Think of a series of riffs on an idea, in a variety of styles, moods, rhythm and tempi, and you have the basic framework for a Theme and Variations. As the initial theme is presented in a different way, so

For a number of scholars, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths) is “the first masterpiece of electronic music.” It was premiered in the large auditorium of Cologne’s Westdeutscher Rundfunk on 30 May 1956. The subject of the

‘Something Beyond Understanding’ I begin my interview with Adrien La Marca with a discussion not about music, but of food. Ahead of his performance of the Walton Viola Concerto in Hong Kong on 2 June, we talk about where to

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) started composing as a child and, unlike most children, kept careful track of his writings. His early works are the expected piano pieces and songs but also chamber and orchestral attempts. His first major work took those

The Scarlatti family name—in various spellings—was common in Sicily, with several branches of additional Scarlatti families residing in Rome and northern Italy. Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was the musical bedrock of the family, and he became the most important opera composer

Tension was high in Philadelphia, USA, on 18 March 1927. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra had invited Sergei Rachmaninoff as the soloist in premiere of the composer’s 4th piano concerto in G minor. Rachmaninoff had come to the United

As musicians we can and should call upon our imaginations to enable us to create the myriad sounds we desire from our instrument, and to communicate the story or image of the music to the audience. The first teacher I

In 1879, Brahms wrote to the librarian at the Gesesllschaft der Musikfreunde that he and the violinist Joseph Joachim were planning a tour to the extremes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Could he please send him, with the greatest urgency, some