1878: Wagner Parsifal “Overture”, age 65
Wagner’s own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem Parzival of the Minnesänger Wolfram von Eschenbach, recounting the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail.
The prelude of Act 1 was scored in August 1878.
1878: Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, age 45
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms’s only violin concerto, and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin concerti:[1]
1878: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, age 38
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. Its first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Moscow on February 22 (or the 10th using the calendar of the time), 1878,[1] with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor. In Middle Europe it sometimes receives the nickname “Fatum”, or “Fate”.
1878: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, age 38
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 was the only concerto for violin composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Composed in 1878, it is one of the best-known violin concertos.
1878: Dvorak: Slavonic Dances, age 37
The Slavonic Dances (Czech: Slovanské tance) are a series of 16 orchestral pieces composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1878 and 1886 and published in two sets as Op. 46 and Op. 72 respectively.
1878: Grieg: String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27, age 35
Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27, is the second of three string quartets written by the composer. The first, in D minor, was an early work, now lost, written in the early 1860s at the request of his teacher, Carl Reinecke. The third quartet, in F major, remained incomplete at the composer’s death.
1878: Gilbert and Sullivan: H.M.S. Pinafore, age 42 and age 36
The H.M.S. Pinafore, The Lass That Loved a Sailor, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation.