir. Gottfried Grote
B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz, 1934 (BSS 34061)

2025-11-03 02:19:57 CET

< World Premiere >
FRANK MARTIN :
Messe pour double Chœur a cappella (1922)
Saturday 2 November, 1963 – Hamburg, Germany
Bugenhagen Kantorei, cond. Franz Brunnert
Bärenreiter Verlag, 2014 (BA7594)
“This mass, composed in 1922 (except for the 'Agnus Dei' which dates from 1926), was a work of my own free will, without commission or remuneration. Indeed at that time I knew of no choral conductor who could be interested in it. I never submitted it to the Society of Swiss Musicians for performance at one of their annual events. In fact I had no desire to have it performed as I was afraid it would be judged on a purely aesthetic level. As far as I was concerned it was a matter between God and myself. The same was true later on for a Christmas oratorio. I felt that religious fervour should remain private and not be influenced by public opinion. So much so that this composition remained in a drawer for forty years, included as a formality in my list of works. It was there in 1962 that the conductor of the Bugenhagen-Kantorei in Hamburg, Mr. Franz W. Brunnert, saw it mentioned and asked me to send it to him for perusal. He and his choir gave the first performance in the autumn of 1963, 41 years after it was composed. All the aforementioned shows clearly that, even though I wrote the mass for a large number of voices, it is music of an inward nature.” — Frank Martin

2025-11-02 02:30:22 CET

< World Premiere >
THEA MUSGRAVE : By the River
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Sunday 1 November, 2020 – Snape Maltings, Suffolk
National Youth Choir of Great Britain, cond. Ben Parry
Text: Mary Ursala Bethell (1874-1945)
Novello & Company, Ltd. 2019 (Nov297479)
“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

2025-11-02 02:24:51 CET

< World Premiere >
WERNER WOLF GLASER :
Motette über Sprüche des Angelus Silesius
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Wednesday 1 November, 2006 – Tjernigov, Ukraine
Dmitri Bortnjanski Chamber Choir, dir. Otfried Richter
Edition Suecia, Stockholm, 1990 (SUE 367)
“... In his extensive output, Glaser developed a modernist tonal language, based on his studies under Paul Hindemith. His confident handling of melody and his inspired treatment of form bear witness to the fluency of his inspiration and to his attainment of a personal style of craftsmanship. Momentum and elaboration techniques were among the guiding starts of his imagination. His distinctive characteristics also included a sense of expressionist gesture. He prefered to achieve the expressive quality of his music by short, strict means instead of allowing the tonal material to overflow. Glaser greatly valued the capacity of the musical language for conveying intensity in pared-down, controlled figures.”

2025-11-02 02:16:19 CET

< World Premiere >
KALEVI AHO : Rejoicing in the Deep Waters
Wednesday 1 November, 1995 – Lahti, Finland
Lahti Symphony Orchestra, cond. Osmo Vänskä

2025-10-31 01:47:54 CET

< World Premiere >
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Strathclyde Concerto No. 10 : Concerto for Orchestra
Wednesday 30 October, 1996 – City Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, cond. Peter Maxwell Davies
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 1997 (HPS 1312)
"The Concerto for Orchestra ends the cycle of ten 'Strathclyde' concertos, which I have written for the principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra over a period of several years. It extends virtuosity to all members of the orchestra — even back-desk players find themselves suddenly spotlit, playing chords alone in the first movement." — Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)

2025-10-28 02:10:27 CET

< World Premiere >
AARON JAY KERNIS : Glorious Majesty
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir & soli)
Sunday 27 October, 2013
Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, cond. Philip Brunelle
Associated Music Publishers, 2013 (AMP 8278)
... this 9-minute setting of Psalm 104 is described by the composer as “overflowing with the glories of creation, earth, and the heavens.” 'Glorious Majesty' is a work of contrasts, with sections performed by both large and small groups of singers, as well as shifting moods and harmonies, “to highlight the distinction between passages in the text that praise God and those that praise God's creation.”

2025-10-27 01:57:05 CET

< World Premiere >
KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Fantasia Ispanica, KSS55
Friday 26 October, 2001
Great Hall, King’s College, London University, England
Jonathan Powell, Piano solo

2025-10-22 02:24:27 CEST

< World Premiere >
JAN CARLSTEDT : Missa in Honorem Papae Ioannis Pauli II
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Thursday 21 October, 1993
Uppsala Academy Chamber Choir, dir. Stefan Parkman
Musikaliska Konstföreningen, Stockholm, 1995

2025-10-21 02:01:01 CEST

< World Premiere >
LENNOX BERKELEY : The Hill of the Graces, Op. 91, No. 2
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Monday 20 October, 1975
BBC Singers, cond. John Poole
J & W Chester, 1977 (JWC 55062)
Text : Edmund Spenser – 'The Fairie Queene', Book VI, Canto X

2025-10-20 02:07:02 CEST

< World Premiere >
PHILIPPE HERSANT :
Le Plasir Originel (Mystère Hystérique)
(for unaccompanied S. Mz. A. Ct. T. Bar. B. soli)
Saturday 19 October, 2002
La Chapelle Largeau, France (Festival Eclats de Voix)
Les Jeunes Solistes, dir. Rachid Safir
Gérard Billaudot Éditeur Paris, 2008 (GB8381)
Text: Edmond Haraucourt “L'Eden” (from 'La Légende des Sexes Poëmes Hystériques', 1882)

2025-10-19 02:08:15 CEST

<World Premiere >
ALEC ROTH : I Will Move Thee
Sunday 18 October, 2015 – St. Alban Cathedral, England
St. Alban Cathedral Choir, dir. Andrew Lucas
Text : George Herbert (1593–1633)
Edition Peters Ltd. London, 2015 (EP 72743)

2025-10-19 02:04:26 CEST

< World Premiere >
PAUL HINDEMITH :
Fünfstimmige Madrigale nach Texten von Josef Weinheber
(for unaccompanied SSATB choir)
Saturday 18 October, 1958 – Vienna, Austria
Wiener Kammerchor, cond. Paul Hindemith
Schott Music GmbH & Co., 1958

2025-10-18 02:59:36 CEST

< World Premiere >
GABRIEL JACKSON : A Vision of Aeroplanes
for unaccompanied choir (6S. 4A. 4T. 4B.)
Friday 17 October, 1997 – St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, England
The BBC Singers, cond. Simon Joly
“Although it takes its title from Vaughan Williams, the model for 'A Vision of Aeroplanes' is the large-scale votive antiphon of the late 15th century (as exemplified by the pieces in the Eton Choirbook) with its sequence of richly scored tuttis alternating with reduced-voice sections (here scored for solo voices). The names of various aircraft are encrypted into the score : the structural proportions are derived from that of what is undoubtedly the most beautiful ever built - the AEROSPATIALE/BAC CONCORDE . The tutti sections (and the double gimell at 'Tandem dominationem') are each based on a different cantus firmus; these canti firmi are not of plainchant origin but are plainchant substitutes derived, again, from the names of some of the most significant aircraft in the development of aviation. They appear in the piece in the chronological order of their construction: WRIGHT FLYER, SOPWITH CAMEL, SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE, DE HAVILLAND COMET, AVRO VULCAN, HAWKER HARRIER, LOCKHEED BLACKBIRD, DASSAULT BREGUET MIRAGE, BOEING 747 and NORTHROP B2.”
— Gabriel Jackson

2025-10-17 02:30:06 CEST

< World Premiere >
TORSTEN RASCH : ... in der Hülse von Schnee
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Thursday 16 October, 2014
Kammermusiksalle, Berlin Philharmonie, Germany
RIAS Kammerchor
Texts: Friedrich Hölderlin
Faber Music Ltd., 2014

2025-10-14 03:22:53 CEST

<World Premiere >
KENNETH LEIGHTON : Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112)
(for three unaccompanied SATB choirs)
Saturday 13 October, 1973 – Norwich Cathedral, England
Choirs of Ely, Norwich, & Peterborough Cathedrals,
cond. Michael Nicholas
Novello & Company Limited, 1973

2025-10-10 02:54:53 CEST

< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Ein jegliches hat seine Zeit
(for unaccompanied SATB choir)
Saturday 9 October, 1937 – Berlin
Chor der Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule, dir. Gottfried Grote
Text : Ecclesiastes 3, 9 and 12
Schott Music GbmH & Co., 1938 (C35359)

2025-10-06 02:07:27 CEST

< World Premiere >
ERNST KRENEK : Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae, Op. 93
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Sunday 5 October, 1958 - Martinskirche, Kassel, Germany
N.C.R.V. Vocaal Ensemble, dir. Marinus Voorberg
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1957 (BA 3648)
“The 'Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae' was composed during the winter of 1941 to 1942, when I was professor of music at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. While I do not now remember in detail the circumstances attending my decision to set to music this particular text, I feel that the generally sinister mood of the first years of World War II undoubtedly enhanced my interest in the powerful expression of grief and anguish as laid down in the Book of the Prophet.” — Ernst Krenek

2025-10-03 02:56:56 CEST

< World Premiere >
CAROL BARNETT : The Last Invocation
Sunday 2 October, 1988 – Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis
Choir of Westminster Abbey, dir. Martin Neary
Text: Walt Whitman
Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., 1992 (OCTB6654)

2025-10-02 02:57:04 CEST

ERNST PEPPING : Deines Lichtes Glanz
(for unaccompanied SATB divisi choir)
Sunday 1 October, 1967 – Berlin
Staats- und Domchor Berlin, dir. Gottfried Grote
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1967 (Nr. 3520)

2025-09-20 02:29:50 CEST

< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 5
Tuesday 19 September, 1995 – De Singel, Antwerp, Belgium
The Arditti Quartet
“One of the fascinations of attending rehearsals of chamber music, when excellent players try out fragments of what they later will play in the ensemble, then play it, and then stop abruptly to discuss how to improve, is that this pattern is so similar to our inner experience of forming, ordering, focussing, and bringing to fruition — and then dismissing — our feelings and ideas. These patterns of human behavior form the basis of the 5th String Quartet. Its introduction presents the players, one by one, trying out fragments of later passages from one of the six short, contrasting ensemble movements, at the same time maintaining a dialogue with each other. Between each of the movements the players discuss in different ways what has been played and what will be played.
In this score the matter of human cooperation with its many aspects of feeling and thought was a very important consideration.”
– Elliott Carter

2025-09-16 02:04:14 CEST

<World Premiere>
JAMES MacMILLAN : Cum vidisset Jesus
for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir
Saturday 15 September, 2012
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Notre Dame Festival Chorus, cond. Carmen-Helena Téllez
Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd., 2013 (BH12636)

2025-09-06 23:56:00 CEST

Rules By Which a Great Republic Can Be Reduced to A Third Rate Power
Humbly Submitted for the Consideration of Those in Authority, That They May With Greater Speed and Certainty Accomplish the Same
M. Jenkins
Saturday 9 August, 2025
To the Esteemed Custodians of Our National Fortune,
It has come to my humble observation that the conduct of a great state, if managed with sufficient art, may soon convert it into one of lesser station. For the benefit of those in high office, whose burdens I know to be heavy and whose wisdom, though profound, might yet be enriched by the counsels of a plain citizen, I here submit certain maxims which, if faithfully followed, will infallibly accomplish the object of diminishing the power, prosperity, and respect of our Republic.
Let no one suspect me of insincerity; my sole aim is to aid the present administration in achieving what, by appearances, is already its noble endeavor.
Rule I. Appoint to the highest offices those least acquainted with the duties thereof, and most disposed to serve their own interest above that of the public. In this way shall you secure both incompetence and avarice, those twin pillars upon which all declining states are founded.
Rule II. When the people do complain, assure them you have heard their cries most tenderly; then proceed without alteration of policy. A show of listening, unaccompanied by the burden of reform, is ever the most agreeable course for those in conmand.
Rule III. Tax the people variously and without clear explanation, assuring them that such levies are indispensable for their own benefit; yet see to it that the proceeds be expended upon projects of distant or doubtful utility. The more obscure the benefit, the less they can demand its proof.
Rule IV. Maintain a constant enmity between factions of the populace. Encourage each to believe the other is the very root of the nation's decay. Such division will ensure the people's fury is ever turned upon their neighbor, never upon their governors.
Rule V. Treat allies with alternations of fawning flattery and casual insult, that none may be certain of your friendship; and in foreign ventures, promise both everything and nothing, that all may be equally dissatisfied.
Rule VI. In matters of law, enforce it strictly upon those without means, and with great leniency upon those possessed of influence. This will teach the citizenry that justice is not a right, but a privilege bestowed at the pleasure of their rulers.
Rule VII. When disaster befalls any portion of the land, make long speeches upon unity and relief; then distribute aid with such delay and complication as to ensure maximum despair before its arrival.
Rule VIII. Ever praise transparency whilst obscuring the workings of government behind committees, closed-door councils, and the labyrinth of administrative delay. Let every citizen know that information is both their right and their impossibility.
Rule IX. In all public communications, employ many words and say little. Let proclamations be so adorned with empty phrases that the people may debate endlessly what they mean, and thus forget to inquire whether they were fulfilled.
Rule X. If a measure be popular, delay its enactment until the people have quarreled amongst themselves over the particulars; if unpopular, enact it swiftly and in the dead of night, that opposition may be too late to rally.
Rule XI. Reward loyalty not to the laws, but to the party; and make it known that advancement comes not through merit, but through service to the prevailing faction. Thus will you cultivate a court of flatterers in place of statesmen.
Rule XII. Encourage in the citizenry a constant appetite for distraction, novelties, spectacles, and petty scandals, lest they look too long upon the state of their liberties.
Rule XIII. Let the treasury be ever in debt, and speak gravely of fiscal prudence whilst increasing the expense. For nothing so weakens a people as the habit of paying for the present with the earnings of their posterity.
Rule XIV. Allow no failure to pass without praise. Should a policy prove ruinous, declare it a stepping-stone to greater triumph. By such arts will you render truth malleable and memory short.
Rule XV. When the people at last perceive the ruin and demand change, promise them reform, convene a commission, and appoint to it those whose chief talent lies in ensuring nothing is altered.
— A Concluding Word to the People
If in these Rules you perceive a likeness to the conduct of your own governors, be assured it is but coincidence; for no administration could be so artful as to follow them all without flaw. And if you should wish to preserve your liberties, you need only demand the opposite of each herein prescribed—though I fear such a course is far less agreeable to those entrusted with your welfare.
Thus, dear countrymen, I place these humble suggestions before the public eye, that all may judge their merit, and perhaps admire the remarkable industry with which our leaders have set about perfecting them.

2025-09-03 02:05:30 CEST

< World Premiere >
LENNOX BERKELEY : Judica me, Op. 96
(for unaccompanied SSATBB choir)
Saturday 2 September, 1978 - Worcester, England
Festival Chorus, cond. Donald Hunt
J. & W. Chester, 1978 ( CH55166)

2025-09-02 02:01:33 CEST

< World Premiere >
WOLFGANG STEFFEN : Tagnachtlied, Op. 50
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Saturday 1 September, 1979 – Berlin
RIAS Kammerchor, dir. Uwe Gronostay
Text: Lothar Klünner
B. Scott's Söhne, Mainz, 1980 (ED44818)

2025-08-29 00:27:49 CEST

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
Wednesday 28 August, 1963
https://www.AmericanRhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

2025-08-23 04:19:28 CEST

< World Premiere >
JAMES MacMILLAN : The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
Wednesday 22 August, 1990 – Royal Albert Hall, London
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Jerzy Maksymiuk
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 1992

2025-08-09 02:01:29 CEST

< World Premiere >
ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR : Canticum Canticorum Caritatis
(for unaccompanied div. SATB choir)
Saturday 8 August, 2020 – Kärdla Church, Kärdla, Estonia
Collegium Musicale, cond. Endrik Üksvärav
Edition Peters, 2020 (EP 14550)

2025-08-07 02:23:27 CEST

< World Premiere >
JAMES MacMILLAN : Sun Dogs
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB div. choir)
Sunday 6 August, 2006 – Auer Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble,
cond. Carmen Téllez
Text : Michael Symmons Roberts, Roman Missal, English Trad.
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 2011 (BH12221)

2025-08-06 03:38:21 CEST

Montgomery Riverboat Dock – Saturday 5 August, 2023
🧢🪑

2025-08-05 04:24:26 CEST

< World Premiere >
KALEVI AHO : Symphony No. 8 for Organ & Orchestra
Thursday 4 August, 1994 – Lahti, Finland
(Lahti International Organ Week)
Lahti Symphony Orchestra, cond. Osmo Vänskä
Hans-Ola Ericsson, Organ solo

2025-07-29 02:21:53 CEST

< World Premiere >
THIERRY PÉCOU : Le Visage, le Cœur
(Concerto for Piano & Mixed Choir)
Sunday 28 July, 2013 – La Roque d'Anthéron, France
(Festival de La Roque d'Anthéron)
Chœur de Chambre Les Éléments, cond. Joël Suhubiète
Alexandre Tharaud, Piano solo
Schott Music, 2012
“This concerto for piano and choir without orchestra takes its inspiration from Mexican seals made in the pre-Hispanic era. The song celebrates friendship, and a mix of joy and trepidation arising from contemplation of the beauty and transience of life. The corresponding Nahuan expression ’Le visage, le cœur’ ('The face, the heart') describes the external and internal form of an individual. Stanzas are alternated with commentary, creating a universe characterised by the ‘ontological pessimism’ of the Aztecs, their propensity for heightened emotion, and their intense experiences of particular moments in time.” — Thierry Pécou

2025-07-29 02:11:50 CEST

ERNST PEPPING : Bei Tag und Nacht
(for unaccompanied SATB choir)
Sunday 28 July, 1946 (Gesamtwerk) - Leipzig
Leipziger Universitätschor, Dir. Friedrich Rabenschlag
Schott Music, 1942 (Ed3910)

2025-03-15 06:39:54 CET

'Ain't I an Athlete' : 'Protecting Women's Sports' Has Never Been About Protecting Black Women
Dr. Brigitte Burpo
Contraband Camp
Friday 14 March, 2025
It’s an old playbook with new opponents. Black women athletes are often criticized as too aggressive, too strong, too much of everything except what white and sexist sports culture deems acceptable. Their bodies are analyzed, their confidence is seen as threatening, and their strength deemed suspicious.
Now, the same people performing moral outrage over these supposedly “masculine” Black women are the loudest voices insisting that the fewer than 10 of the 510,000 student-athletes in the NCAA who identify as trans will ruin women’s athletics with claims that they have an unfair advantage. Because, suddenly, the category of "woman" must be firmly defended — when it’s politically convenient. It is not a coincidence that the newfound mass media interest in women’s sports, increased commercialization of such and the new anti-woke era have created a salty roux for the recipe of oppressing trans women athletes through policy and baseless scrutiny — scrutiny that will likely increase for all female athletes, particularly for Black women and girls.
Last month, a day after the Trump administration signed an executive order banning transgender women and girls from participating in female sports, the NCAA Board of Governance voted to update the participation policy for transgender student-athletes limiting competition in women's sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth. The NCAA’s swift policy shift reinforced the administration’s exclusionary stance and tapped into a much older and more insidious narrative, one that has long been used to police the boundaries of womanhood in sports.
The fight over who belongs in women’s sports has always been more than just an issue of fairness. Per usual, it’s about power, control and exclusion. At this point, Black women athletes could write the playbook on being scrutinized, excluded and policed in sports because we’ve seen this game before, and it’s getting old. From Althea Gibson to Serena Williams, and Flo Jo to Sha’Carri Richardson, every generation brings a new excuse to tell Black women we’re too much to handle. And now, the same tired rhetoric is being recycled to justify excluding trans women, under the guise of “fairness” and “protecting women.” But if fairness was really the concern, we’d be talking about equal pay, equal media coverage and how women’s sports are underfunded. But instead, we have white men “protecting” women who never asked for nor needed to be protected.
Society loves to celebrate strength, resilience and competitiveness when it comes in the form of white women athletes. Billie Jean King is rightly celebrated as a trailblazer for women’s sports and was praised for her ability to defeat Bobby Riggs in the renowned “Battle of the Sexes” in 1973. She was aggressive and unrelenting, and in the eyes of American sports media, these were considered virtues. Contrast that with the treatment of Black women athletes who break barriers. Serena Williams spent much of her career battling perceptions that she was too muscular and aggressive to be fully embraced by mainstream narratives in the way that her white counterparts were, despite being one of the greatest tennis players in history. WNBA player Brittney Griner has also faced scrutiny for being too masculine and fighting perceptions that she’s a man.
While white women are celebrated for their strength and intensity, Black women’s success comes with an asterisk, a lingering question of whether they really deserve to be here. It is clear that strength is only acceptable in women when it doesn’t challenge the status quo. When Black women excel, bigotry fights back. In 2018, World Athletics introduced new testosterone regulations that were framed as necessary for maintaining a level playing field, but in fact, it overwhelmingly impacted Black women from the Global South, including Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui, all of whom were banned from competing in their events unless they underwent hormone-suppressing treatment to lower their testosterone levels for six months. These women were not taking performance-enhancing drugs nor were they trans. They were simply born with hormone levels that fell outside of an arbitrarily determined “acceptable” range for womanhood.
The idea that Black women and girl athletes are “too masculine” and the claim that trans women athletes are “not real women” come from the same place — a covert fear of women who do not fit neatly into the narrow, white and delicate box of femininity that our society loves to celebrate. Black girls are hypersexualized while simultaneously critiqued if they’re not feminine enough as athletes. There is a shrinking box of what it means to be feminine if you are a Black girl who plays sports, and policies that narrowly interpret those terms of femininity do not help.
The argument of "protecting women" has also been wielded as a weapon to justify racism and sexism in the United States for a long time. It was this very dogma that led to the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, when the original “Karen,” Carolyn Bryant, falsely accused him of making advances toward her. The same argument of protecting women fueled countless lynchings and domestic-racial terrorism, all in the name of defending white womanhood from perceived threats. While white women were being placed on pedestals in need of defense, Black women were never afforded the same shield.
Sojourner Truth asked a very germane question in 1851 when she delivered her iconic speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” When Black women are torn down, ridiculed and denied opportunities because they do not fit a white mold of femininity, where is the outcry for protection? The truth is that “protecting women” has never been about protecting all women. It is and has always been a mask to uphold white supremacy while enforcing Eurocentric gender norms. Today, Black and trans women athletes alike are reminded yet again that the shield was never meant for them.

2025-03-07 07:10:00 CET

Setting the Record Straight on Social Security
Kathleen Romig
Center on Budget & Policy Priorities
Thursday 20 February, 2025
Social Security has broad support across party lines, income levels, and generations. After 90 years, Social Security remains one of the nation’s most successful, effective, and popular programs.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has strict controls over who receives a Social Security number (SSN) and what documentation is required to prove identity, U.S. citizenship, and immigration status. The agency assigns a unique Social Security number to each eligible individual, and it pays a single Social Security benefit to each qualifying individual with a Social Security number. Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present non-citizens may receive Social Security benefits. Social Security’s payment accuracy rate is very high — well over 99 percent — and it has many safeguards against improper payments, including rigorous protocols to stop paying benefits to people who have died.
Misinformation and false statements from President Trump and “Department of Government Efficiency" head Elon Musk claiming otherwise are causing confusion and risk undermining a trusted program that is rigorously administered, and which 69 million people currently rely on and nearly everyone will eventually use.
Here are the facts.
— Social Security Number: What Is it and Who Is Eligible?
– The Social Security Administration only provides new or replacement Social Security cards to people who meet strict authentication requirements. Applicants must fill out an application for a Social Security card (SS-5) and take or mail original documents to a local Social Security office for processing. Applicants must provide at least two documents that prove age, identity, and U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status. Almost all U.S. citizens are assigned Social Security numbers at birth through SSA’s enumeration at birth program.
– Some non-citizens with lawful immigration statuses may receive Social Security numbers. To receive a work-authorized SSN, non-citizen applicants must prove that they have a current, lawful work-authorized immigration status (such as lawful permanent resident status, also known as having a green card). Social Security cards issued to non-citizens with temporary work authorization are labeled “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION.” To receive a non-work SSN, applicants must prove they are lawfully present in the U.S. (for example, on a student visa) and provide the valid, non-work reason for which they need an SSN. Social Security cards issued to non-citizens without work authorization are labeled “NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT.” People who are without lawful immigration status are not eligible for an SSN.
– The Social Security number is a unique identifier, meaning that one number is assigned to one individual. It was designed this way to keep track of each worker’s earnings so that SSA could determine eligibility for Social Security and the benefit amount, which is based on a worker’s earnings.
— Social Security Benefits: Who Gets Them and How Are They Calculated?
– Social Security has a payment accuracy rate of over 99 percent. Only 0.3 percent of Social Security benefits are improper payments, which are typically caused by mistakes or delays.
– SSA has many safeguards to ensure accurate payments, including strict documentation and eligibility requirements, quality reviews, and regular reviews of medical eligibility for disability beneficiaries and financial eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. SSA works with its Office of Inspector General (OIG) to root out rare cases of outright fraud, in which applicants or beneficiaries deliberately falsify information to get or keep undeserved benefits. SSA and OIG team with state and local authorities in Cooperative Disability Investigations to investigate suspected fraud and to prosecute violations of the law.
– Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present non-citizens may receive Social Security benefits. Social Security benefits are based on the earnings on which people pay Social Security payroll taxes. As of 2004, non-citizens must have had work authorization for their earnings to count toward Social Security eligibility and benefits. In addition, the Social Security Act has prohibited the payment of benefits to non-citizens who are not “lawfully present” in the U.S. since 1996.
– SSA only pays one Social Security benefit to each qualifying Social Security number holder. A person may receive a Social Security benefit based on their own work history or based on their relationship to a worker — for example, the surviving spouse of a deceased worker. Beneficiaries who are eligible in multiple ways (for example, as both a worker and a surviving spouse) only receive one benefit that is reduced under the “dual entitlement rule,” which caps the total benefit amount at the highest single benefit for which the person qualifies. In no case does the same individual receive multiple Social Security benefits, nor does SSA pay Social Security benefits to people without SSNs.
– SSA has rigorous protocols to stop payments to beneficiaries who have died. State vital statistics agencies report deaths to SSA via the Electronic Death Registration system, typically within days. SSA also collects death data from funeral home directors, family members, and financial institutions. Across all sources, the agency receives nearly 3 million death reports each year, preventing over $50 million in improper payments each month. To catch any deaths that may have escaped reporting, SSA regularly checks to be sure its oldest beneficiaries are using their Medicare benefits — if not, they verify that the beneficiary is still alive. And in the extremely rare cases where benefits are paid to people over 100 years old, SSA has a policy to stop payments by age 115.
– Only 0.1 percent of Social Security benefits are paid to people over 100 years old. DOGE head Elon Musk has been circulating a table he claims shows Social Security beneficiaries at very old ages, but he is grossly mischaracterizing its contents. These numbers appear to be drawn from SSA’s Numident database, a record of every Social Security number application since the program started. The Numident typically does not contain death dates for people born before 1920 — before Social Security was established and long before electronic records were kept. A 2023 OIG report explains that “almost none” of the people born before 1920 in this dataset are being paid benefits. As a result, SSA explained that adding death dates to these very old records would be “costly to implement [and] would be of little benefit.”
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https://www.cbpp.org/blog/setting-the-record-straight-on-social-security?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email