About Costa Music

Affiliated to the CD company Costa Records, Costa Music is a publishing company specialising in transcriptions of operas and large-scale orchestral works for chamber ensemble.

Operas

It is becoming increasingly necessary for opera houses to reduce the size of works in their repertoire; financial limitations, the capacity of the orchestra pit or COVID-19 restrictions can all determine the size of the orchestra. Costa Music creates transcriptions of operas for chamber ensemble, depending on the artistic requirements of the piece and the practical demands of the opera house.

Chamber music

Throughout the history of chamber music there has been a tradition of arranging larger works for the forces available. A quintessential example of this is the Harmoniemusik - the transcription of an opera, usually shortened, to be played by the wind section of an orchestra (the Harmonie in German). Complementing the numerous transcriptions of classical operas, Costa Music focuses on Harmoniemusik of the larger works of 19th and 20th Century composers.

Chamber orchestra

There are often external restrictions imposed on the size or an orchestra, such as a foreign tour which has to be budgeted, or repertoire required to be performed which is larger than the available forces. Costa Music makes transcriptions of large orchestral works for chamber orchestra to fit the demands of a specific programme or budget. Transcriptions to date include works by Bizet, Mascagni, Massenet, Puccini, Rossini, Rachmaninov and Strauß.