''Suite Antique'' is a 1979

concertante Sinfonia concertante (; also called ''symphonie concertante'') is an orchestral work, normally in several movements, in which one or more solo instruments contrast with the full orchestra.Collins: ''Encyclopedia of Music'', William Collins Sons & ...

work by

John Rutter Sir John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, R ...

that is written for

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first a ...

. Rutter composed the piece, in six movements, for a concert at which Bach's fifth Brandenburg concerto was to be performed, and so decided to write the piece for the same ensemble. One of Rutter's most popular orchestral works, it has become an important standard in contemporary flute repertoire and been recorded several times by Rutter and others. Rutter later arranged the musical content of Suite Antique for harp and strings, and published it in 2011 as ''Suite Lyrique''. Suite Lyrique contains the same six movements as Suite Antique: Prelude, Ostinato, Aria, Waltz, Chanson, and Rondeau.

References

External links

Suite Antique sheet music
(OUP)
Suite Lyrique sheet music
(OUP) Compositions by John Rutter 1979 compositions Harpsichord concertos Compositions for flute and orchestra Orchestral suites {{Concerto-stub