Nothing came easy for Anton Bruckner, and habitually plagued by debilitating periods of low self-esteem, he was an easy target for music critics, journalists and composers alike. A particularly vicious critic accused him of “composing like a drunkard.” Given such

The appeal of Serge Diaghilev’s productions for the Ballets Russes is based on the novelty of Russian dance, and on its penchant for exotic subjects, many of them folkloric in nature. Igor Stravinsky scored a Parisian triumph for Diaghilev‘s troupe

This coming July sees one of the UK’s most stylish ‘small is beautiful’ annual festivals celebrating a ‘significant’ year – the 2018 Petworth Festival is the 40th such event. Founded jointly by Lord Egremont and Robert Walker, the well-known composer

With Robert Schumann teetering on the verge of yet another breakdown, his wife Clara sincerely welcomed her husband’s cello concerto. She confided in her diary, “I have played Robert’s violoncello concerto through again, thus giving myself a truly musical and

The Seven Deadly Sins was the final collaboration between two of the most revolutionary artists of Weimar Germany, Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht. Premiered on 7 June 1933 in the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Weill watched the declining German political and

In the summer of 2017, I had the uniquely rewarding experience of attending the Prague Summer Nights: Young Artists Music Festival (PSN). Produced by Classical Movements—the premier concert tour company for the world’s great orchestras and choirs—Prague Summer Nights is

It’s one of the great romantic images, isn’t it? The solo performer, alone on an empty stage, faced with that huge black beast of a full-size concert grand piano, armed with nothing but his or her memory and willing, well-trained

David, first premiered in a concert version on 1 June 1954 in Jerusalem, is Darius Milhaud’s longest and most extensive work. The opera was composed at the suggestion of conductor Sergei Koussevitzky who was organizing a Festival to mark the