Recordings
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- New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, cond., BMG/RCA 68798
- Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano, cond., Nonesuch Records 79607-2
Lollapalooza is a short piece composed by American minimalist composer John Adams in 1995. The piece is based on the rhythm of the word 'Lollapalooza'. It was composed as a fortieth birthday present to the British conductor Simon Rattle, with whom Adams has worked in the past.
It was first performed November 10, 1995 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with Rattle conducting.
Lollapalooza was written as a fortieth birthday present for Simon Rattle who has been a friend and collaborator for many years. The term "lollapalooza" has an uncertain etymology, and just that vagueness may account for its popularity as an archetypical American word. It suggests something large, outlandish, oversized, not unduly refined. H.L. Mencken suggests it may have originally meant a knockout punch in a boxing match. I was attracted to it because of its internal rhythm: da-da-da-DAAH-da. Hence, in my piece, the word is spelled out in the trombones and tubas, C-C-C-E♭-C (emphasis on the E♭) as a kind of idée fixe. The "lollapalooza" motive is only one of a profusion of other motives, all appearing and evolving in a repetitive chain of events that moves this dancing behemoth along until it ends in a final shout by the horns and trombones and a terminal thwack on timpani and bass drum. [1]
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Piccolo, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo) 2 oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, strings. The percussion is divided among four players:
Michael Tippett's Symphony No. 4 was written in 1977 as a commission for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who premiered it on 6 October of that year under the baton of Georg Solti. It was dedicated to Tippett's biographer and friend, Ian Kemp.
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the Abdelazer suite. It was originally commissioned for the British educational documentary film called Instruments of the Orchestra released on 29 November 1946, directed by Muir Mathieson and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent; Sargent also conducted the concert première on 15 October 1946 with the Liverpool Philharmonic in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England.
Music for Prague 1968 is a programmatic work written by Czech-born composer Karel Husa for symphonic band and later transcribed for full orchestra, written shortly after the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring reform movement in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Karel Husa was sitting on the dock at his cottage in America at the time, listening to the BBC broadcast of the events on the radio. He was deeply moved, and wrote Music for Prague 1968 to memorialize the events. This piece is a standard among wind ensemble repertoire.
The Bachianas Brasileiras are a series of nine suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. They represent a fusion of Brazilian folk and popular music on the one hand and the style of Johann Sebastian Bach on the other, as an attempt to freely adapt a number of Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures to Brazilian music. Most of the movements in each suite have two titles: one "Bachian", the other Brazilian.
Serenada Schizophrana is a suite of six symphonic movements written by American film composer Danny Elfman in 2004. It was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, which premiered the work at Carnegie Hall in New York City on February 23, 2005, conducted by Stephen Sloane. A studio recording was released on October 3, 2006, with John Mauceri conducting the Hollywood Studio Symphony orchestra. Album art was done by George Condo.
The Confession of Isobel Gowdie is a work for large symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan.
The Wooden Prince, Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914–1916 to a scenario by Béla Balázs. It was first performed at the Budapest Opera on 12 May 1917 under the conductor Egisto Tango.
The Symphony No. 8, Op. 124 by Malcolm Arnold was finished in November 1978.
The Sacrifice is an opera in three acts composed by James MacMillan with a libretto by the poet Michael Symmons Roberts based on the Branwen story of the Welsh mythology collection, the Mabinogion. The world premiere took place on 22 September 2007 at the Donald Gordon Theatre of the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. The production was staged by Welsh National Opera, directed by Katie Mitchell and conducted by the composer.
Symphony No.1 is A three movement piece for Orchestra and Turntables by Jeremy Mayall. This piece is the first orchestral symphony to use the techniques of turntablism.
Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93) by American composer Michael Daugherty is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately; however, it is preferred that the 41 minute symphony be performed in its entirety. MetropolisSymphony was premiered by the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, James Bolle conducting, in November 1993, at the Palace Theater in Manchester, New Hampshire. A connective narrative between movements was written and read by Jack Larson, who had played Jimmy Olsen on television in The Adventures of Superman. The orchestral version without narration was premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman conducting, in January 1994, at the Meyerhoff Concert Hall in Baltimore, Maryland.
Polish composer Witold Lutosławski wrote his Symphony No. 4 in 1988–92, completing it on 22 August 1992.
Chôros is the title of a series of compositions by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, composed between 1920 and 1929.
The Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra is a double timpani concerto written by Philip Glass in 2000. It is paired with the Cello Concerto on Vol. I of Glass' Concerto Project, a set of eight concerti by the composer. A typical performance of the work lasts 25–28 minutes. It was written for Jonathan Haas and later recorded by Evelyn Glennie, and was premiered by Haas and Svet Stoyanov with the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, conducted by Leon Botstein. The work was commissioned jointly by the American Symphony Orchestra, the Peabody Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the Phoenix Symphony. In 2004, a transcription for wind ensemble was written by Mark Lortz, which debuted at Peabody Institute in 2005.
L'arbre des songes is a violin concerto written by Henri Dutilleux between 1983 and 1985. It is dedicated to Isaac Stern.
The Symphony No. 10, Op. 327, is a composition for orchestra, chorus, and baritone soloist, composed by Peter Maxwell Davies in 2013. It was premiered on 2 February 2014 at the Barbican Hall in London, by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with baritone soloist Markus Butter, conducted by Antonio Pappano.
La noche de los mayas is a film score by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas for the 1939 film of the same name, which relates to Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage. Revueltas's score consists of 36 sequences without any organic relation to one another, composed to be easily fitted to an already-edited film. The work is best known in the symphonic suite extracted by the Mexican conductor José Yves Limantour, whose arrangement extensively alters Revueltas' original score.
Ghost Ranch is a three-movement orchestral composition by the American composer Michael Daugherty. Inspired by the life and work of artist Georgia O'Keeffe, the title is derived from the name of O'Keeffe's New Mexico summer home, Ghost Ranch. The piece was commissioned by BBC Radio 3, completed in 2005, and premiered February 8, 2006 in Poole, United Kingdom, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Marin Alsop.
Métaboles is an orchestral work by Henri Dutilleux, commissioned by the conductor George Szell in 1959 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra. Métaboles was composed in 1963–64 and was first performed by Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on 14 January 1965.
The Symphony No. 3, Op. 35, is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, who wrote the piece from 1974–75 on commission from the Finnish Broadcasting Company. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra premiered the work on 8 April 1975 in Helsinki, under the direction of its principal conductor, Okko Kamu. The symphony was the first by Sallinen to depart from the single-movement structure he had utilized for his previous two essays in the form.
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