10 facts about the great Edvard Grieg
Norway’s musical genius certainly had plenty going on in his life Edvard Grieg is, in most people’s minds, Norway’s most celebrated son. His use and development of Norwegian folk music single-handedly…
Tenebrae Factae Sunt (Gesualdo) The Gesualdo Six at Ely Cathedral
Is it acceptable to perform the compositions of a murderer? The ethical question carries more than rhetorical weight in the case of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, whose posthumous fame…
Herbert Howells – The Composer Who Channelled His Grief Into Beautiful Music
The atmospheric Carol Anthems were just the start of this British composer’s remarkable outpouring of choral music, writes Paul Spicer ‘I have composed out of sheer love of trying to…
Paul Hindemith: The 20th Century’s Most Neglected Composer
Hindemith, Paul Often dismissed today as a dry neo-classicist, the German composer Paul Hindemith was in fact one of the most visionary figures of his time, says John Allison. Here…
Embracing youthful stardom, Nazi censorship and Hollywood success, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s story was truly remarkable, says Jessica Duchen
Korngold, Erich Wolfgang Embracing youthful stardom, Nazi censorship and Hollywood success, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s story was truly remarkable, says Jessica Duchen If Hollywood’s scriptwriters had dreamed up Korngold’s life story,…
Franz Lehár: Meet The Composer Behind One Of The Most Popular Operas Ever, The Merry Widow
George Hall looks at the life and music of Franz Lehár, a composer who brought both huge popularity and a new respect to the world of operetta – and gave…
Edouard Lalo: meet the French composer who gave Romanticism a Spanish tang
Lalo’s best works for the opera stage and concert hall reveal a distinctive composer who by no means deserves his present neglect, says Roger Nichols Édouard Lalo (1823-1892) is now…
Mozart: A Brief Biography Of The Incomparable Melodist
Was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart the greatest composer who ever lived? Read on for our brief guide to the life and work of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one…
Pietro Mascagni: why the Italian composer should be remembered for more than Cavalleria rusticana
Famous for Cavalleria rusticana, Mascagni would probably be well known for his other operas too had the tide of political history not turned against him, says George Hall Read on for…
George Onslow: has history judged the Anglo-French composer unfairly?
Admired by several notable contemporaries, the man once dubbed ‘the French Beethoven’ is surely ripe for reappraisal, says Misha Donat A book on the Onslow family published in the 1950s…