Malcolm Arnold

Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra Op. 46

The Concerto was written in 1954 and given its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It is composed in three movements, Grazioso, Mesto and Con brio. Malcolm Arnold was a British composer who earned aninternational reputation both as a composer of serious works, including nine symphonies, and as a composer of light music. He composed more than one hundred film scores, among them the Oscar-winning music for The Bridge on theRiver Kwai, the award-winning music for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Whistle Down the Wind and Hobson's Choice. Larry Adler, for whom this work was written, was an absolute maestro of the chromatic mouth Organ who recordedandperformed widely and with some of the other greatest musicians of his time. It is due to Adler's artistry and popularity that there exists any real repertoire for the instrument.