Some orchestral works lead double lives as chamber or solo pieces. These pairs — some familiar, others unexpected — could be useful for audience engagement before concerts or during chamber/solo run-outs.
Complete recordings are available in our Double Lives playlist on Spotify. No Spotify account? Click the audio icons below to hear excerpts on the Music Sales Classical clip-player.Samuel Barber
Composed on Arabian themes for the "Standard Oil Hour" radio program, portions of Horizon appear in Barber's landmark wind quintet Summer Music, written about ten years later.
Horizon — for chamber orchestraSummer Music — for wind quintet"In 1952 I was writing some duets for one piano to play with a friend, and Lincoln Kirstein suggested I orchestrate them for a ballet....One might imagine a divertissement in a setting of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza in New York, the year about 1914, epoch of the first tangos..." — Samuel BarberSouvenirs — for orchestraSouvenirs — for piano duo John Corigliano
"Fantasia on an Ostinato is based on a famous repetitive passage by Ludwig van Beethoven (Symphony No. 7, second movement). That music is unique in Beethoven’s output because of a relentless ostinato that continues, unvaried except for a long crescendo and added accompanimental voices, for over four minutes..." — John Corigliano
Fantasia on an Ostinato — for orchestraFantasia on an Ostinato — for pianoOn themes from The Ghosts of Versailles, the "...opera is mirrored in microcosm in Phantasmagoria, which begins with spectral ghost music and a melodic fragment from Marie Antoinette's first aria that reappears throughout the work." — John CoriglianoPhantasmagoria — for orchestraPhantasmagoria — for cello and piano Gabriela Lena Frank
The Mestizo Waltz, aka Coqueteos, "evokes the romancero tradition of popular songs and dances that mix influences from indigenous Indian cultures, African slave cultures, and western brass bands." — Gabriela Lena Frank
The Mestizo Waltz — for orchestraCoqueteos — for string quartet Charles Ives
"In choosing the Concord Sonata for orchestral treatment I felt, above all, that here Ives had achieved his most complete and comprehensive expression, and that of all his works, this was the one with the most immediate appeal. Henry Cowell agreed...." — Henry Brant
Concord Symphony — for orchestraSonata No. 2: Concord, Mass 1840-60 — for piano Bright Sheng
"The first part of The Stream Flows is based on a famous Chinese folk song from the southern part of China. The freshness and the richness of the tune deeply touched me when I first heard it. Since then I have used it as basic material in several of my works." — Bright Sheng
The Stream Flows — for string orchestraThe Stream Flows — for violin Joan Tower
"The island [of the title] is remote, lush, tropical with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle. Above is a large, powerful, and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, spirals up, and plummets with folded wings as it dominates but lives in complete harmony with its island home. " — Joan Tower
Island Prelude — for oboe and string orchestraIsland Prelude — for wind quintet
