Playlist: Classical Strings
About eleven years ago I subscribed to Apple Music and started making a playlist of classical works for string orchestra, excluding woodwinds, brass, and percussion. I’ve expanded and refined this playlist over the years as I’ve discovered more music in the category that I like. The first several works date from the Baroque period and include the harpsichord, which was the norm. The Offenbach Barcarolle arrangement also has a piano and the Gorecki Symphony has a solo soprano. Otherwise it’s all strings.
If you don’t have Apple Music I encourage you to look up these works on your preferred streaming platform (see list below). Note: if you look for the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia, please find the Dimitri Mitropoulos version with the New York Phil, because he keeps the tempo up. The piece is far too long otherwise…bloated really.
Here are the featured works, arranged in order of composition year:
Baroque
Purcell, Dido’s Lament (c.1683-1688; arr. Stokowski)
Purcell Suite 1 (1695)
Corelli Op. 6 No. 1 (1711)
Vivaldi Op. 3 No. 9 (1711; arr. cello in recording)
Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in Dm, Op. 3 No. 11
Bach Brandenburg 6 (c. 1711-1720)
Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3 (c. 1731)
Sammartini Op. 6 No. 6 (c. 1738)
Classical
Herschel Chamber Symphony in F (c.1760-1764)
Boccherini Op. 11 (1771)
Mozart Serenade K. 525 (1787)
Romantic
Mendelssohn String Symphony No. 10 (1823)
Fuchs Serenade No. 1 (1874)
Dvorak Serenade (1875)
Tchaikovsky Serenade (1880)
Offenbach “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour” (1881; arr. strings in recording)
Schoenberg Op. 4, Verklarte Nacht (1899; arr. string orchestra 1917 by composer)
Twentieth Century
Vaughan Williams Fantasia (1910)
Sibelius Andante Festivo (1924)
Warlock Capriol Suite (1926)
Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3 (1931)
Holst Brook Green Suite (1933)
Britten Simple Symphony (1933-1934)
Barber Adagio for Strings (1938)
Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 (1942)
Penderecki Threnody (1961)
Rochberg Transcendental Variations (1975)
Conti, Rocky’s Reward (1976)
Gorecki Symphony no. 3 (1976)
Schnittke Polka (1980)
Tavener Eternal Memory (1991)
Reich Duet for 2 Violins and Strings (1993)
Glass Echorus (1994-1995)
Glass Symphony No. 3 (1995)
Jenkins Palladio (1995)
Twenty-first Century
Mikołaj Górecki, Concerto-Notturno (2000)
Sufjan, Run Rabbit Run (2001; arr. strings in recording)
Richter On the Nature of Daylight (2004)
Grundman Concierto Sentido (2007)
Grundman WATFP (2014)
Shaw, And the Swallow (2017; arr. strings in recording)
Greenwood Phantom Thread (2018)
Arnesen, Peace (2021)
Pelecis, Fiori Musicali (2022)