News

Schott Music remembers Sir Andrew Davis following his death on 20 April 2024 at the age of 80. 

Over a hugely successful international career, Sir Andrew shared his commitment to living composers by not only conducting numerous world premieres by composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Anthony Gilbert, Ryan Wigglesworth and Sir Michael Tippett but also committing to the further support and sharing of adventurous programmes in presenting national premieres around the world of works by John Casken, Toru Takemitsu, Bernard Rands and even three UK premieres of works by Paul Hindemith with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers in 1995.

He was a great supporter and champion of Sir Michael Tippett, later becoming patron of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation. Notable performances include the first UK performance of Tippett’s New Year at Glyndebourne in 1990, a work which in 2024 is now receiving revivals with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Opera Company - with many of those involved now, also being associated with the Glyndebourne production at the time.  Sir Andrew’s last performance of Tippett’s music was The Rose Lake, one of Tippett’s final works, with the BBC Philharmonic; his new recording of A Child of Our Time with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and soloists Pumeza Matchikiza, Dame Sarah Connolly, Joshua Stewart and Ashley Riches is due for release on Chandos next week on 3 May 2024 and he had included Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli with Toronto Symphony Orchestra for his programme with them in January 2025 as Conductor Laureate.

The composer and conductor Peter Eötvös has died in Budapest on 24 March 2024 at the age of 80. This was announced by his family on Sunday. With his death, the music world has lost one of the most frequently performed opera composers of our time. 

Aribert Reimann, one of the most distinguished composers of the post-war generation, has died at the age of 88. He passed away in Berlin on 13 March 2024. It is with great respect that we bid farewell to a great artist whose empathetic sense of humanity will continue to live on in his works.

Through more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is recognized worldwide as a major figure in contemporary music. We send him our warm congratulations on this milestone birthday!

The education and training of a musician mainly focusses on working with the instrument. It is often forgotten, however, that playing a musical instrument requires certain physical abilities. We take it for granted that we have the strength to hold it and that we are able to play for hours. Only when health issues arise like tenseness, overstraining or pain, do we realise the high performance we demand from our musculoskeletal system. Warming up should therefore be a fixture in our practising routine.

The fascinating and diverse creativity of Peter Eötvös is fuelled by the triad of composition, musical practice, and educational enthusiasm.  We wish him a very happy 80th birthday.

It feels safe to say many of us play our instruments much less than we did when we were younger, how do people find the time within adult life? Here we have an interview style blog from Melanie Spanswick looking at relearning and revisiting the piano as an adult. Linking to her series Play it Again, Melanie talks about how music can fit into our adult lives and how this series can help you along your way.

After 253 years in private hands, Music Publisher Schott is to become the property of the Strecker Foundation, thus securing its independence forever. The historic house at Weihergarten 5 in Mainz remains the publishing house's headquarters, while more recent parts of the building are developed with the Molitor company to create a "House of Music" alongside apartments.

We congratulate Ludger Brümmer on winning the Honorary Award of the German Record Critics' Award.

Julian Anderson's Symphony No. 2, will celebrate its US premiere on December 7, 2023 at Severance Hall in Cleveland, OH. The Cleveland Orchestra will present the piece under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, who conducted the world premiere with the Munich Philharmonic at the beginning of last year.