Scores for Orchestra

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) wrote Four Lieder (Four Songs), Op. 27 for voice and piano originally in 1894, and they are among his greatest songs, when taken as a set. While the text came from a trio o...

Based on the 1832 play LE ROI S'AMUSE by Victor Hugo, Guiseppe Verdi's (1812-1901) RIGOLETTO was the composer's sixteenth entry into the genre and is widely considered one of the first operatic master...

In October 1880, as he was completing his sixth symphony, Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) wrote to his publisher Fritz Simrock that he wanted to complete a set of duets for piano in the next month. On Janu...

Symphony No. 16 in C Major, K. 128 was composed when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was 16 years old. It was the first of three written in May 1772 while he stayed in Salzburg. The first movement...

Written between 1879 and 1881, Anton Bruckner's (1824-1896) Symphony No. 6 was considered his "boldest symphony" by the composer, though many critics of the time would have certainly disagreed. It is...

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) completed his first published work for orchestra, RAPSODIE ESPAGNOLE, between 1907 and 1908, dedicating the work to the Belgian violinist Charles de Bériot. The Orchestre des...

Originally written for piano four hands in 1879, Hungarian Dances (WoO 1), a set of 21 lively dance tunes mostly based on Hungarian themes, are among Johannes Brahms' (1833-1897) most popular works to...

LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN (THE TALES OF HOFFMANN) was written betweem 1876 and 1880 and is the final work composed by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), who died four months before the premiere, a fear that O...

The creation of the opera Il Trovatore by Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was complicated by a variety of circumstances. The original play by Garcia Gutierrez needed simplifying, and the traditional notion...

Finished in 1848 and premiered in 1950 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...

Originally written in 1899 by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) for solo piano, and later orchestrated by the composer, PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DÉFUNTE (PAVANE FOR A DEAD PRINCESS) remains one of the enduring...

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote his SYMPHONY No. 1 in D major, Hob. I:1, at the beginning of his role as music director for Count Karl Joseph Franz Morzin. Composed in 1757, it opens with a slow...

Likely written by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) in 1763, Symphony No. 16 in B-flat (Hob. I:16) was among the first symphonies written when Haydn was employed by the Esterházy family. In three movements, th...

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) wrote the 3-act opera MAZEPPA between 1881-1883. With a libretto by Victor Burenin, based on Pushkin's poem Poltava, the opera takes the late 17th century histori...

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) wrote the short orchestral piece titled Sevillaña (Scène Espagnole), Op. 7 in 1884 when the composer was twenty-six. 1884 was a time of personal difficulty for Elgar as his en...

AIDA, with music by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, is a staple of the operatic repertoire. The story, set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, tells of tragic love challenge...

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) wrote Lyric Pieces as a collection of 66 short works for piano. Published in ten volumes, Book VIII, Op. 65, contains six pieces, which includes "Bryllupsdag på Troldhaugen" (...

Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) wrote L'amico Fritz in 1891 only one year after his masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana began the Versimo movement. A charming light opera in three acts, L'am...

NABUCCO, a retelling of the biblical story of Jewish exile under the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, was Giuseppe Verdi's (1813-1901) first major operatic success, and was written reluctantly, followi...

While Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) modestly refers to Hear My Prayer (Hör' mein Bitten) in G Major, WoO 15, as "a trifle," it is among his most popular works for chorus. On the autograph score, he in...

While Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) modestly refers to Hear My Prayer (Hör' mein Bitten) in G Major, WoO 15, as "a trifle," it is among his most popular works for chorus. On the autograph score, he in...

Premiering on May 22, 1813, at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was a success, with subsequent performances in Vi...

Edward Elgar's (1857-1934) Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, Op. 55 was completed in 1908, although it was a work about a decade in the making. Originally proposed as early as 1898 as a programmatic work base...

Originally written for piano four hands in 1879, Hungarian Dances (WoO 1), a set of 21 lively dance tunes mostly based on Hungarian themes, are among Johannes Brahms' (1833-1897) most popular works to...

The first performance of I Vespri Siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers), a five-act opera by Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901), took place at the Paris Opera on June 13, 1855, under the direction of Narcisse Gira...