Claude Debussy's 'Rhapsodie for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra' was commissioned in 1903 by Elisa Hall, President of the Boston Orchestral Club. Debussy, who cared little for the instrument and knew alm...
Riding on this success of 'España', Chabrier composed the 'Habanera' in 1885 which was met with equal enthusiasm. It's a beautiful example of the Spanish genre that was so popular with French composer...
Franz Lehár's Operetta 'Das Land des Lächelns' was composed in 1929 for the famous tenor Richard Tauber. The plot deals with the love between the Chinese Prince Sou-chong and Lisa, daughter of Count L...
The work of the Russian composer Anatol Liadov (1855-1914) is characterized by bizarre humour, originality, precision and imagination. 'Danse de l'Amazone' is one of his last compositions. It was writ...
In 1900, Russian composer Anton Arensky (1861-1906) composed his ballet 'Nuits d'Egypte', based on the novella 'Une nuit de Cléopatre'. The ballet became very succesful and in 1902 a suite from this b...
Grigory Lyubomirski (1865-1937) was Russian composer and musicologist. He graduated at the Moscow Conservatorium where he studied with Kashkina, Hubert, Taneyev and Arensky. In the 1890s he became a t...
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as 'The Five'. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions - 'Capr...