Orchestral & Symphonic

In 1933, Schoenberg transcribed for cello a harpsichord concerto by the baroque composer Matthias Monn. He dedicated his arrangement to Pablo Casals, whom he had met in Vienna, but Casals considered it too demanding.1. (Premonitions) - London Symphony...

In 1928 Maurice Ravel described the violin and the piano as "essentially incompatible". Yet by then he had already composed for those instruments two sonatas (one of which was published posthumously), Tzigane, and the Berceuse sur le nom de [Gabriel]...

In 1920 Harold Lloyd Created No Less Than Five Short, Two-Reelers, Including 'An Eastern Westerner' and 'High and Dizzy'. The Two Films Could Not Be More Contrasting; Even Their Orchestrations Are Different. Carl Davis's Score to An Eastern Westerner Was...

In 1914, Stravinsky, more than ever, was taken up by his interest in pagan Russia and it's folk rituals. He worked on the composition of Les Noces, intended for the Ballets Russes, until 1923. These "choreographed scenes with music and voices" represent,...

In 18th-century Italian opera the solo aria - a form of musical expression held in high favor by Humanist culture (owing to it's close link with the word); was the main, indeed almost the exclusive, vehicle for expressing the characters' feelings and...

In 1819 the publisher and composer Anton Diabelli invited 50 Austrian composers to write one variation a short waltz he had composed. He specified that it take up just one sheet (which he supplied) and this already contained his waltz. Composers such as...

In 1799, Haydn undertook the composition of a six quartet series dedicated to the Prince Lobkowitz. The two quartets Op.77 Nos.1 and 2 were the first outcome of this project. Kept busy by the composition of his Seasons and the Harmoniemesse, Haydn...

In 1781, the Zong - a British slave ship - left Ghana with twice the number it was designed to carry, bound for Jamaica. The ship's owners claimed that drinking water was running low, and ordered the crew to throw more than 130 living enslaved people...

In 1778, Mozart spent half a year in Paris accompanied by his mother, Anna Maria. Tragedy struck in the middle of the summer, when she died of fever. Both works on this album were composed during the first weeks after their arrival in the city. In a...

In 1765, Johann Christian Bach, who had settled in London, established with his friend Karl Friedrich Abel the prestigious "Bach Abel Concerts". Surrounded by some of the most talented artists of their generation, Margaux Blanchard and Sylvain Sartre...

In 1731, Johann Sebastian Bach was commissioned to write a cantata to mark the inauguration of the new town council in Leipzig. The resulting piece, Wir danken dir, Gott begins with a Sinfonia, based on a transcription for organ and orchestra of the...

In 1727, having just become a naturalised British subject, Handel was commissioned to write a set of anthems for the coronation of George II. Since he could hardly have expected ever to see a more majestic occasion, the composer took full advantage of it...