The clarinet concerto by Edison Denisov (1929-1996), premiered on 9 July 1989, finds the European-oriented composer firmly rooted in Russian-Siberian soil, “developing a certain partiality to the tonal qualities of the clarinet.” In fact, the clarinet had previously featured in

Yuja Wang is indisputably one of the world’s best pianists. Her musicianship pairs an ironclad technique with a searing passion. Her fashion sense is famous, too. Nobody on the concert platform today rocks stiletto heels like Yuja Wang! We checked

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) spent three years in America and gave us some great works written during that time that were highly influential. His use of native American and black song sources opened the eyes of many American composers to the

Cosí fan tutte is the least performed of the Mozart–Da Ponte operas. The comedy of Le Nozze di Figaro and the travails of our favourite libertine in Don Giovanni were much more popular. The uncertain and changing morals of Cosí

Benjamin Grosvenor, born on 8 July 1992 in Westcliff-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, has never entered an international piano competition. And truth be told, he won’t have to in the future. In fact, he was the youngest ever winner of the

On 20 June 2023, Christophe Rousset and “Les Talens Lyriques” premiered the recently rediscovered opera Fausto by Louise-Angélique Bertin (1805-1877). That exceptional setting by a recognized female composer and friend of Hector Berlioz had been lost except for a piano

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), unlike his contemporaries, really only started to be a composer in mid-life, so his work emerged, fully formed and of ‘startling originality’, later in his life than for most. His reputation up to around 1916 was really

The playing style of cellist János Starker was greatly admired for its “silken richness of tone and an expressive purpose governed by deep musical sensibility.” One of the greatest cellists of all time, Starker also had a great sense of