REPRINT SERIES The orchestral Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin, TrV 245 consists of eight movements, each one based on a selection of pieces from Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin written for the solo harpsichord over the...

The suite begins where the opera starts, famously, with the bold, erotic horn music that is "Der Rosenkavalier’s" calling card and always a welcome sound to opera lovers. The suite begins with the opera's orchestral prelude, depicting the night of...

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 Hungarian Pictures, also known as Hungarian Sketches, are probably Bartók's most popular orchestral transcriptions. Each of the five pieces was originally conceived for the piano. the first two, "Evening in Transylvania" and "Bear Dance," are...

Serge Koussevitzky asked whether Rachmaninoff would select a group of études-tableaux for Italian composer Ottorino Respighi to orchestrate. He agreed and selected five études from Op. 33 and Op. 39. Respighi rearranged the order of...

It is the only Bachiana written in the form of an instrumental concerto. It is in fact a fully-fledged piano concerto about 30 minutes in length, and in four movements. As usual the four movements have a formal "Bachian" title in Portuguese, followed by...

REPRINT SERIES Revised in 1920 and finished in 1924, Falla transformed El Amor Brujo into a one-act 'ballet pantomímico'; it is in this version that the work is best known to this day. Movements:1.    Introduccion y Escena /...

Concerto da camera (H 196) is a concerto in three movements for the unusual combination of flute, English horn, and string orchestra written by Arthur Honegger late in his career in 1948. Honegger described the movements as such: "The first part is based...

 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 The Stone Flower was the last of Prokofiev’s Soviet ballets, dating from 1948, and is based on a folk tale from the Urals. The Suite contains music of great beauty, with soaring tunes that are as memorable as anything in the two...

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...

Written for strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on lute songs by Besard, a piece for baroque guitar by Ludovico Roncalli, and lute pieces by Santino Garsi da Parma and additional anonymous composers. 1. Italiana (Anonymous:...

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...

Divertissement is the French equivalent of “diversion,” in the sense of amusement or entertainment; this title Ibert gave to the concert suite he drew from his incidental music to a 1929 production of one of the greatest French farces, The...