The first performance of ?Má vlast? as a six-part symphonic cycle took place on 5 November 1882. With the founding of the Czech Philharmonic in 1896 this work received a far greater reception. Since 1952 the music festival ?Prague Spring? has opened with this complete cycle.

This edition is based on the ?Study Edition of the Works of Bedrich Smetana?, vol. 14, supplemented by an up-to-date detailed foreword about the genesis and history of the work by Marta Ottlová.

Contents
Vy?ehrad / Vltava (The Moldau) / ?árka / Z Ceských luhu a háju (From Bohemia?s Woods and Fields) / Tábor / Blaník

? New foreword by Marta Ottlová (Cz/Eng/Ger)
? Urtext based on the ?Study Edition of the Works of Bedrich Smetana?

Detailed instrumentation: Piccolo flute, Flute (2), Oboe (2), Clarinet (in B-flat) (2), Bassoon (2), Horn (4), Trumpet (2), Trombone (3), Tuba, Kettledrum, Triangle, Cymbals, Concert drum, Harp (2), Violin (2), Viola, Violoncello, Double bass / Classique / Partition / Broché /

Full score for Carl Nielsen's Symphonic Rhapsody (1888). Corresponding to The Carl Nielsen Edition Vol. 8. This allegro movement for symphony orchestra composed in 1888 when Carl Nielsen was in his early twenties was originally conceived as the first movement of a symphony as is evident from the autograph title Symfoni on the first page of music of the ink fair copy. However Carl Nielsen never composed the whole symphony. On 26th February 1893 when the piece was given its first performance conducted by Victor Bendix it was as an independent movement. Two days before the first performance Carl Nielsen noted in his diary: “To a rehearsal ofmy symphonic movement for the People’s Concert. The piece has been given the title ‘Symphonic Rhapsody’. It sounds fine and although it now seems naive to me there is still so much of my own and such a good attitude in the piece that I think it is rather good all the same.” (Thomas Michelsen editor)

Poul Ruders' Handel Variations for Orchestra (2009) -Ninety Symphonic Reflections on Eight Bars by Georg Friedrich Handel.Commissioned by and dedicated to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in celebration of their 75th anniversary 2010. Premiered by The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giancarlo Andretta at the Aarhus Concert Hall 14 January 2010. Programme noteThe short feisty Bourrée from Handel´s famous Water Music (First Suite in F major) has for some years been hovering at the back of my mind as possessing the perfectpotential for a series of variations. Not unlike the short 'morsel' by Henry Purcell (the witches Ho-ho-ho-chorus from the opera Dido and Aeneas) which kicks off the ten variations of my orchestral work Concerto in Pieces the music per se is not particularly interesting but it nevertheless grows on you and is difficult to get rid of. It is merely a handful of sequences (a technique much used in the Baroque era - a method in which the same motif is being shifted up and down in a specified order). Actually it is only the first eight bars of the Bourrée which I haul through the wringer.It would be obvious to assume that Handel Variations make up a sequel to Concerto in Pieces but in spite of the similarity in character between the two chosen themes the Handel Variations are far more symphonically coherent. There are no less than ninety (!) variations and each variation (they are relatively short ranging from four up to forty-something bars) runs seamlessly into the next creating a huge symphonic body of constantly changing colours. I set out with the original theme without interfering but the 'erosion' begins to gnaw away at the theme already from the first variation. Imagine a vast gallery of Handel portraits in which Georg Friedrich appears at first fully recognizable but then the 'disfiguration' sets in and

Kongen Af Himmeby-Demo/Utopiaville-Demofor Symphony Orchestra (2009). The Utopiaville-Demo is commissioned by Finn Schumacker for The Odense Symphony Orchestra. Repertoire operas occationally have orchestral suites: Bits and pieces of overture interlude etc. tied up in a bouquet of 'schönste Tränen'. Contemporary opera usually wither after the first season so the focus is on getting people to come and have a sniff before it's too late. Consequently it seemed obvious to me to start making orchestral excerpts from my operas that are meant to be played before the premiere (and after please); I call them 'operatrailers' when they're substantial enough to be considered independent works and 'opera demos' when they're relatively short and more appetizer-ish. The Utopiaville-Demo is a fast-and-furious cinemascope 3D THX-demo for my chamber opera 'The King ofUtopiaville' which is sort of a mix between a reversed revolutionary opera (reversed because it's about a revolutionthat flops) and a rhythm'n blues theatre concert. The opera takes place on the remote tropical island of Honga-Tonga where a mayor form Europe is taking a much needed holiday as far away as possible from his home town Utopiaville. The mayor desperately needs to get away:He has overstepped his authority blatantly and broken every rule of law he felt like in order to create a modern liberalistic society where sanitation medicare hospitals schools the police and all other public institutions are sold to private investors and then leased back by the public - that way noone will ever have to pay taxes because everything finances itself the mayor says and in order to keep reality at a safe distance he drinks massive amounts of insanely expensive french claret all in the best interest of the inhabitants of Utopiaville of course.Honga Tonga can't get any further away from Waikiki Beach: It looks something like the 1933 version of

from the opera The Midsummer Marriage-Tippett's decision to extract the four Ritual Dances from his opera 'The Midsummer Marriage' as a self-contained concert suite reflects the fact that the medium of dance was always present in his conception of the opera. From the start there was to be an interaction within the opera between the real world and the world of mythology partly Greek partly Celtic. This mythological element culminates in the finished opera in the 'Ritual Dances' of Acts 2 and 3. Tippett himself described his opera as a kind of elaborate 'L'après midi d'un faune; in which the 'Ritual Dances' display a powerful sexual energy though of a very different kind from Debussy's voluptuouslangour. Composition of The Midsummer Marriage occupied Tippett for six years from 1946 to 1952. The first performance of the Ritual Dances as a concert suite was given in Basel on 13 February 1953 by the Basel Kammerorchester conducted by Paul Sacher and preceded the premiere of the complete opera by two years. Today the Ritual Dances rival the Concerto for Double String Orchestra (ETP 1331) as Tippett's most widely-performed orchestral work.