C.P.E. Bach composed a number of character pieces for solo keyboard between 1754 and 1758. He used a French model, the pièce de caractère, and called his works Petites Pièces. The works were named after Bach’s friends and acquaintances. Although

The violin and the cello are two of the most beloved members of the string family. Composers, performers, and audiences have adored them both for centuries. They share a common shape and ancestry, but each is very different, too, in

Sir Simon Rattle famously wrote, “Imogen Cooper is one of the greatest musicians England has produced. She’s utterly without show. Mozart, Schumann and Schubert could have been written for her. There’s a poetic, reflective side to her which is always

Dina Ugorskaja is frequently hailed as a “philosopher at the piano,” internationally known for her thoughtful and sensitive interpretations. During her struggles with cancer in her final years, Ugorskaja projected a sense of darkness that made her interpretations “fearsomely beautiful,

In April 1919, Gabriel Fauré’s Masques et Bergamasques, a comédie musicale, with a libretto by René Fauchois, had its debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. From its very title, the influence of Italian commedia dell’arte, French music, and pastoral art

The 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition announced 19-year-old pianist American George Li as the recipient of the Second prize in the piano division. The judges praised his incredible technical skill and his passionate and sincere attitude towards music. “Li showed himself

All music pages present a problem for the performer: how do you get to the other side? If you’re a pianist in a performance, you have a page-turner. A page-turner is a musically literate person who sits just behind you

Born in New York City on 23 August 1981, conductor Karina Canellakis has a number of firsts to her name. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London in 2019, and was