Tschaikovsky composed his 'Concerto for Violin and Orchestra' in the spring of 1878. The work does have a rocky beginning, somewhat like that of his first Piano Concerto. The premiere was both somewha...
German composer Otto Nicolai (1810-1849) started work on the overture based on Martin Luther's chorale 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott' (A mighty fortress is our God) in the summer of 1836. In the foll...
'The Pirates of Penzance'; or, 'The Slave of Duty' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert which premiered in New York City in 1879, where the show wa...
Emmanuel Chabrier's opera-comique 'Le Roi malgré lui' debuted at the Opéra-Comique in 1887. The opera was well received, although the librettists were booed at the première. The music was praised and...
Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859 - 1935) was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher. His works include operas, orchestral music, chamber music and a large number of songs. His style is s...
Wiener Blut' ('Viennese Blood', 'Vienna Blood' or 'Viennese Spirit') is a waltz by Johann Strauss composed in 1873 to celebrate the wedding of the Emperor Franz Joseph's daughter Archduchess Gisela Lo...
The 'Hungarian Dances' (Ungarische Tänze), evoking directly the warm blood of Hungarian gypsy music, consist of 21 dances, originally composed for piano four hands. Perhaps less familiar than the famo...
The 'Explosions Polka', opus 43, is written by Johann Strauss in 1847. The title was inspired by a discovery of 'guncotton' or 'nitrocellulose' by German scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 184...
The 'Studenten polka', Opus 263 is a polka that was written by Johann Strauss jr. in 1862 for the first general student carnival ball in Vienna after the revolution of 1848 and premiered on February 2...
Ecce sacerdos magnus' (Behold a great priest), WAB 13, is an 1885 sacred motet by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. It is a musical setting of the antiphon of the same title. The work is a six-par...
