REPRINT SERIES Amériques is an orchestral composition by Edgard Varèse, scored for a very large, romantic orchestra with additional percussion (for eleven performers) including sirens. Written between 1918 and 1921 and revised in 1927, it...

REPRINT SERIES  The Symphonic Minutes, subtitled "Character Movements," have their own charms, in terms of humor, harmonic invention, and melodiousness. The five movements - none more than four minutes long - consist of a bright-toned, witty...

On the Dnieper (На Днепре), Op. 51, is a ballet in two scenes with prelude and epilogue by Sergei Prokofiev. Composed in 1931 as his fourth work in the genre, it resulted from a commission by the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris after the...

REPRINT SERIES Respighi's "Toccata" for Piano and Orchestra is in effect a continuous piano concerto, lasting about 25 minutes, that owes much to the composer's love of older Italian masters such as Vivaldi, Corelli and Marcello. The work has been...

A dazzling percussion concerto that requires advanced technique and musicality, from timpani to xylophone to small percussion instruments. This work is often taken up as a challenge for competitions.

In this engaging work Vaughan Williams takes advantage of the expressive possibilities of the cello, ranging from wistful and melancholic to lively and jovial. It was composed in 1929 and premiered the following year by its dedicatee, the legendary...

For St. Cecilia (subtitled “Ceremonial Ode”) was commissioned by the St. Cecilia’s Day Festival Committee and premiered in the Royal Albert Hall on 22 November 1947, St. Cecilia’s Day (Cecilian works by Purcell and Handel were...

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 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...

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 There are plentiful ingredients in Respighi’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Rhapsodic flourishes, triumphal declamations, huge, dense chords and passages of lyrical contemplation. Written in 1902, when he was in his early twenties, it...

Certainly Prokofiev’s own ‘stories’ for children end happily – and there are quite a number, not merely those recorded here. The first was The Ugly Duckling, a setting of an adaptation (by Nina Meshchersky, Prokofiev’s first...

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...

One of Milhaud's most well known pieces is 'Scaramouche'. Original written as a Suite for two pianos but later transcribed by the composer for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. The original conception for the Scaramouche suite was for piano duo, and Milhaud...

Le Bœuf sur le toit (literally "the ox on the roof"), Op. 58 is a short piece for small orchestra by the composer Darius Milhaud, written in 1919–20. Milhaud conceived the piece as incidental music for any one of the comic silent films of...

REPRINT SERIES The Suite for Viola and Orchestra (also called Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra) by Ralph Vaughan Williams is a work in eight movements for solo viola and orchestra composed in 1933 and 1934. The work consists of eight movements,...

REPRINT SERIES Of a length of about 16 minutes, it involves 3 movements, thus presented by the composer: – I – Andante and scherzo All resources of the instrument are enhanced from this first time, virtuosity, sonorities, expression. The...