L'Arlesienne Fantasie - MVSR0257 | Musica

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