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 SERIES Poulenc's Concert Champêtre for Harpsichord (or Piano) and Orchestra was written in 1927–28 for the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska who said she "adored" playing it as it made her "insouciant and gay!" Landowska was responsible...

Composed in 1934, the Cello Concerto No.1 is not only the frist composition for cello by Milhaud, but also the most popular. It was dedicaated to Maurice Maréchal, who premiered it in Paris on June 28th 1935. This concerto was one of Grégor...

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...

This pretty work for String Orchestra has 3 movements: 1.Animé et Vigoureux - 2.Vif et Léger - 3.Décidé et Joyeux, and lasts approximately 11 minutes.

REPRINT SERIES Riders to the Sea is a short one-act opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on the play of the same name by John Millington Synge. The composer completed the score in 1927, but it was not premiered until 1 December 1937, at the Royal...

 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 The Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra was written by Igor Stravinsky in Nice between 1926 and 1929. The score was revised in 1949. Stravinsky designed the Capriccio to be a virtuosic vehicle which would allow him to earn a living from...

Among Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s important, large-scale Judaically incited concert works is his second violin concerto (Op. 66), which he subtitled I profeti (The Prophets). Its three movements are further subtitled with reference to two biblical...

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 Bacewicz's Cello Concerto No. 1 was written 1951, following a commission from Miloš Sádlo, an eminent Czech cellist of international renown. The piece reflects a stylistic tendency most vividly manifested in Sonata No. 1...

REPRINT SERIES Castelnuovo-Tedesco Concerto in C Major for Guitar and Orchestra No.2 Op.160, also known as Concerto Sereno. Because of his Jewish background, Castelnuovo-Tedesco had to leave Italy in the 1930's when Mussolini and the fascists came to...

ORIGINAL CHORAL VERSION 1938 Serenade to Music is an orchestral concert work completed in 1938 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, written as a tribute to conductor Sir Henry Wood. It features an orchestra and 16 vocal soloists, with lyrics...

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...