Scores for Orchestra

Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) Pelléas et Mélisande adapted Maurice Maeterlinck's play of the same name in which Prince Golaud marries a mysterious young woman, Mélisande, but becomes jealous of his hal...

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel, The Bri...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSI FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporaty Antonio Salieri rejected t...

Tosca is a melodramatic opera in three acts set in Rome in June, 1800, with the Kingdom of Naple's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder...

La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) is based on La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character. Piave...

Finished in 1848 and premiered in 1850 in Weimar, Germany, Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) LOHENGRIN tells a story of a tragic medieval German romance in the Knight of the Swan tradition. Elsa, a princes...

DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER (THE FLYING DUTCHMAN), WWV 63, had two sources of inspiration for Richard Wagner (1813-1883). The first was a short story by Heinrich Heine, based on the folk legend of a sea-c...

Returning to the 4-movement symphonic form, Alexander Glasunow (1865-1936) completed his SYMPHONY No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 55, in 1895. He premiered the work at the Hall of the Nobility in St. Peter...

Originally completed in 1888, the original version of this large work differed significantly from the revised and final version offered here. Initially in two parts with five movements, it was describ...

Originally completed in 1888, the original version of this large work differed significantly from the revised and final version offered here. Initially in two parts with five movements, it was describ...

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) composed his SYMPHONY No. 5 in C-sharp minor in 1901 and 1902, mostly while staying at his vacation cottage at Maiernigg. The composer conducted the first performance in Colo...

While less known today, German composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) was a popular and respected composer during his life. Known best for his piano compositions, his most popular work is his Spanish...

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) dedicated his CONCERTO for Piano No. 1 in D-flat, Op. 10, to his teacher Nikolai Tcherepnin. Composing it in the years 1911 and 1912, he gave the premiere in Moscow on May...

Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) collection of five songs titled Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (Five Poems for a Female Voice), WWV 91, is more commonly known as Wesendonck Lieder after the source o...

Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) collection of five songs titled Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (Five Poems for a Female Voice), WWV 91, is more commonly known as Wesendonck Lieder after the source o...

Der Freischuetz (The Marksman), Op. 77, J.277 has come to be considered the first German Romantic opera. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) composed Der Freischuetz between 1817 and 1821, based on Johan...

The SAINT JOHN PASSION, BWV 245, is the oldest of the surviving J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Passions, written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzig. It was premiered on April 7, 1724,...

The CANTATA No. 4: CHRIST LAG IN TODES BANDEN, BWV 4, is one of the earliest church cantatas by J.S. Bach (1685-1750). Bach wrote it for an application to a job opportunity at a Lutheran church in Mul...

On the score of his cantata JAUCHZET GOTT IN ALLEN LANDEN (EXULT IN GOD IN EVERY LAND), BWV 51, J.S. Bach (1685-1750) wrote "For the 15th Sunday after Trinity and at any time", indicating that he had...

After the defeat of Napoleon during his 1813 campaign, German patriotism surged in popularity. This trend exhibited a heavy influence on the poetry and music of the time. In 1814, Friedrich Treitschke...

The song cycle LES NUITS D'ETE (SUMMER NIGHTS) is a setting of six poems by composer Hector Berlioz' (1803-1869) neighbor and friend, Théophile Gautier. The text deals in themes of love in all its fac...

Les Sept Paroles du Christ ("The Seven Last Words of Christ"), is one of Théodore Dubois's (1837-1924) two oratorios, and remains the composer's most frequently performed choral work. First performed...

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) began composition of his setting of the Stabat Mater text in 1876 and finally finishing the orchestral version in late 1877, though it was not published until 1881 as Op. 58...

When the American, music-loving philanthropist, Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, convinced the world-renowned Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) to be the new director of her National Conservatory of Mu...

This edition of George Frideric Handel's most famous work was edited by Ebenezer Prout, and includes additional accompaniments largely re-written by him. The preface provided by Prout offers an extens...