Grażyna Bacewicz’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (1945) is a three-movement work—I. Allegro ma non troppo (with substantial cadenza), II. Andante, III. Vivo—combining neoclassical clarity with propulsive rhythmic drive. The concerto was written...

Benjamin Britten’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68, was composed in 1963 and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere with Britten conducting the Moscow Philharmonic on 12 March 1964. The work’s title reflects...

Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, Op. 4, was written in 1933–34 and is wholly derived from themes he composed as a child; it is scored for string orchestra (also playable as a string quartet) and typically lasts about 16–18 minutes in...

Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto Op.15, was composed in 1938–39 and premiered in New York in March 1940 with Antonio Brosa as soloist and Sir John Barbirolli conducting. the concerto balances incisive, often percussive orchestral...

REPRINT SERIES  Manuel de Falla’s “Interlude and Dance”  is the principal purely orchestral episode extracted from the second act of La vida breve. It is presented as a single orchestral scena that moves from a secco,...

Manuel de Falla’s Suite No. 2, Three Dances from El sombrero de tres picos, is an orchestral extraction of the principal dances from Part II of the 1919 ballet. he suite is scored for a medium-to-large orchestra with an emphasis on percussion...

REPRINT SERIES  Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Dance No. 1 (Danza Española No. 1) from the opera La vida breve was arranged for full orchestra by Stéphane Chapelier in 1928. In Chapelier’s orchestration the dance functions as a...

Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco is a “musical fairy tale” in three acts, originally composed in 1921 for Vittorio Podrecca’s Teatro dei Piccoli puppet theatre and later substantially revised in 1933 for full theatrical...

REPRINT SERIES Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Suite for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 30 (1913), is an early orchestral showpiece that transforms a set of piano character pieces into a three-movement suite for piano solo with orchestral accompaniment. The three...

Manuel de Falla’s Suite No. 1, Scenes and Dances from El sombrero de tres picos, is an orchestral extraction of the principal dances from Part I of the 1919 ballet. Musically the suite condenses the ballet’s Andalusian...

REPRINT SERIES  Jacob Gade’s Bryllup på Himmelpind (1940) is a rustic orchestral suite evoking childhood memories of village weddings near his birthplace; the work was originally in six movements but was revised and published in a...

Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance) is the best-known movement from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El amor brujo, originally composed as a gitanería (gypsy piece) around 1915 and later presented in orchestral versions associated with the...

REPRINT SERIES  Jacob Gade’s Suite d’Amour is a short orchestral suite in three connected movements—“The First Meeting,” “In Love,” and “Red Roses”—that together run about eleven minutes...

Manuel de Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) is a Ballet in 2 Acts based on Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s novella and commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. It was created in collaboration with...

REPRINT SERIES  George Enescu’s Two Intermèdes for string orchestra, Op. 12, were written in 1902–03 as short orchestral miniatures for strings and are usually performed together as a single item. The two pieces contrast in...

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Flourish for Glorious John (1957) was written as a short ceremonial opener for Sir John Barbirolli to inaugurate the Hallé Orchestra’s centenary season; it is a compact fanfare-like orchestral piece lasting...

REPRINT SERIES  Arthur Honegger’s Prélude, Fugue et Postlude (H.71a) is an orchestral suite in three linked sections—Prélude, Fugue and Postlude—arranged in 1948 from material associated with his earlier Amphion...

Manuel de Falla’s El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show) is a one-act puppet-opera with prologue and epilogue, set to a Spanish libretto drawn from Cervantes’s Don Quixote. The score is compact—about 27...