Bartók composed the piece in 1945 during the final months of his life, as a surprise birthday present for his second wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók. It consists of three movements.Piano Concerto No. 3 consists of three movements:1...

While at first viewed as the eccentric idea of an aging composer, the Tuba Concerto, the first concerto written for the instrument, soon became one of Vaughan Williams' most popular works, and an essential part of the tuba repertoire for professionals...

Aubade, a choreographic concerto for piano and 18 instruments, is a work of Francis Poulenc premiered in 1929. It was conceived as a ballet, but is more often played as a chamber piano concerto. An aubade is a morning courting song, vs. a serenade in...

Uirapuru is an orchestral piece with an elaborate program about the mythical Uirapuru bird in the Amazon jungle.  It's dedicated to ballet choreographer Serge Lifar. It is characteristic of the composer in blending Brazilian national inspiration...

REPRINT SERIES The contrapuntal textures used by Hindemith throughout the symphony highlight many instruments individually. This writing takes advantage of the vast color palette that this combination of instruments offers. The Symphony is scored...

Bartók’s less hair-raising, but longer, companion to the 1926 concerto. He said he wanted a work “less bristling with difficulties for the orchestra and whose thematic material would be more pleasing”. He characterized this...

REPRINT SERIES This Suite No.2 was composed in 1923. It was based on pieces for lute, archlute, and viol by Fabritio Caroso, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and an anonymous composer. It also includes an aria attributed to Marin Mersenne...

The Clarinet Concerto, Finzi’s most widely performed and recorded orchestral work, shows his particular empathy for this solo instrument. Here the clarinet’s equal facility for sustained legato melody and rapid virtuosic figuration is...

Poulenc's Organ Concerto has become one of the most frequently performed pieces of the genre not written in the Baroque period. The piece uses such comparatively small forces, relative to Poulenc's other concertos (the Concert champêtre used a...

Considered one of the most recognized concerti for the Oboe, Vaughan Williams began working on his Oboe Concerto immediately upon completion of his Symphony No. 5 in D major. This pastoral piece is divided into three movements:1. Rondo Pastorale...

Korngold - Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in C Major, Op.37 This romantic and dramatic score is actually a single-movement, thirteen-minute piece for cello and orchestra written to be played in a film called Deception, about a love triangle...

REPRINT SERIES   The suite is in four movements, and lasts around 20 minutes. It is based on Prokofiev's ballet "Ala e Lolli" (Ala and Lolly).1. Invocation to Veles and Ala - barbaric and colorful music describing the Scythians' invocation of the...

REPRINT SERIES  Kurt Weill: Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra Op.12 The scoring, for an orchestra of winds with prominent percussion, suggests the brilliant, biting sonorities of Weill’s theater music. It was dedicated to the violinist...

REPRINT SERIES Considered one of the first modern violin concertos, it rejects traditional tonality and romantic aesthetics. The work is dedicated to the violinist Pavel Kochański. This work is the first modern violin concerto – the first to...

This is the 3rd version revised and republished by Rachmaninoff himself in 1941. It is the most performed version of this work. Following its unsuccessful premiere (1st version), the composer made cuts and other amendments before publishing it in 1928...

REPRINT SERIES The orchestral Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin, TrV 245 consists of eight movements, each one based on a selection of pieces from Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin written for the solo harpsichord over the...

The suite begins where the opera starts, famously, with the bold, erotic horn music that is "Der Rosenkavalier’s" calling card and always a welcome sound to opera lovers. The suite begins with the opera's orchestral prelude, depicting the night of...

In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of the Fourth Symphony, and a return to the more romantic style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony. It is also noteworthy as perhaps the quietest symphony Vaughan Williams ever wrote, with...