Jean Sibelius composed the incidental music for Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Op. 109, between 1925 and 1926, marking one of his final major works before his retreat from public composition. Commissioned for a production at Copenhagen's Royal Theatre, the...

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...