Given Ottorino Respighi’s outstanding mastery in handling the modern orchestra and his superb gifts for impressionist tone-painting (the very qualities cited by the many detractors and adversaries of this great composer), it is astonishing how...

Described by Vaughan Williams as a "symphonic impression", it received its premiere under the conductor Thomas Beecham on 22 February 1909. The piece is meant to evoke feelings of traversing East Anglia's often bleak Fen landscape, illustrated by the...

The Saudades do Brasil (1920), Op. 67b, are a suite of twelve dances for Orchestra by Darius Milhaud, but originally made for Piano Op.67. Composed after Milhaud's visit to Brazil in 1917-1918, each dance is based on a duple tango or samba rhythm and...

La voix humaine (English: The Human Voice) is a forty-minute, one-act opera for soprano and orchestra composed by Francis Poulenc in 1958. The work is based on the play of the same name by Jean Cocteau, who, along with French soprano Denise Duval, worked...

In La Pentola Magica (The Magic Pot) Respighi pays tribute to a group of less well known Russian composers, including Grechaninov (Prelude), Arensky (Entry of the Tsar with the Bridgegrooms), Pachulski (Scene of Tsarevich), Anton Rubinstein (Dance of the...

Hugo Alfvén regarded his Symphony No 1 (1896) as the first ‘written in the Swedish language’. It gets a little tied up in the closing pages of its otherwise clearly argued opening Allegro; the Andante is at its best when it breaks...

Vocal Roles: Orphée, un rebouteux – Tenor Eurydice, une bohémienne – Soprano Chœurs des Métiers : Le Charron, Le Maréchal, Le Vannier Chœurs des Animaux : L’Ours, Le Loup, Le Renard, Le Sanglier...

Darius Milhaud: Concerto for Flute, Violin and Orchestra Op.197, also known as Concerto pour flûte, violon & orchestre.

Little (Chamber) Symphony No. 3, Op. 71 by Darius Milhaud is a work for chamber orchestra that was composed in 1921. The work is also known by the title Sérénade. This work is not to be confused with Milhaud's Symphony No. 3, which is known...

Entr'acte is a silent French Dada short film directed by René Clair. It premiered on 4 December 1924 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as a prologue and entr'acte for the Ballets Suédois production of...

A dazzling percussion concerto that requires advanced technique and musicality, from timpani to xylophone to small percussion instruments. This work is often taken up as a challenge for competitions.

Although Milhaud eventually lumped them together as if they constituted a single work, the four concertos that make up The Seasons are not really related to each other; they are individual pieces and should be listened to that way. The Concertino de...

Inspired by the personality, prodigious technique and musicality of the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto in G minor is a work of imposing scale and demanding virtuosity, but also with a rare beauty and warmth of...

André Jolivet wrote his first Flute Concerto in 1949. It is scored for solo flute and strings and was premièred on 24 January 1950 by soloist Jean-Pierre Rampal. This concerto now part of the standard flute repertoire and several prominent...

For St. Cecilia (subtitled “Ceremonial Ode”) was commissioned by the St. Cecilia’s Day Festival Committee and premiered in the Royal Albert Hall on 22 November 1947, St. Cecilia’s Day (Cecilian works by Purcell and Handel were...