French conductor Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) always seemed to be the right man at the right time. As a student of violin and viola at the Paris Conservatoire, his fellow students included George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, and Alfred Cortot. Upon graduation,

Making an inspired mixture of the virtuosic and the picturesque, Spanish composer Joaquín Turina (1882–1949) composed the piano sonata Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the spring of 1921. He defined it as a ‘picturesque sonata’, but that innocent title hides the

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Nikolai Kapustin (1937–2020) occupies a distinctive place in 20th- and 21st-century music. A classically trained pianist and composer, Kapustin cleverly fused the formal, structural rigour of classical music with the rhythmic vitality and improvisational idioms of jazz. His works defy

Bryn Terfel, the Welsh bass-baritone opera superstar, has a career packed with dramatic highs, cultural impact, and charismatic flair. From conquering Wagnerian epics to belting out Elvis covers, his story blends raw talent, Welsh pride, and unexpected twists. In the

When Paul McNulty first set foot in Prague in the winter of 1994, he didn’t know that a chance encounter with a piano from Amadeus would change the course of his life. The piano, identical to the one featured in Miloš Forman’s

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most productive composers in classical music history. The size and consistency of his output are all the more extraordinary when you consider how many deaths of loved ones he endured, and how intimately

In a recent recording, the four Fantasias Brasileiras by Francisco Mignone are presented by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, with Fabio Martino as piano soloist. These four works, written between 1929 and 1936, are fascinating piano