February – Release of Shirley Bassey's first single, Burn My Candle (At Both Ends).
8 May – Benjamin Britten's opera Gloriana, written in 1953, is given its US première in Cincinnati, in concert form, conducted by Josef Krips.
14 May – Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8 receives its first London performance.[1]
June – Arthur Bliss heads the first delegation by British musicians to the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. The party included the violinist Alfredo Campoli, the oboist Léon Goossens, the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and the pianist Gerald Moore.[2]
13 November – The first of a series of Hoffnung Music Festival Concerts takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, in London.
Variations on "Annie Laurie", for two piccolos, two contrabass clarinets, heckelphone, two contrabassoons, serpent, contrabass serpent, subcontrabass tuba, harmonium and hurdy-gurdy
Michael Tippett
(arr. of Northumbrian folksong), unison choir and three recorders
Songs from the British Isles (4), SATB choir
Ralph Vaughan Williams
A Choral Flourish (text from the Psalms), for SATB choir, two trumpets and organ
God Bless the Master of This House, for SATB choir
Preludes on Welsh Folksongs (2), for organ
Symphony No. 8
A Vision of Aeroplanes (text: N. Ezekiel), motet for SATB choir and organ
William Walton – Cello Concerto
Opera[]
Malcolm Arnold – The Open Window, Op. 56 (opera in one act, libretto by S. Gilliat, after Saki)
Alan Bush – Men of Blackmoor, with libretto by Nancy Bush, premiered at the German National Theatre, Weimar[4]
^Ford (8 June 1974). "Burning Bush: Christopher Ford meets Alan Bush, neglected British master of grand opera". The Guardian. ProQuest185747511. (subscription required)
^Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel; Menna, Baines; Lynch, Peredur I., eds. (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 651. ISBN978-0-7083-1953-6.