# Have you been to a first performance?



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I am sure that everyone who has attended any number of concerts has been present at one or more first performances, usually of works that almost immediately vanish into obscurity. So the question, have you ever attended the premier of a work that did manage to get a foothold in the repertoire? By premier I will include any of the performances if the work was repeated over a few days.

My contribution - Tippett's Symphony #3 with Colin Davis at the Royal Festival Hall in 1972


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Lots of them and this weekend will be a world premiere too at the Utah SYmphony.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Even better... I'm going to be singing in a first performance!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I have performed the premier of one concert band work that has become part of the repertoire.

See: http://www.talkclassical.com/23100-do-composers-have-any-2.html?highlight=Camphouse#post399371


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I've lived in several major cities in the U.S., all of which have commissioned new music. Works by John Corigliano, Tan Dun, John Adams, André Previn, and I'm sure others I'm not remembering at the moment, have stayed in the repertoire in at least a modest way.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Yes, quite a few times. Next one, on February, 24th. World premiere of "El público", by Mauricio Toledo, based in Lorca, at Madrid's Teatro Real.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Nothing famous... yet...


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

'Be not the first by whom the new are tried, not yet the last to lay the old aside'.

I take the presence of a new work in a program as a reason for staying away from the concert. Simple probability tells you the work is probably no good. Evidence for this comes from the Radio 3 program Here and Now, which broadcasts new compositions. Most of these are uninspired eccentricities and will doubtless soon fade into oblivion. If a new work is genuinely good it will be performed again and eventually recorded. That is the time to investigate it, when the Wisdom of Crowds has performed her filtrations and distilled the rare nectar from the mass of sediment.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Chris said:


> 'Be not the first by whom the new are tried, not yet the last to lay the old aside'.
> 
> I take the presence of a new work in a program as a reason for staying away from the concert. Simple probability tells you the work is probably no good. Evidence for this comes from the Radio 3 program Here and Now, which broadcasts new compositions. Most of these are uninspired eccentricities and will doubtless soon fade into oblivion. If a new work is genuinely good it will be performed again and eventually recorded. That is the time to investigate it, when the Wisdom of Crowds has performed her filtrations and distilled the rare nectar from the mass of sediment.


Given that life is short and you have a lot of things to do before the end, I can see the point of this.

All the same, it's fun to take a chance now and then. Anyway, a lot of these chances aren't all that wild. You already know whether you're probably going to enjoy a new work by Saariaho, and if you think you might, you might find it especially fun to be at the premier.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

science said:


> Given that life is short and you have a lot of things to do before the end, I can see the point of this.
> 
> All the same, it's fun to take a chance now and then. Anyway, a lot of these chances aren't all that wild. You already know whether you're probably going to enjoy a new work by Saariaho, and if you think you might, you might find it especially fun to be at the premier.


I've not heard of Saariaho but if the composer is a known quantity that radically alters the probabilities. The OP was fortunate enough to be at the premiere of Tippett's Third Symphony. I would have stood in a queue for that.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I attended THE first performance of music EVER!


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Many works that vanished into obscurity.

Few works that are considered important and somehow entered the repertoire:

Luigi Nono's opera _Al gran sole carico d'amore_. I was a teenager and I was with my grandma. I remember it as a very boring experience.

Stockhausen's first three operas from the Licht cycle:
Donnerstag
Samstag
Montag

Samstag aus Licht possibly was my favorite, I remember I saw it twice within a few days. The second time I took my girlfriend. It didn't last long...


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2015)

No. I'm young, grew up in a rock/pop world, new to classical music, and have thus only been to a handful of classical concerts. In fact, if I disregard those primary school field trips to the symphony when I was probably 7 years old (and I have very few vivid memories of my childhood, consequence of electroconvulsive therapy), then I can count my symphony experiences on one hand.

HOWEVER: I'm hoping to get to a Rihm/Mozart concert (I think in April?) of Rihm's triple concerto followed by the Mozart requiem.

I'm quite sure it's just a U.S. premiere and not a world premiere, but considering I've never seen a live performance of any classical music from the last 50 years, I'm not too fussed.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Unfortunately every piece I've heard premiered has been totally forgettable.

But there have been so few! If ensembles made a point of premiering a new work at every concert, there would be a much better chance of an ordinary concertgoer encountering something special.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Many times, is not that what music is all about?
Last year I think I heard six or seven WP's!

/ptr


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

The San Francisco Symphony often does world premieres or West Coast premieres of contemporary music, so yes, I've been to quite a few.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I've been to a couple premiers which went nowhere. More interesting, the Nashville symphony had a year where they did not premiers but the second performance of a previously premiered piece. Despite the second performances, they still went nowhere.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

William Schuman's Eighth Symphony premiere with the NY Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein to commemorate the opening of the acoustically challenged Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center, New York. Nice that I was able to buy the recording too!


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

hpowders said:


> William Schuman's Eighth Symphony premiere with the NY Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein to commemorate the opening of the acoustically challenged Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center, New York. Nice that I was able to buy the recording too!


That's another one I'd have queued for.


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