Johann Strauss wrote the 'Russische Marsch-Fantasie' (Russian March Fantasy) for a tour to Russia in 1872. Because the tour was cancelled, the successful first performance of the march was held in Vie...
The idea of a 'Hamlet overture' had first occurred to Tschaikowsky in 1876. However, by 1888 he had altered these plans when he was asked to write incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's pl...
As a contribution to the opera 'Armer Columbus' by German composer Erwin Dressel, Shostakovich composed two of his quirkiest and oddest early orchestral pieces. An energetic 'Entr'acte' in c minor (Al...
'Die Afrikanerin', is a Viennese quadrille which Johann Strauss based on the themes from Meyerbeer's opera 'L'Africaine'. It was first heard in the Vienna Volksgarten on 7 July 1865 during a musical n...
Although Arturo Marquez was already an accomplished composer in Mexico, his music started to reach the international stage with the introduction of his series of Danzones in the early 1990s. This vene...
The Polka 'Fata Morgana', Opus 330 was written by Johann Strauss for the grand ball of the Association of Artists in Vienna, which was held in Dianabad-Saal on 1 February 1869. All three Strauss broth...
Johann Strauss komponierte seinen 'Spanischer Marsch' 1888 für die Königin María Cristina von Spanien in bester spanischer Musiktradition.
In 1868 Johann Strauss jr. composed the polka 'Freikugeln' (Free-Shooter), opus 326 which commemorated the '3rd German Federal Shooting Contest', which attracted no less than ten thousand entrants fro...
Johann Strauss composed the 'Kuss-Walzer' (Kiss Waltz) in 1881. This waltz was dedicated to his second wife, Angelika Dittrich and comprises melodies from Strauss' popular operetta 'Der lustige Krieg'...
Czech composer Bedrich Smetana is known as the first composer who wrote music with a specific Czech character. Many of his compositions are based on Czech themes. He used Czech dance rhythms and his m...
Indigo und die vierzig Räuber' (Indigo and the Forty Thieves) was Johann Strauss' very first operetta which was first staged in 1871 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. Later he used melodi...
'Durch's Telephon' (via the 'telephone') is a polka by Johann Strauss composed in 1890 for the annual ball of the Viennese authors and journalists association 'Concordia', The title - Durch's Telephon...
'The Great Lightning' is an unfinished opera sketched in 1932 by Dmitri Shostakovich of which he only managed to write the overture and 8 following pieces. They are enough to show us that 'The Great L...
Reinhold Glière, a Russian composer of Belgian descent. As a composer Glière followed the Russian romantic tradition, something that brought him official praise in 1948 when the music of Prokofiev and...
