Debussy at the piano! One had to have seen it to appreciate its magic. No words could describe the mysterious enchantment of his playing…– Jacques-Emile Blanche, 1932 2018 marks the centenary of the death of French composer Achille-Claude Debussy (he

When Arturo Toscanini raised his arms at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926, he was getting ready for the premier of an unfinished opera. Turandot, the operatic adaptation of an originally 12th-century Persian epic filtered through

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was trained within a conservatory tradition that emphasized Western compositional techniques and expressions. As such, we would expect to find a multitude of intimate works for small ensembles. In reality, however, his published chamber output is

The Swedish diplomat Fredrick Silverstolpe wrote in May 1800, “Haydn is writing with new zeal since he has had the good fortune to lose his nasty wife.” By most accounts, Frau Haydn was not a particularly pleasant woman, and her

It was always easier to laugh at women instrumentalists than to take them seriously. Entertainer Marguerite Dufay played in the Parisian music cafés in the late 19th century, classified as a ‘comique excentrique.’ A comic eccentric was a performer in

Civilization survived the exuberant nationalism of World War I (1914-1918), bruised but still intact. Weapons technology did not yet match military ambition, and civilians were spared.

The hunting profession—something we call “Wildlife management” in the 21st century—has long helped to maintain a population of healthy animals within an environment’s ecological capacity. Controlling the wildlife and predator population was of particular importance in the densely forested regions

Czech music critics mercilessly criticized Antonin Dvořák for his supposed cosmopolitan musical tendencies. And as a result, he was performed and published less in Bohemia than in foreign lands. In stark contrast, Dvořák gained a particularly loyal following in England,