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Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, composed in 2000 and transcribed for wind ensemble by Mark Lortz in 2004, is a significant addition to the repertoire of large-scale works for timpani. The work is rhythmically galvanizing, sonically alluring, and features virtuoso cadenzas for both soloists. Symphony No 4 ‘In the Shadow of No Towers’ is Mohammed Fairouz’s first major work for wind ensemble, and its inspiration is the provocative comic book by Art Spiegelman, written shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Spiegelman himself has commented: “I’m moved by [this] scary, somber, and seriously silly symphony…I’m honored that the composer found an echo in my work that allowed him to strike a responsive chord and express his own complex responses to post 9/11 America. He emerges from the rubble with a very tony piece of high-brow cartoon music.”

Since its inception in 2006, Berlin-based Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra has not only redefined the term “large ensemble,” because more importantly, the 18-piece has created a whole new musical language: “Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra dwarfs anything heretofore experienced: Big band brass meets Free Jazz antics, Neue Musik-style compositions meet a unique definition of pop – all thrown into a blender: It’s the kind of sonic cocktail you’ve never tasted before.” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

Two symphonies from Beethoven's so-called 'Heroic' period—No 4 completed in 1806 and the supremely defiant No 5 begun in the same year and completed two years later.