Piano Quintet: II. Ruhig und heiter From WALTER, B.: Violin Sonata / Piano Quintet (2016) Released by Naxos Walter: Piano Quintet: II. Ruhig und heiterIn the early part of his musical career, before he became one of the most revered

For the singing German 19th century, we tend to focus these days on Schubert and Schumann. But there were many many other lied composers and for an example we can look at Carl Loewe (1796-1869).

We all know that the world can be a dark and lonely place. But remember: as a musician, you have the power to shine light into dark corners. I belong to an adult amateur string orchestra, and every holiday season

Louis Spohr (1784-1859), actually born Ludwig Spohr in Braunschweig, was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Early violin studies secured employment with Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick, and barely 16 years old, Spohr accompanied his teacher Franz Eck on

In recent years, the blog (a truncation of the expression ‘web log’) has become a popular means of sharing information and opinions, and there are thousands of blogs across the web on the myriad aspects of classical music and music

Walter Gieseking (1895-1956) had a family that travelled frequently and so his first performances at the piano were without formal training. It wasn’t until 1911 that he was able to start formal study at the Hanover Conservatory. His budding career

Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic games strongly believed that sports and the arts had become artificially separated. As such, he looked to integrate music alongside other art forms in the Olympic competition itself. The first “pentathlon of

Maurice Murphy (1935-2010) was born in west London, but spent his childhood in Yorkshire, in the north of England. He grew up playing in local brass bands, and in 1956 became the principal cornet of the internationally renowned Black Dyke