Premieres

Premieres: May 2013

Graham Fitkin | Partially Screaming

Anyone attending the premiere of Graham Fitkin’s Partially Screaming on 17 May at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival is going to be in for a visual as well as an aural treat.

Premieres: April 2013

Colin Matthews et al | Panufnik Variations

New work by Matthews and nine former Panufnik Scheme composers will be premiered on 13 April at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of its LSO Futures week.

Premieres: March 2013

Steve Reich | Radio Rewrite

Steve Reich's Radio Rewrite will be performed by the London Sinfonietta at the Royal Festival Hall on 5 March, then touring to Town Hall, Birmingham, 6 March and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 9 March. Plus March's premieres listings.

Premieres: February 2013

Mark-Anthony Turnage | Speranza

Mark-Anthony Turnage's Speranza will be performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican on 7 February, on the same night as the UK premiere of his cello concerto, with soloist Paul Watkins, by the RLPO in Liverpool. Plus February's premieres listings.

Premieres: January 2013

Malcolm Hayes | Byzantium

Malcolm Hayes's WB Yeats-inspired Byzantium will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Garry Walker at the Maida Vale Studios, London on 25 January

Premieres: 22 December 2012 to 11 January 2013

Premieres of the Year 2012

CM writers pick their most interesting new musical experiences of the last 12 months

Premieres: 8th to 21st December 2012

Edmund Finnis | Four Duets

Edmund Finnis’ Four Duets for clarinet and piano has been commissioned by clarinettist Mark Simpson for his Martin Musical Scholarship Fund recital at the Royal Festival Hall on 8 December (one of 15 such recitals by young professional performers over the next 8 months).

Premieres: 24 November to 7 December 2012

Rolf Hind | Accordion concerto

‘The idea is that you breathe in everyone else’s pain and suffering, everyone in the room - or, if you’re really advanced, everyone in the world - and you breathe back joy and calm. I don’t see how you can illustrate that idea in music but I like the idea formally that the music gets sucked up - everyone’s playing - and then it goes out again. So it’s quite a tempestuous journey in the slow movement, it’s very unpredictable, where [the soloist] will try and deal with all these crises by taking the material on himself like a kind of therapist.’

Premieres: 10 to 23 November 2012

Sally Beamish | The Intoxicating Rose Garden

‘To be given this kind of collaborative experience is something that I treasure,’ says composer Sally Beamish, describing her role in The Intoxicating Rose Garden. ‘I love working with other artists, and this is absolutely the ultimate project for that.’ Combining music, song, dance and the animated image, this new collaboration is between Beamish, singer and choreographer Michael Popper, Iranian poet and artist Jila Peacock, artist Laurie Irvine and the Red Note Ensemble.

Premieres: 27 October to 9 November 2012

Kevin Volans | Looping Point

‘I’ve written a couple of pieces for Crash Ensemble before,’ explains Kevin Volans. ‘They have for the most part been quite low-key pieces, and Crash were planning on doing one of them in the Huddersfield Festival. That was a completely low-key piece so I thought it was time I wrote something for them that was a bit more festive, a bit more upbeat.’

Premieres: 12 to 26 October 2012

John Harbison | Full Moon in March

Described by its composer as ‘a back-of-the-truck bare bones opera’, John Harbison’s Full Moon in March has a libretto adapted by the composer from WB Yeats’ A Full Moon in March, and tells the story of a queen, a swineherd and the failed courting ritual between them. It receives its EU premiere on 24 October as part of contemporary music group Lontano’s festival of American music (22-27 October) with the Queen played by mezzo-soprano Caryl Hughes, the Swineherd by baritone Jeremy Huws Williams and two attendants played by soprano Charmian Bedford and tenor Edward Lee.

Premieres: 29 September to 12 October

Dobrinka Tabakova | Suite in Old Style

For many undergraduate music students the requirement to analyse and imitate the musical style of Corelli or Bach in weekly composition exercises is a stultifying experience, recalled in later life with distaste. But Dobrinka Tabakova, composer-in-residence at this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival, relishes the challenge of breathing new life into ancient compositional forms.

Premieres: 15 to 28 September

Kurt Schwertsik | Flute concerto

There’s an ongoing project afoot at Liverpool which will see most principals of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic perform the world premiere of a bespoke concerto.