This beautiful long flowing melody comes from Humperdinck's famous opera Hansel and Gretel (1893). In addition to being a delightful concert work it is also a useful as a tone study for practicing pla...
The Last Rose of Summer is a popular Irish folksong. The original text was written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) and the melody is a traditional air titled The Groves of Blarney. The German composer Fri...
Nessun Dorma, an aria from Puccini's Turandot, is now instantly recognised due mainly to the performance by the late Pavarotti at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Since that time its popularity has contin...
The Adagio is based on a manuscript that was discovered in the Dresden State Library after the Second World War by Remo Giazotto, a Milanese musicologist who was working on Albinoni's biography at the...
The Ukrainian Dmitri Bortniansky (1751-1825) received lessons at the local singing school in his hometown of Hlukhiv, and soon his extraordinary talent was recognised. He was somewhat of a child prodi...
In 1950, Pope Pius XII selected Marche Pontificale from the Organ Symphony No. 1, by French composer Charles Gounod, as the official hymn of the Vatican. The first rendition of the official hymn took...
Claudio Monteverdi composed this toccata as an instrumental introduction for the opera L'Orfeo (1607). According to the composer, this introduction should be played three times before the rising of th...
The song Bist du bei mir, geh' ich mit Freuden zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh' (BWV 508) was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach for his second wife Anna Magdalena (1701-1760), who he married in 1721. Th...
Hymne an die Nacht is a deeply moving theme by the master composer Ludwig van Beethoven. It is taken from his Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata), which he composed between 1804-1806. This...
