Britten’s Simple Symphony

When Benjamin Britten was twenty, he took music he had written more than a decade earlier and arranged it into a work he called "Simple Symphony" - a remarkably assured portrait of the artist as a young composer.

Beethoven’s Mass in C

Beethoven's Mass in C may not be as well-known as his Missa Solemnis, but its harmonic daring and deceptively gentle nature changed the Mass the same way his Eroica changed the symphony.

Handel’s Messiah

However you like your Messiah - big or intimate, modern or period, authentic or interpreted - when you listen you become part of an almost 300-year tradition of what may be classical music's most beloved masterpiece.

Britten's War Requiem

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was an anguished cry for peace in the midst of the Cold War. Its combination of the sacred and the secular sends a message that is as powerful today as it was in 1962.

Copland's Symphonic Ode

Copland's Symphonic Ode was booed at its first performances, but the qualities that made it a failure would pave the way for his later successes.

Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra

Witold Lutosławski was one of the great cultural figures of 20th century Poland, and his Concerto for Orchestra - based on a simple folk tune - was one of his first great successes; perhaps because his personal history mirrored that of his native land.

Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Felix Mendelssohn's music to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a sparkling accompaniment to one of the most magical plays ever written. And he began it when he was just 17!