Lise Nees

Radetzky March, Op. 228, was composed by Johann Strauss Sr. in 1948. It was dedicated to the Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky and soon became quite popular among regimented marching soldiers. This piece...

This charming and popular piece was written in 1887. Obtaining its rhythm from the slow processional Spanish court dance of the same name, the Pavane ebbs and flows from a series of harmonic and melod...

Nabucco, by Giuseppe Verdi, was composed in 1841 and received its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy on March 9, 1842. It is considered the opera which cemented Verdi's reputation as a composer, and...

The Three Dances (Dances of the Young Maidens, Lullaby, Sabre Dance) are taken from the music written for the ballet 'Gayane' by Aram Ilyich Khachaturian. The ballet was originally produced in Yerevan...

The ballet suite from the second act of of the opera Le Cid is one of Massenet's most highly-regarded works for orchestra. Set in 12th century Spain, the subject matter of the opera is the exploits of...

Among Modest Mussorgsky's most well-known compositions, his tone poem 'Night on Bald Mountain' was featured in the 1940 Disney animated film, Fantasia. Originally existing in a few different versions,...

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is the second in a series of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies composed by Franz Liszt. As both a piano solo, and in its orchestrated form, it has enjoyed immense popularity through its...

At the beginning of 1878, during a trip to Vienna, Dvorak attended a concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic, whose program included Mozart's Serenade in B-flat Major for wind instruments. He was so...

The Furiant is the third movement of Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 6, composed in 1880 and premiered in 1881. A Czech national dance, the Furiant is a fast dance in triple meter, often incorporating h...

Il Signor Bruschino is a one-act comic opera (farsa giocosa per musica) by Gioacchino Rossini which received its premiere in Venice in January 1813. The opera is among the first four operas composed b...

Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo, premiered in 1838 in Paris. Felix Mendelssohn, despite not liking the play, was commissioned to compose an overture based on it in 1839. Here, it has been ar...

A festive medley of 'Mi Yemalel' and 'Carol of the Bells', arranged here for Flute Orchestra by Shaul Ben-Meir.

The Capriccio Italien of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was composed in 1880, inspired by a trip he took to Rome. He writes to his friend and patroness Nadezhda von Meck in Russia: 'I have already completed...

La Boutique Fantasque (also known as The Magic Toyshop) is a ballet suite, with original music composed by Gioachino Rossini, and orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi. Included in this flute orchestra ar...

The Russian Sailors Dance is perhaps Reinhold Gliere's most well-known work. It is taken from Act I of the ballet, 'The Red Poppy,' premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) in 1927, with original cho...

La vida breve' is an opera in two acts composed by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. Although the opera is seldom performed today, selections from the opera are frequently performed by orchestras arou...

All four movements of Claude Debussy's charming Petite Suite in one volume: En Bateau, Cortege, Menuet, Ballet. Originally composed as a suite for four-hand piano, it is also well-known in its orchest...

Emile Pessard was professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatory, and among his students were Maurice Ravel and Jacques Ibert. Although he composed more than a dozen operas and cantatas during his lif...

The orchestral version of the Suite No. 2 from L'Arlesienne was originally arranged and published in 1879, four years after Bizet's death. The suite consists of four movements: Pastorale, Intermezzo,...

The Moldau' is taken from a collection of six symphonic poems called 'Ma vlast' ('My Homeland'), composed by Bedrich Smetana between 1874 and 1879. The poem takes the listener down the course of the r...

The Valse is the second movement of Antonin Dvorak's 'Serenade for Strings,' composed in 1875. Said to have written the entire Serenade in only 12 days, the piece was premiered in Prague in December o...

An exciting transcription of the Bacchanale from Saint-Saens's opera Samson and Delilah, originally composed in 1877.

Two movements (Minuetto, Carillon) from the orchestral version of the Suite No. 1 from Georges Bizet's incidental music to L'Arlesienne.

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian originally composed incidental music to the play 'Masquerade' in 1941. Of all the material composed, it is best-known today as an orchestral suite consisting of five movements...