Written immediately after the enormous success of Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos was the third collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The hilarious plot looks closely at the tension between high and popular culture, by presenting an opera

The violin concerto by Jean Sibelius is, without doubt, one of the most frequently recorded and performed concertos. However, things did not look all that promising after the first public performance in Helsinki on 8 February 1904. Originally, Willy Burmester

Benjamin Britten once described the process of putting music on paper in the following way, “Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house—the colours of the slates and bricks,

Writing a dedicated composition for a famous soloist can sometimes be a trying process. In 1879, Dvořák’s publisher Simrock commissioned the composer to write a violin concerto. Giving Dvořák free reign in artistic matters, the publisher did specify that the

In 1952, one year before his death, Sergei Prokofiev was financially broke. The Soviet government had condemned his Symphony No. 6 a couple of years earlier, and the composer was stripped of his reputation and of his state pension. Trying

Russian folklore and literature is incredibly rich in colorful tales of supernatural magic with decidedly down to earth morals. And the fairy tale of the “Golden Cockerel,” written by the great Alexander Pushkin in 1834 is no exception. For Rimsky-Korsakov,

The legendary violinist Paweł Kochański maintained a lifelong personal friendship and working relationship with the composer Karol Szymanowski. Both were active in a movement known as “Young Poland,” which sought to promote modernist attitudes in Warsaw. Originating during a period

In his memoirs—supposedly related to Solomon Volkov—Dmitri Shostakovich suggests, “Fear of death may be the most intense emotion of all. I sometimes think that there is no deeper feeling. The irony lies in the fact that under the influence of