Par PURCELL HENRY. Purcell Dido and Aeneas (Full Score, paperback) The opera ?Dido and Aeneas?, a recount of the well-known story from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, has established itself as a favourite with the public. This is due to the skill of composer Henry Purcell and his librettist Nahum Tate, who combined an overriding tragic theme with masterfully inserted comic episodes. Long believed to …

Par CHOSTAKOVITCH DIMITRI. Shostakovich’s fifteenth symphony differs substantially in many ways from his other late symphonies. The eleventh (1957), subtitled The Year 1905, and the twelfth (1960), subtitled The Year 1917, are both programmatic symphonies, relating to political and historical events within the year of which they are subtitled. The next two symphonies are sung texts, with vocal and…

Par MESSIAEN OLIVIER. Drawing its material from the tui bird from New Zealand, Un oiseau des arbres de Vie (Oiseau Tui) was originally envisaged as the third movement of Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà..., Messiaen's last completed work. Despite having written all of the music in short score, the composer reluctantly decided to omit this remarkable movement from Éclairs at a relatively late stage. This real…

Opera In Three Acts. Par SAINT-SAENS CAMILLE. Today, 'Samson et Dalila? is undoubtedly one of the best-known of Camille Saint-Saëns's thirteen operas, being more present in the repertoire of international stages than most other French 19th century compositions. During Saint-Saëns's lifetime, the opera was already regarded as the pinnacle of his dramatic stage works. The fact that the work's genes…

Nelson-Messe. Par HAYDN FRANZ JOSEF. The 'Missa' in D minor, published here, the third of Haydn's six late masses, was written during the summer of 1798 between the two late oratorios. According to the dates given on Haydn's autograph score he completed the composition in less than eight weeks. The score bears no particular title, but in Haydn's manuscript thematic catalogue of his works he referr…

in Full Score. Par SAINT-SAENS CAMILLE. Considered throughout much of his career as the preeminent French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote music that embodies a characteristic French concern for clarity and order, together with his own assured mastery of the composer's craft. These qualities are evident in Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3, widely regarded as the composer's major orchestral work, and…

Nelson-Messe. Par HAYDN FRANZ JOSEF. The 'Missa' in D minor, published here, the third of Haydn's six late masses, was written during the summer of 1798 between the two late oratorios. According to the dates given on Haydn's autograph score he completed the composition in less than eight weeks. The score bears no particular title, but in Haydn's manuscript thematic catalogue of his works he referr…

Par OFFENBACH JACQUES. This is the last of nearly 100 operettas created by French composer Jacques Offenbach, a native of Germany whose works were most prominent in the latter half of the nineteenth century. His three-act drama Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), which includes a prologue and epilogue, recounts dramatic stories of passion, murder, and revenge. Left incomplete at the com…