At the age of 34, Georges Bizet was commissioned to write the stage music for the drama "L'Arlésienne" by Alphonse Daudet. Regarding the available budget, the piece was designed for a small instrumentation. After the premier on Oktober 1, 1872 he revised the work for big orchestra and created a suite out of four movements. Four years after Bizet's death, his friend Ernest Giraud chose four other movements for a second Suite. So Suite Nr. 1 was created by Bizet whereas the Suite Nr. 2 was acutally written by him but compiled an orchestrated post-mortem by his friend. This fantasia is a wind band version that includes the most beautiful and significant themes of those two suites in a two-part work. Out atempt is to offer Bizet's wonderful music to the wind band musicians in an appropriate way.
Reinhardt Brandtner