In December 2015 I attended the last performance of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations played by the Russian/German pianist Igor Levit in the Drill Hall of New York’s City’s Park Avenue Armory — the setting arranged by the performance artist Marina

During the Renaissance, lute music was all the rage! A versatile instrument used for accompanying vocal works or for playing short solo dance pieces, it was the most important instrument for secular entertainment. An important aspect of lute performance was

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) Ye choirs of new Jerusalem From Haec Dies Music for Easter (2016) Released by Harmonia Mundi Charles Villiers Stanford: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem“This is the day the Lord hath made”. The Choir of Clare College,

The Austrian composer and pianist Ernst Pauer (1826-1905) was a student of Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, before moving to London in 1851. He was one of the first piano professors at the Royal College of Music and also

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) spent much of his childhood and youth in the Russian countryside. For the rest of his life, he would vividly remember a childhood resonating with the beautiful and exotic sounds of ringing bells. Rachmaninoff writes in 1913,

On 14 October 1850, Robert and Clara Schumann played host to Mary Potts and her husband John Perkins in Düsseldorf. The visiting couple had married in New York just months early, and was looking to spend their honeymoon in Europe.

Recently I gave a concert in a local church. The audience was small, but they listened attentively and seemed genuinely engaged by the music. All except one person (someone who is connected to me through marriage – but not, I

“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening!