Wilhelm Furtwängler is actually one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. As a major guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1944/45. Under his direction the Vienna Philharmonic made…
Vladimir Ashkenazy is renowned for his performances of Romantic and Russian composers. March 2013 sees Vladimir Ashkenazy’s fiftieth anniversary as an exclusive Decca Classics artist, 50-CD Ashkenazy-Rachmaninov collection will celebrate a unique career that began in…
Paul McCreesh led 300 musicians in a recording of Britten’s War Requiem in January, He and his Gabrieli Consort & Players took to theWatford Colosseum to record in honour of the composer’s centenary…
German composer Carl Maria von Weber is one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school, Weber’s operas greatly influenced the development of the Romantic opera in Germany, as a brilliant pianist himself, Weber composed four sonatas, the…
The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 was an ambitious young Brahms’ work completed during the summer of 1864, and the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 was known for its autumnal mood written in 1891. The…
Eugene Zádor, who born in Hungary in 1894 , emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1939, and worked tirelessly in Hollywood making other names famous, was described his style as ‘exactly…
Igor Stravinsky is a Russian/international composer who began two of the major strains of contemporary music. The Rite of Spring is one of the great works of the 20th century. “Mild protests…
‘I had little idea at the outset just how difficult the task of reconstruction would be, and indeed there were many moments when I was tempted to concede defeat,’ said…
A new biography of Benjamin Britten has suggested that tertiary syphilis may have contributed to his death. The British composer died in 1976 of aortic incompetence – a condition in…
Her tone has deepened . . . as has her expressivity . . . here she shows refreshing commitment and spontaneity. The clarity and roundness of her upper range also…