Highly passionate in character and rich in its melodic invention, Finzi’s writing here is characteristically open-hearted and approachable. From the stillness of the opening, the music unfolds, reaching a peak of intensity before returning to its...

REPRINT SERIES Apollo (originally Apollon musagète and variously known as Apollo musagetes, Apolo Musageta, and Apollo, Leader of the Muses) is a neoclassical ballet in two tableaux composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was...

REPRINT SERIES Finzi's Prelude for String Orchestra Op.25, was originally conceived in the 1920s as the opening movement of a (subsequently uncompleted) chamber symphony, to be entitled The Bud, the Blossom and the Berry, the Prelude nevertheless stands...

REPRINT SERIES   After he departed the Soviet Union in 1918, Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) spent a fair amount of time in the U.S. concertizing. On one such tour in 1930, the Library of Congress commissioned him to compose a string quartet; the...

The Interlude for oboe and strings was composed during the mid 1930s, originally for string quartet; later Finzi created an expanded instrumentation for string orchestra as an alternative. It is a 13-minute work of considerable substance,...

REPRINT SERIES Concerto in D ("Basle") for string orchestra was composed in Hollywood between the beginning of 1946 and 8 August of the same year in response to a 1946 commission from Paul Sacher to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Basler...

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:...

Score and Set of Parts (5.5.4.4.3) Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 is the only one that does not have double titles (one title based on classical music forms and the other relating to Brazil in some manner). This 10 minute work is in quintessentially Bachian...

Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen, Study for 23 Solo Strings, subtitled "In memoriam" is scored for ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three contrabasses. The work unfolds in a single, long movement. Strauss sustains and develops a series of...

Based on the piece Double Trio (1938), the composer decided its music would be better-suited to a larger instrumentation.  He fashioned the piece for two string orchestras of disproportionate size, neither featuring second violins. The Partita ...

Commissioned in 1937 by Paul Sacher, it was only completed in 1941. The work is for string orchestra, except for the addition of a trumpet in the concluding chorale: "like pulling out an organ stop", according to the composer. The work is in three...

Divertimento for String Orchestra Sz.113 BB.118 is a three-movement piece that conforms to traditional structures, respectively, of sonata form, ternary form and rondo form. It was composed in 1939 and dedicated to the Basel Chamber Orchestra.   1...

Theme with Variations for Strings in G minor, Op. 97 is the author's arrangement (1917) of the variations for string quintet created already in 1895.

Written in 1909, the Suite for Strings is one of Frank Bridge's most famous compositions, and arguably, one of his best.

St Paul's Suite (Op.  29, No. 2) is a composition for string orchestra by the English composer Gustav Holst.  It is named after the St Paul's Girls' School in the United Kingdom, where Holst was Director of Music from 1905 to 1934. It was...