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...

 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 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...

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 4 is actually two works, both using material created for The Prodigal Son ballet. The first, Op. 47, was completed in 1930 and premiered that November; it lasts about 22 minutes. The second, Op. 112, is too different to be termed...

REPRINT SERIES The Symphony No. 4 (Symphonie concertante) Op. 60 is a work for solo piano and orchestra written by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski between March and June of 1932. It is dedicated to the pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Szymanowski...

REPRINT SERIES The Symphony of Psalms is a choral symphony in three movements composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony...

The music derives from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel, a touching love story set against the backdrop of demonic possession.This opera had been accepted for performance in the 1927–28 season at the Berlin State Opera by Bruno Walter, but this...

REPRINT SERIES Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40, in Paris in 1924-25, during what he called "nine months of frenzied toil". He characterized this symphony as a work of "iron and steel". Prokofiev modeled the symphony's structure on...

In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of the Fourth Symphony, and a return to the more romantic style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony. It is also noteworthy as perhaps the quietest symphony Vaughan Williams ever wrote, with...

The symphony, written as an elegy of the tragedies of World War II, has often been regarded as the darker twin to the victorious Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major.The symphony is in 3 movements (rather than the conventional 4), and lasts 40–45...

 REPRINT SERIES Hindemith - Konzertmusik für Streichorchester und Blechbläser Op.50 It was one of a large group of pieces commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by its music director, Serge Koussevitzky...

 The music is light, even at times satirical, and overflowing with popular turns and dance rhythms. (Ravel is said to have admitted to Poulenc that he envied his ability to “write his own folksongs.”)  It is in four movements:...

REPRINT SERIES Ottorino Respighi’s hour-long Sinfonia drammatica, which he completed just before the First World War broke out, appears to anticipate the impending tragedy. The brilliantly orchestrated composition (with six horns, four percussion,...

REPRINT SERIES Symphony: Mathis der Maler (Matthias the Painter) is among the most famous orchestral works of German composer Paul Hindemith. Music from the symphony was incorporated into, or reworked for, Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler, which...

The Seventh Symphony was Prokofiev's last completed major work. It was written for the Soviet Children's Radio Division, but the simplicity of the composer's approach in the work often conceals deeper expressive currents. Though the Symphony adheres to...

REPRINT SERIES Notable for being a one-movement symphony, in contrast to the standard symphonic formula of four movements. The concept of a continuous, single-movement symphony was one Sibelius only reached after a long process of experimentation. It has...

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, Op. 100, is his biggest, his grandest, and his greatest symphony, a massive and monumental work that celebrates the triumph of all that is decent and virtuous over all that is depraved and immoral. Fourteen years had passed...

Composed in the aftermath of World War II, it is one of Honegger's best-known works. It is in three movements, each of which (following the symphony's subtitle) is named after part of the Requiem Mass. The first movement, Dies irae, is marked allegro...