News

The powerful new orchestral work by Sofia Gubaidulina, The Wrath of God, achieved its belated premiere as a highlight at the Wien Modern festival in November.

Orchid Classics has released the premiere recording of Mark Simpson’s Geysir, paired with Mozart’s masterly Gran Partita, and a video performance with the same ensemble of leading wind players is now available for viewing.

Jonathan Cross explores Stravinsky’s relationships with his composing contemporaries and the influence of his works and aesthetic ideals upon later generations, from Britten, Copland and Messiaen to contemporary composers such as Reich and Birtwistle.

The Copland Fund and Boosey & Hawkes present new editions of several of Aaron Copland’s best-loved scores, including restored music, alternate interpretations, and updated engravings that orchestras, musicologists, and fans will find valuable.

Explore the catalog of new Boosey signing Ana Sokolovic, which features many concert and stage works for smaller forces.

Composer and guitar virtuoso Steven Mackey has released a series of videos on Instagram and YouTube, featuring six new electric guitar etudes that each focus on a different skill and will be compiled in a forthcoming publication.

Director Luca Guadagnino has again turned to John Adams for the soundtrack of his critically acclaimed new HBO series, We Are Who We Are.

Oxford University Press and Boosey & Hawkes have signed a new global agreement covering music hire and stage licensing.

Brown’s musical children’s book Wild Symphony, which features orchestral music composed by the author himself, was released in stores in September. The orchestral music will be premiered live onstage in Croatia on October 9, with Brown as narrator.

The new ensemble work by Michel van der Aa, Shades of Red, was premiered in Cologne by Musikfabrik in September, and travels on for future performances by the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and the London Sinfonietta.

A new Peter Maxwell Davies Research Network is launched on 4 November, aiming to increase awareness of the composer's music, and a Study Day is planned at Cardiff University on 20 March.

Though Kurt Schwertsik’s 85th birthday concert celebrations in Vienna in the spring were COVID-closure casualties, recent months have seen performances conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and Marin Alsop, a new book published and a recording of his piano music.

SingFinzi2021, a new online singing competition, is launched by The Finzi Trust and Boosey & Hawkes to celebrate composer Gerald Finzi’s 120th birthday in 2021.

60th birthday celebrations for Mark-Anthony Turnage have brought the premiere of Last Song for Olly with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Simon Rattle, and the rescheduled first performances of Time Flies are planned for 2021.

October brings the world premiere in Rotterdam of Absence by Magnus Lindberg, inspired by Beethoven’s conversation books. The new orchestral work travels on for performances in Dallas, Bournemouth and Cologne.

Jonathan Cross examines Stravinsky’s composing life in the New World, 50 years after his death in 1971. Repertoire embraces the worlds of jazz, Hollywood collaborations including Disney's Fantasia, and his late serial masterpieces including Agon, Movements and Requiem Canticles.

Osvaldo Golijov’s new work Falling Out of Time, an 80-minute tone poem inspired by David Grossman’s novel, has been toured and recorded by the Silkroad Ensemble. The album releases October 9 on In a Circle Records.

Henryk Mikolaj Górecki’s oratorio Sanctus Adalbertus, as heard on the new Dux recording, is a monumental work for soloists, choir and orchestra. This tribute to the Polish saint was completed in 1998 but not published until after the composer’s death.

Composer Unsuk Chin is announced as the new Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea.

On October 16, Anna Clyne releases her portrait album, Mythologies, via AVIE Records, featuring five works by Clyne recorded live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with soloists Jennifer Koh and Irene Buckley and Conductors Marin Alsop, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Litton, and André de Ridder.