Scores for Orchestra

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...

EIN' FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") is among the best known hymns written by reformer Martin Luther, and has been used by many composers, including by J.S. Bach, in various...

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) composed the three-act oratorio Hercules, HWV 60 during a four-week period in 1744. Telling the story of the ancient Greek hero Hercules' death through the jealousy...

During the semi-retirement from his long service as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was tasked with composing a Coronation Mass for the wife of his patron, Prince...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed the sacred choral work Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit), K. 47 in 1768, at the age of 12. As Mozart added the subtitle "Offertorium," it is clear t...

The sublime Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618 was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in June of 1791 for his friend Anton Stoll, and it premiered on June 23 of that year at St. Stephen's church in...

Regina Caeli in C Major, K. 276 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was written ca. 1779 during the composer's time at the Salzburg Cathedral. The third of three settings of the Marian antiphon Reg...

The final work composed by Mozart for the Salzburg Cathedral, the original title of this sacred choral composition, VESPERAE SOLENNES DE CONFESSORE (Solemn Vespers for a Confessor) did not include "de...

This arrangement for orchestra for Three Songs (Drei Lieder) by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) has been completed by Willy Weide (1880-1910). Songs included: 1. Liebestreu (True Love), Op. 3, No. 1; 2. W...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) began composition of his Great Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a in 1782 as a promise to himself to write a major work for his native Salzburg. This period was shortly a...

This wonderful, short choral masterpiece has a confusing heritage.  Spuriously attributed in 1910 to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736), the six-movement MAGNIFICAT was actually composed by...

This wonderful, short choral masterpiece has a confusing heritage. Spuriously attributed in 1910 to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736), the six-movement MAGNIFICAT was actually composed by France...

While it scandalized Parisian audiences at its premiere by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3rd, 1875, Georges Bizet's (1838-1875) Carmen became, a mere decade later, one of the most popular and fr...

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) composed his popular two-act opera buffa L'elisir d'amore hastily over six weeks in 1832 for a premiere that took place on May 12 of that year at the Teatro della Canobbi...

Don Pasquale, regarded as one of the crowning gems of comic opera, had its first performance on January 3, 1843 by the Theatre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris. Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) co...

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) wrote the four-act verismo opera Andrea Chénier in 1896, and it remains his best-known work. It premiered on March 28, 1896, at La Scala in Milan. Loosely based on the lif...

WERTHER, an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet (1842-1912), found its inspiration in a novel by Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which in turn based its story on the actual suicide of a young m...

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote music for William Shakespeare's play A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM on two separate occasions. He first wrote the concert overture in E Major, Op. 21 in 1826 at the age...

A dream inspired Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) to compose The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Kahn, based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The composer originally wrote it for piano in 1912. Fou...

LA BOHÈME, one of the most beloved and commercially-successful operas, is based on the 1851 novel Scenes of Bohemian Life by Henri Murger. With a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, Giacomo...

The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) was written by Giocchino Rossini (1792-1868) in 1816. The two-act comic opera is considered one of the greatest opera buffas ever written, and it remain...

Alexander Borodin's (1833-1887) Symphony No. 3 in A minor was written between 1886 and 1887. However, it remained unfinished at the time of his death, with only a sketch of the first movement and a co...

Probably composed in the early months of 1877, the VALSE SCHERZO, OP. 34, occupies an important position in the oeuvre of Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) as it prepared him to begin work on the...

Because he had formerly won the Prix de Rome prize in composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) had the opportunity to write his opera LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) on commission. With a libr...

Because he had formerly won the Prix de Rome prize in composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) had the opportunity to write his opera Les pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) on commission. With a libr...