Christmas Concert Works for Band

Tannhäuser is one of Richard Wagner's richest and most elaborate musical achievements. A mood of autumnal melancholy imbues the third and final act: Wolfram feels the chill hand of impending death, bu...

The Cavatina 'Quel guarda il cavaliere' is sung in the first act of Donizetti's opera Don Pasquale by the young Norina .She comments on a novel she is reading, but also dwells on her skills as a charm...

Geronimo Gimeniz (1854 - 1923) was born in Sevilla and by the age of twelve he was a violinist in a theatre orchestra in Cadiz. The intermezzo from 'La Baile de Luis Alonso' is in the repertoire of ev...

The Spanish composer Pedro Iturralde (*1929) has to be considered both as pioneer and nestor of Spanish jazz music. Pequena Czarda (little dance) is a virtuoso little solo piece for saxophone and pian...

If we say that zarzuela is Spanish light opera with spoken dialogue we shall be near the mark. Geronimo Gimeniz is a Sevillan composer of many Zarzuela's. The short temperamental aria Zapatuedo is fro...

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1816) is one of the greatest of all comic operas.Based on an excellent play by Beaumarchais, The Barber of Seville delights audiences with its keenly sketched characters, melo...

Johannes Brahms composed the Alt-Rhapsodie in September of 1869 as a wedding gift to the daughter of his close friend and confidant, Clara Schumann. The Alt-Rhapsodie is set to several verses of a poe...

Chaminade's Concertino for Flute in D major, Op. 107 was composed in 1902 for flute and orchestra and was later arranged for flute and piano. Scholarship indicates that the Concertino was commissioned...

In 1933 Revueltas composed his brief symphonic poem "Janitzio" named after an island in Lake Patzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, west of Mexico City, whose population had derived its income largely...

Although Arturo Marquez was already an accomplished composer in Mexico, his music started to reach the international stage with the introduction of his series of Danzones in the early 1990s. This vene...

Saint-Saëns also contributed voluminously to the French concertante literature. He wrote five piano concertos, three violin concertos, two cello concertos, and about twenty smaller concertante works f...

Nowadays, Carmen is probably the most famous opera in the whole opera-repertoire, although its premiere in 1875 was a great disappointment because of the misunderstanding of the very realistic plot. C...

Maurice Ravel finished In 1905 his piano cycle "Miroirs" of which some parts are orchestrated by the composer himself. Especially the fourth part, "Alborada del gracioso", created in 1919 in Paris for...

Ombra mai fù is the opening aria from the 1738 opera Serse by Georg Friederich Handel. The opera itself was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19...

Czech composer Leos Janácek (1854-1928) has been inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style and along with Dvorák and Smetana, he is considered one of...

In a life spanning almost ninety-five years, Stolz wrote in excess of 2000 songs, dances and marches, as well as the music for more than 50 stage works, 60 films and 19 ice revues. In 1929 the German...

Giuseppe Giordani (1751-1798) was an Italian composer, mainly of opera. Giordani is mostly know for his popular aria 'Caro mio ben'. This song is even nowadays sung by many great singers, as well male...

'Die Moldau' (Vltava) is the second movement of the the symphonic poem cycle 'Ma Vlast' by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohem...

Johann Strauss jr. composed in 1864 the 'Persischer Marsch' (Persian March), Op. 289. It was dedicated this to his Majesty Nasir-ad-Din imperial Shah of Persia (1831-1896). The melody of the trio is t...

The Planets by composer Gustav Holst is a seven-movement orchestral suite in which each movement is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character. The orchestra...

Besides operettas Franz Lehár also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches and a number of waltzes. The most popular of these waltzes is 'Gold und Silber' (Gold and Silver) which he composed for Princ...

'By Strauss' is a song composed by George Gershwin in 1936. It pays homage to the music of Johann Strauss Sr. and Johann Strauss Jr.. The singer sings how she doesn't like Broadway, Irving Berlin, Jer...

The 'Piano Concerto No. 1' in B-flat minor, Op. 23, is one of the most popular of Tschaikowsky's compositions and among the best known of all piano concertos. The concerto follows the traditional form...

Vincenzo Bellini, was one of the three great composers of the belcanto-era. However, besides his opera's his instrumental output is limited. The Concerto for Oboe in E-flat major, most likely composed...

'Il Convegno' (in Italian 'the meeting' or the 'appointment') for two clarinets and piano was composed by Amilcare Ponchielli in 1857. 'Il Covegno' is in three sections, linked by cadenzas and other c...