Knussen's Requiem - Songs for Sue (2005/2006)- world premiere in Chicago, 3rd April 2006. Oliver Knussen’s new work for soprano and ensemble of 15 players, Requiem - Songs for Sue, commissioned by MusicNOW, the new music chamber series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was premiered by British soprano Claire Booth and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer at Symphony Hall, Chicago on 3rd April 2006. The work is 12 minutes long and is a heartfelt, intimate setting of poems by Emily Dickinson, Antonio Machado, W.H. Auden and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Wystan Hugh Auden (21/02/1907 – 29/09/1973), who signed his works W. H. Auden was an Anglo-American poet. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (10/12/1830 – 15/05/1886) was an American poet. Antonio Machado Ruiz (26/07/1875 - 22/02/1939) was a Spanish poet and writer. Rainer Maria Rilke (04/12/1875 - 29/12/1926) was a Czech-German writer and poet.