Sinfonia antartica ("Antarctic Symphony") is the Italian title given by Ralph Vaughan Williams to his seventh symphony, first performed in 1953. It drew on incidental music the composer had written for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic. A typical...

REPRINT SERIES Chôros No. 8 was composed in Rio de Janeiro in 1925, and the score is dedicated to the pianist Tomás Terán. It was premiered in Paris on 24 October 1927, at the Salle Gaveau, with the composer conducting the Orchestra...

REPRINT SERIES This Bachiana was dedicated to Villa-Lobos' superior, Minister of Education Gustavo Capanema. It is the one that comes closest to the exuberant contrapuntal density of the Choros series. At over 25 minutes, it is the longest Bachiana, and...

REPRINT SERIES The full title of this late piece by Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) is Fantasia Concertante for Orchestra of Violoncellos. Composed in 1958, it was recorded in the same year in NYC on November 30, 1958. Villa-Lobos conducted the Violoncello...

REPRINT SERIES Dances from Don Quixote is the orchestral suite derived from Roberto Gerhard's "Don Quixote" ballet. The ballet was composed in 1940-41, while the Dances were revised and assembled in 1957.

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, in 1944–47, during and immediately after World War II and revised in 1950. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed, in its original version, by Sir...

REPRINT SERIESResponding to Soviet governmental directives to produce music accessible to children, Sergei Prokofiev wrote an album of short, pictorial piano pieces in 1936. Published as Music for Children, Op. 65, these went over so well that Prokofiev...

The Miraculous Mandarin (A csodálatos mandarin / Der wunderbare Mandarin) Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82), is a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók between 1918 and 1924, and based on the 1916 story by Melchior Lengyel. Premiered...

REPRINT SERIES In 1936 Prokofiev returned permanently to the USSR. He showed sketches of the overture to Eugen Szenkar, who accepted it for his orchestra. Prokofiev used a large orchestra, as he had previously in the Scythian Suite and Seven, They are...

 Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to Arnold Bax.Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies, it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or...

REPRINT SERIES Les Animaux modèles, FP 111, is a ballet dating from 1940 to 1942 with music by Francis Poulenc. It was the third and final ballet that he composed and was staged at the Paris Opéra in 1942, with choreography by Serge Lifar,...

REPRINT SERIES Prokofiev wrote a ballet Trapèze on a theme of circus for the touring company Boris Romanov. Trapèze was written for quintet to suit the small instrumental section of the company. In 1929, he adapted movements from the...

Hans Kindler was one of the most brilliant and dedicated musicians of his generation. Born in Rotterdam in 1892 and trained at the city’s conservatory, Kindler emigrated to the United States in 1914 to become Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia...

REPRINT SERIES Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 5, in 1909 and dedicated it to Nikolai Tcherepnin, his conducting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Prokofiev subsequently modified it twice, once in 1914 and finally in...

REPRINT SERIES Op. 104 Symphony no. 6 in D minor1. Allegro molto moderato, 2. Allegretto moderato, 3. Poco vivace, 4. Allegro molto. Completed in 1923; first performance in Helsinki on 19th February 1923 (Helsinki City Orchestra under Jean Sibelius).The...

The tone poem/ballet Amazonas, composed originally for orchestra and published in 1917, was transcribed for piano by Villa-Lobos himself and published in a new version in 1932. Like Uirapuru, Amazonas subtitled “Brazilian Indian ballet” first...

Funeral Song (Погребальная песнь / Pogrebal'naya Pesnya, or Chant funèbre), Op. 5, is an orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky. Composed in 1908 in memory of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the work received its first performance in 1909.The premiere was...

REPRINT SERIES The Concerto for String Orchestra (1948) is commonly regarded as Grażyna Bacewicz's opus magnum and even called her "Ninth Symphony". It is unquestionably one of the foremost works of 20th century Polish music. Written in 1948, the...