This is the first publication of Vaughan Williams's earliest substantial work for orchestra, composed 1897-8 and premiered in April 1901. This attractive work already shows evidence of the composer's emerging musical style and sure grasp of orchestral techniques. Its five movements display much variety and sense of overall architecture, with a sombre opening Prelude, a fleet-footed Scherzo, a graceful Intermezzo and Trio, a delicate Romance, and a boisterous Finale. This new edition has been carefully prepared from the original manuscript by Julian Rushton and comes with full textual...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An amazing prodigy who toured the capitals of Europe as a child, astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his precocious skills, in his adulthood he wrote some of the finest music in the European tradition.
Julian Rushton offers a concise and up-to-date biography of this musical genius, combining a well-researched life of the composer with an introduction to the works--symphonic, chamber, sacred, and theatrical--of one of the few who have composed undisputed masterpieces in every genre of his time. Rushton...

Julian Rushton jumps into the debate with this fascinating and readable history, dispensing with the myth, conjecture, and popular iconography that frequently distorts our notions of what Mozart and his times were really like. What emerges is a more human and believable portrait, challenging our preconceptions while deepening our understanding.

for SATB wordless chorus, viola solo, and orchestra A suite for solo viola, wordless chorus (SATB), and small orchestra, Flos Campi is one of Vaughan Williams's most enigmatic pieces. Although the six movements all borrow their titles from the Old Testament's Song of Solomon, the chorus never articulates a single word. Instead, it serves as a section of the orchestra, creating an elegant vocal texture and backdrop to the viola's haunting solo lines. The work was premiered in October 1925 by the violist Lionel Tertis, singers from the RCM, and the Queen's Hall Orchestra, directed by Sir Henry...