A jaw-dropping collection of technically dazzling fugues, stopped mid-measure, annotated by a poignant note from a grieving son. Two delicate mazurkas that the composer was too sick to play and never heard performed. A cantata for the freemasons. A standard

The Romantic Era: it was a time of drama, high emotion, and relentless social upheaval. And over the course of the nineteenth century, more women than ever before were allowed to find their creative voices. Today we’re looking at six

This is the concluding episode in the series featuring music written by child prodigies. Felix Mendelssohn Before Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) reached the tender age of sixteen, he already had more than 150 surviving compositions to his name. Mendelssohn did not

As we discovered in our last blog 10 Fun and Exciting Clarinet Duos, the clarinet was a real latecomer to the family of musical instruments. It slowly appeared in European court ensembles around the middle of the 18th century but

Pianist and composer Clara Schumann was one of the most influential musicians of her generation. One of the ways we can measure that influence is by looking at the many works that were dedicated to her by her colleagues. Going

Beethoven is famous for writing big, loud, boundary-breaking music, from the string-breaking fury of his late piano sonatas to the glorious dramatics of his ninth symphony for chorus and orchestra. But the heart and soul of Beethoven’s art are found

Let’s continue our exploration of early compositions by famous composers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is widely regarded as the child composer par excellence. It was probably because of Mozart that the image of the child composer first

The clarinet is one of my favourite instruments, and it is very hard to argue against the Mozart Clarinet Concerto or the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. The instrument was a relatively new addition to the woodwind family and was invented by