Scores for Orchestra

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) began work on his SYMPHONY No. 4, Op. 36 in 1877 and finished it the following year. Begun soon after Tchaikovsky established his relationship with long-time patr...

Written three years after his Manfred Symphony, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's (1840-1893) Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 was composed in 1888. Although it has been surpassed in popularity a bit over t...

Gabriel Fauré, then director of the Conservatoire de Paris, named Claude Debussy (1862-1918) to the Conservatoire's board of directors in 1909, and promptly commissioned two works from Debussy for the...

Madama Butterfly, one of the most popular operas of Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), is the story of the conflicting expectations of Lieutenant Pinkerton, an American naval officer, and Madame Butterfly (...

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's (1844-1908) four-act opera-ballet Mlada was originally conceived as a collaborative project with music provided by five composers: César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Rimsk...

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...

Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) is an 1859 three act opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) with a libretto by Antonio Somma. Initially based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five...

These Three Marches, K. 408 (K. 383e [No. 1], K. 385a [No. 2], K. 383f [No. 3]) were composed for orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in 1782. Instrumentation: 2.2.0.2: 2.2.0.0: Timp: Str...

French composer Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) originally composed the ballet La tragédie de Salomé in 1907 for a commission from Jacques Rouché for American dancer Loie Fuller and the Théâtre des Arts,...

Danish composer, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), was commissioned by the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, to write incidental music to a new production of Adam Oehlenschläger's "dramatic fairy tale" Aladdin, or...

Danish composer, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), was commissioned by the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, to write incidental music to a new production of Adam Oehlenschläger's "dramatic fairy tale" Aladdin, or...

Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937) Ma mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”) draws its inspiration from the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Madame d’Aulnoy, and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Ravel composed the fi...

Maurice Ravel's (1875-1937) Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) draws its inspiration from the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Madame d'Aulnoy, and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Ravel composed the firs...

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) wrote the waltz La plus que lente for solo piano in 1910, a work that may or may not have been inspired by a small sculpture on his mantelpiece. The title is meant to wryly...

While on his Italian honeymoon in 1891, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) came across Titian's painting The Miracle of a Jealous Husband in Padua. The result was his first choral work, HYMNUS AMORIS, OP. 12, s...

VALSES NOBLES ET SENTIMENTALES is one of several works by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) which reflect his fascination with the infectious simplicity of the waltz. Using Franz Schubert's collections of wal...

A five-movement suite originally written by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) for solo piano, MIROIRS ("Mirrors") was written between 1904 and 1905, with each movement dedicated to a fellow member of the Fren...

The Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963) wrote many works labelled as "Afro-Cuban," and sorting them all can be difficult. While some are lost and others are scattered about, the 193...

Two series of SLAVONIC DANCES, each of them consisting of eight numbers and separated by eight years, were composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904). The idea was suggested to the composer by the publish...

Originally written by Debussy for piano four hands, PETITE SUITE has been transcribed many times, with the orchestral arrangement by Henri Büsser being the most well-known. Perhaps due to a request fr...

Uniquely, the BAUERN-POLKA (POLKA FRANÇAISE), Op. 276 by Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) included a singing part for chorus, which was quickly picked up by its first audience. The premiere took place at...

Johann Strauss II composed BEI UNS Z'HAUS WALZER, Op. 361 (WITH US AT HOME or THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME), in 1873 to celebrate the Vienna World's Fair (Wiener Weltausstellung), an event that symboli...

This orchestration is by famous Strauss conductor Max Schönherr.

DEMOLIERER, POLKA FRANCAISE (DEMOLIERER-POLKA), Op. 269 is a polka by Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), composed in 1862 to mark the demolition of Vienna's medieval city walls following a decree by Franz...

ENTWEDER ODER, POLKA SCHNELL, Op. 403 is a polka by Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), using themes from his 1881 operetta DER LUSTIGE KRIEG (THE FUNNY WAR). One of several short pieces based on this work...