Scores for Orchestra

At the precocious age of fourteen, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) scribbled out his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E major. He wrote a second, this time longer, double piano concerto the foll...

SILETE VENTI, HWV 242 (BE SILENT, WINDS) is a Latin motet by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) The uncertain date of its composition has provoked much debate, although careful study of the work sugge...

The 1962 song TI GUARDERÓ NEL CUORE, known internationally by the title MORE, was written by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero for the Italian documentary film MONDO CANE. Winning the Grammy Award for Be...

Jokey-Polka, Op. 278, by Josef Strauss (1827-1870) was written originally for piano in 1870. This arrangement for orchestra of the fast polka (polka schnell) was completed by Austrian composer, arrang...

César Franck (1822-1890) wrote his Mass in A Major, Op. 12 in the summer of 1860. It was later revised in 1872, with the then newly composed Panis angelicus replacing the original movement O salutaris...

Written in 1795, Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770 — 1827) O welch ein Leben! Ein ganzes Meer for tenor and ensemble is a setting of the libretto from Austrian composer Ignaz Umlauf's 1778 singspiel...

Written in 1795, Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) Soll ein Schuh nicht drücken! for soprano and ensemble is a setting of the libretto from Austrian composer Ignaz Umlauf's 1778 singspeil Die schöne...

Written sometime between 1795-1800, Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) Primo amore piacer del ciel for soprano and ensemble is a setting of a work that may have been penned by Italian poet and librett...

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) began to work on his POÈME DE L'AMOUR ET DE LA MER (POEM OF LOVE AND THE SEA), OP. 19, in 1882. The composer chose two poems written by his friend Maurice Bouchor as source...

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...

Sergei Rachmaninoff's (1873-1943) "Vocalise" was originally written in 1912 (revised in 1915) as the final movement in his 14 ROMANCES, Op. 34, for high voice with piano accompaniment. The work has be...

The music for The Magic Toy Shop, a one act ballet about a love story between two can-can dancer dolls in a toy shop, is based on piano pieces that were a part of Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse. Respi...

This standardized version of the patriotic melody has been harmonized and orchestrated by famed conductor and composer Walter Damrosch. Instrumentation: 2+Picc.2.2.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(3-4): Str (9-8...

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) wrote A London Symphony (also called Symphony No. 2, though never by the composer) between 1912 and 1913 at the prompting of his friend and fellow composer George Bu...

When Max Reinhardt was engaged to direct a German language production of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at the Vienna Volksbühne in 1918, he asked Korngold to compose the incidental music. The p...

ODELETTE for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 162, composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) in the last year of his life, refers to the secular variety of the ode, an ancient Greek poetic form praising a p...

Sergei Rachmaninoff's (1873-1943) Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40, was completed in 1926. The work exists in three versions. Following its unsuccessful premiere, the composer made cuts and oth...

Between 1917 and 1931, Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) transcribed three orchestral suites from original pieces written for lute between the 16th and 18th centuries. The first suite, written in 1917, in...

George Frideric Händel (1685-1759) was contracted to write Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 in 1749 by George II of Great Britain to be performed in London's Green Park on April 27 of that year...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed the Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, knows as the "Linz Symphony," within a few days in October/early November 1783 in the palace of Count Johann Joseph...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) completed his Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183/173dB in October of 1773, when the young composer was only 17 years old. One of two symphonies Mozart wrote in G mi...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756-1791) Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 'Jupiter' was completed on August 10th, 1788. The last and longest of his symphonies, it is uncertain if the work was ever perf...

As an inexhaustible proponent of Beethoven's life and work, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) produced a number of arrangements and transcriptions in homage to the great composer. His FANTASIE ÜBER MOTIVEN AUS...

Maurice Ravel's (1875-1937) La Valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre (a choreographic poem for orchestra), has a somewhat storied history that has resulted in numerous interpretations of the work...

First written in 1868 by a young Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), this orchestral suite was originally titled his SYMPHONY No. 2 by the composer, though it was always a programmatic telling of the...