Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne, Op. 60, was composed in August–September 1958 for tenor voice, seven obbligato instruments, and string orchestra. It lasts about 25 minutes, and its first performance was given on 16 October 1958 at Leeds Town...

Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, was composed in 1943 for tenor, solo horn, and string orchestra and it is one of his most distinctive early wartime works. The work was written for Peter Pears and Dennis Brain, and...

Frank Martin’s Petite symphonie concertante, was composed in 1944–45, on a commission from Paul Sacher, and became one of Martin’s best-known works. The original version is scored for harp, harpsichord, piano, and two string orchestras,...

REPRINT SERIES Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden, Op. 38, is a melodrama based on Alfred Tennyson’s poem, using Adolf Strodtmann’s German translation. In Strauss’s original form, it is written for narrator and piano and was...

Benjamin Britten’s Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29, was composed in 1943 for 18-part string orchestra, and it was written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Boyd Neel Orchestra. It lasts about nine minutes and is a compact two-part work built...

Sibelius’s Suite for Violin and String Orchestra, JS 185, is a three-movement work composed in 1929 and often published as Op. 117. Its movements are Country Scenery (Allegretto), Serenade: Evening in Spring (Andantino), and In the Summer (Vivace)...

REPRINT SERIES Vaughan Williams’s All hail the power is a 1938 arrangement of the eighteenth-century English hymn tune Miles Lane, traditionally associated with Edward Perronet’s text and the music of William Shrubsole. It is written for...

REPRINT SERIES  Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 2 (B.84), composed in 1952 and published by G. Schirmer in 1953, is scored for a concertino string quartet (two violins, viola, cello) against a five-part string ripieno (string orchestra)...

REPRINT SERIES Irving G. Fine’s Diversions for orchestra (1959–60) is an orchestration of four short piano pieces that Fine scored for full orchestra (with optional saxophones). The set comprises Little Toccata, Flamingo Polka, Koko’s...

Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, Op. 4, was written in 1933–34 and is wholly derived from themes he composed as a child; it is scored for string orchestra (also playable as a string quartet) and typically lasts about 16–18 minutes in...

REPRINT SERIES  Manuel de Falla’s “Interlude and Dance”  is the principal purely orchestral episode extracted from the second act of La vida breve. It is presented as a single orchestral scena that moves from a secco,...

REPRINT SERIES  Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Dance No. 1 (Danza Española No. 1) from the opera La vida breve was arranged for full orchestra by Stéphane Chapelier in 1928. In Chapelier’s orchestration the dance functions as a...

REPRINT SERIES  Jacob Gade’s Bryllup på Himmelpind (1940) is a rustic orchestral suite evoking childhood memories of village weddings near his birthplace; the work was originally in six movements but was revised and published in a...

Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance) is the best-known movement from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El amor brujo, originally composed as a gitanería (gypsy piece) around 1915 and later presented in orchestral versions associated with the...

REPRINT SERIES  Jacob Gade’s Suite d’Amour is a short orchestral suite in three connected movements—“The First Meeting,” “In Love,” and “Red Roses”—that together run about eleven minutes...

REPRINT SERIES  George Enescu’s Two Intermèdes for string orchestra, Op. 12, were written in 1902–03 as short orchestral miniatures for strings and are usually performed together as a single item. The two pieces contrast in...

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Flourish for Glorious John (1957) was written as a short ceremonial opener for Sir John Barbirolli to inaugurate the Hallé Orchestra’s centenary season; it is a compact fanfare-like orchestral piece lasting...

REPRINT SERIES  Arthur Honegger’s Prélude, Fugue et Postlude (H.71a) is an orchestral suite in three linked sections—Prélude, Fugue and Postlude—arranged in 1948 from material associated with his earlier Amphion...