Reading the programme
What Op. and K. mean, and how a piece is put together.
A line in a concert programme usually looks like this:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Every part of it answers a specific question.
The composer
Who wrote it. Which composers a concert puts beside each other is itself an editorial judgment — a good programme has an argument in it.
The title
Symphony No. 5 is its number among that composer's symphonies.
Some works also carry nicknames — the Eroica, the Pastoral, the Emperor. Some came from the composer, more came from publishers and posterity. Nicknames are easier to remember, but the number and catalogue reference are what identify the piece.
The key
C minor. Major keys tend to read as brighter and more open, minor keys as darker and more inward. It is a crude generalisation that composers spent their careers contradicting, but it is serviceable as a first impression.
The catalogue number
The Op. in Op. 67 is opus, Latin for work, normally numbered in order of publication. So opus numbers roughly track when a piece was written. Roughly.
Some composers use a dedicated catalogue instead, because their publication order was too chaotic to be useful:
- K. Mozart, the Köchel catalogue
- BWV Bach, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis
- D. Schubert, the Deutsch catalogue
- Hob. Haydn, the Hoboken catalogue
- RV Vivaldi
The practical use is disambiguation. Mozart wrote more than one symphony in G minor; there is only one K. 550. Works in our own database are identified the same way, so two pieces with the same name and different catalogue numbers stay two pieces.
Movements
A symphony, concerto or sonata is built from several movements, listed on separate lines, each beginning with a tempo marking:
- Allegro — fast
- Andante — walking pace
- Adagio — slow
- Presto — very fast
- Scherzo — literally "joke"; usually quick and in three
Markings often carry qualifiers, as in Allegro ma non troppo — fast, but not too much.
No applause between movements — see when to applaud for why.
How a concert is shaped
The typical arrangement: an overture or short opener, then a concerto with the soloist. Interval. Then a full symphony after it, usually the evening's centre of gravity.
Plenty of concerts invert that, and plenty give the whole evening to one large work. The running order tells you where the weight of the night is meant to fall.
Running time
We print the duration and whether there is an interval where the presenter has published them, and leave them blank where they have not. How long a concert runs depends on the interval and the encores; it cannot be derived from the programme.
Encores
Extra pieces beyond the printed programme, usually short, announced from the stage. They are not in the programme book because whether they happen at all depends on that night's applause.
Related
Last updated: 2026-08-12