Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to Arnold Bax.Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies, it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or...

REPRINT SERIES Les Animaux modèles, FP 111, is a ballet dating from 1940 to 1942 with music by Francis Poulenc. It was the third and final ballet that he composed and was staged at the Paris Opéra in 1942, with choreography by Serge Lifar,...

REPRINT SERIES Prokofiev wrote a ballet Trapèze on a theme of circus for the touring company Boris Romanov. Trapèze was written for quintet to suit the small instrumental section of the company. In 1929, he adapted movements from the...

REPRINT SERIES Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 5, in 1909 and dedicated it to Nikolai Tcherepnin, his conducting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Prokofiev subsequently modified it twice, once in 1914 and finally in...

REPRINT SERIES Op. 104 Symphony no. 6 in D minor1. Allegro molto moderato, 2. Allegretto moderato, 3. Poco vivace, 4. Allegro molto. Completed in 1923; first performance in Helsinki on 19th February 1923 (Helsinki City Orchestra under Jean Sibelius).The...

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 4 is actually two works, both using material created for The Prodigal Son ballet. The first, Op. 47, was completed in 1930 and premiered that November; it lasts about 22 minutes. The second, Op. 112, is too different to be termed...

REPRINT SERIES The Prodigal Son, or Le Fils prodigue (L'enfant prodigue), Op. 46 (Russian: Блудный сын) is a ballet created for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes by George Balanchine to music by Sergei Prokofiev (1928–29). The libretto, based on the...

REPRINT SERIES Chôros No. 6 is an orchestral work written between 1925 and 1942 by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is part of a series of fourteen numbered compositions collectively titled Chôros, ranging from solos for guitar...

Le Baiser de la fée (The Fairy’s Kiss) is a one-act ballet composed in 1928 by the Russian pianist, composer, and conductor Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, the ballet underwent several prominent revisions and adaptations. One of the...

REPRINT SERIES The Symphonies of Wind Instruments (French title: Symphonies d'instruments à vent) is a concert work written by Igor Stravinsky in 1920, for an ensemble of woodwind and brass instruments. The piece is in one movement, lasting about...

REPRINT SERIES Agon is a 22-minute ballet for twelve dancers with music by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed by George Balanchine. The composition's long gestation period covers an interesting juncture in Stravinsky's composing career, in which he...

REPRINT SERIES Orpheus is a thirty-minute neoclassical ballet in three tableaux composed by Igor Stravinsky in collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine. The score is among Stravinsky's most melodious. The original cast consisted of 30...

The music derives from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel, a touching love story set against the backdrop of demonic possession.This opera had been accepted for performance in the 1927–28 season at the Berlin State Opera by Bruno Walter, but this...

REPRINT SERIES The Gloria by Francis Poulenc, FP 177, scored for soprano solo, large orchestra, and chorus, is a setting of the Gloria text from the mass ordinary. One of Poulenc's most celebrated works, it was commissioned by the Koussevitsky...

REPRINT SERIES The Gong on the Hook and Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street, is a short composition by American composer Charles Ives. This revised orchestrated version premiered in 1934 and is scored for a chamber orchestra, consisting of a flute,...

REPRINT SERIES This is the 1947 Revised Version, as scored by the composer. Petrushka is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company;...

REPRINT SERIES Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40, in Paris in 1924-25, during what he called "nine months of frenzied toil". He characterized this symphony as a work of "iron and steel". Prokofiev modeled the symphony's structure on...

REPRINT SERIES  As admirers of Kodály are aware, the composer was well known for his work in ethnomusicology. The Peacock Variations falls into this vast realm of the composer's output, using a melody that has Hungarian and possibly Mari...