Scores for Orchestra

Manon Lescaut, the third opera and first notable success of Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), took shape between 1889 and 1892. Five different writers worked on its libretto. The Teatro Regio in Turin saw...

Cellist and composer David Popper published the CELLO CONCERTO No. 5 in C major, Hob. VIIb:5, in 1899 as a completion of stetches supposedly made by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Due to more recent...

Based on Norse heroic legends, the sprawling operatic drama DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN took Richard Wagner (1813-1883) over twenty-five years to complete. Through a vast web of leitmotifs, melodic fragme...

The ballet THE SEASONS (LES SAISONS), Op. 67 was composed by Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) for famous choreographer Marius Petipa in 1899. Originally intended to be written by Glazunov's friend Ricca...

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) composed SONGS TO POEMS BY RUECKERT (SONGS AFTER RÜCKERT; RÜCKERT-LIEDER) between 1901 and 1902. They were not conceived of as a cycle, with each song only connected by the p...

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) began composing the songs of DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN (THE BOY'S MAGIC HORN) in 1892, finishing in 1901. Comprised of 15 songs total by the end, each sets folktale texts, as pub...

Spring Song, Op. 16 (Vårsång) was written in 1894 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) and was initially titled Improvisation for Orchestra. Sibelius revised the single-movement tone poem a year later and ret...

While librettist W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) had worked previously in 1871-72 to write Thespis, a work for the Christmas season, the 1875 one-act comic opera Tria...

HOLOUBEK (THE WILD DOVE), Op. 110/B. 198, is an orchestra poem composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) in 1896. Revised in January of the next year, it tells the story of a woman who poisons her husban...

In 1896, soon after his return from America to his Bohemian homeland, Antonín Dvorák wrote a set of four orchestral pieces based on Karel Jaromír Erben's collection of poetry A BOUQUET OF FOLK LEGENDS...

This most beautiful orchestration by Alfred Reed is now available with a full score and parts. The haunting, sonorous, transcendent charm of this beloved melody makes it an appropriate addition to any...

Gianni Schicchi is a one-act comic opera by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). The final and most popular opera in a trio known as Il trittico (The Triptych), each one dealing with the concealment of a deat...

The GOLD AND SILVER WALTZES, Op. 79, was written by Franz Lehár (1870-1948) at the request of Princess Metternich to compose "something especially fine" for her "Gold und Silber" gala ball, commission...

In 1787, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) succeeded Christoph Gluck as the chamber composer for Joseph II. One of his principal tasks was to write music for the dances and balls that took place in...

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) wrote his four movement AFRICAN SUITE for piano in 1898, two years after the success of his BALLADE in A minor, as a result of meeting African-American poet Paul La...

The Suite Algérienne, Op. 60, sparked by a trip that Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) took to Algeria in 1873, debuted in Paris in December 1880 with Edouard Colonne conducting. For the rest of his lif...

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) wrote the secular 'Hunting Cantata' (Jagdkantate) in 1713 for the occasion of Duke Christian von Sachsen-Weisenfels birthday. Sachsen-Weisenfels, a passionate hunter. The full ti...

In March of 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed the concert aria PER QUESTA BELLA MANO, K. 612, shortly before beginning work on THE MAGIC FLUTE. It is known for its double bass part, n...

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) wrote his CONCERTO FOR PIANO No. 3 in B minor, OP. 89 in 1819. Similar to his second piano concerto, it is composed in a proto-Romantic style that anticipated later c...

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) loved Russian folk stories, a fact easily validated by his six fairy-tale operas. He based his 1880 overture SKAZKA (FAIRY TALE), Op. 29, on the prologue to Alexand...

Chanson de Matin (Morning Song), Op. 15, No. 2 was originally written for violin and piano and most likely completed no later than 1890. The work has a companion piece called Chanson de Nuit (Night So...

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) composed the incidental music for the play Belsazars gästabud (Belshazzar's Feast), by Hjalmar Fredrik Eugen Procopé, in 1906. In eight movements for orchestra and singers, t...

The Wand of Youth suites are based on materials Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) wrote as a boy for use in a play by the younger members of his family. The composer also used materials he composed while e...

The Wand of Youth suites are based on materials Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) wrote as a boy for use in a play by the younger members of his family. The composer also used materials he composed while e...

Symphony No. 7 was composed by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) between 1904 and 1906. Often informally called "Song of the Night" due to the 2nd and 4th movements both being titled Nachtmusik (Night music),...