Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra

The Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra, Opus 46, is a concerto featuring a harmonica soloist, composed by the English musician Malcolm Arnold. The piece was composed in 1954 for the American harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler, and was premiered on August 14th, 1954 at the Royal Albert Hall, with accompanyment by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The concerto has a duration of nine minutes and was one of the first of a number of "serious" pieces composed for the harmonica after the Second World War (in addition to works by Darius Milhaud, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Heitor Villa-Lobos).