Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony, Op. 44, was composed in 1948–49 on commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Britten described it as “a symphony not only dealing with the Spring itself but with the progress of Winter to Spring...

Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, was composed in 1939–40 to a commission from the Japanese government for the 2,600th anniversary of the imperial line; the Japanese authorities rejected the finished score because of its use of...