Happy Birthday to the Royal Philharmonic Society

Today, the Royal Philharmonic Society is 200, and along with a celebratory concert there is a whole year of events (see my blog post). One of the major events, already announced, is the commission of a new work to accompany Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, perhaps the society's most high profile commission. This new companion work will be called Frieze and is being written by Mark-Anthony Turnage. It will be performed at the Proms by the National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Choir of Great Britain under Vasily Petrenko. The US premiere (and four further performances) by the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert feature in the orchestra’s 2013-14 season at the Lincoln Center.