Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (1823 –1892) started his musical career as a viola and violinist, studying at the Paris Conservatoire with François Antoine Habeneck, who had founded and led the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire from 1828. After graduation,

The Russian composers of the late 19th century seemed to vie with each other for difficult piano music. Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) was active as both a nationalist composer and encourager of other composers, most importantly Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Balakirev was important

Inspired by the works of the Spanish Romantic painter and printmaker Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), Goyescas by Enrique Granados (1867–1916) was a 6-part suite for piano, written in 1911. In 1915, he transformed the piano works into

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) loved the poetry of Karl Jaromir Erben, particularly his collection of Czech folk ballads, The Garland, published in 1853. Starting in 1896, once he’d finished his nine symphonies and his other major orchestral works, Dvořák used the

Michael Haydn (1737–1806), the younger brother of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), also had a career in music, smoothed by his older brother’s success in Vienna. Like Joseph, he started his career in the choir of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, at age

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), largely released from duties with the Esterhazy family after the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790, was free to make his second visit to London in 1794. He had been commissioned by Johann Peter Salomon to write

The Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816) was the most popular opera composer at the end of the 18th century. Based in Naples, his operas caught the attention of all of Italy and, in addition to Naples, he wrote operas for

A berceuse is a piece to put you to sleep – particularly if you’re a small child in a cradle. It’s usually in triple meter with a very simple tonality – wild and chromatic is just out of the question