I recently discovered Stockhausen’s text-notated collections Aus den sieben Tagen — a wonderfully inventive approach to rethinking improvised music. To Stockhausen, what we commonly call improvisation is never entirely free; it remains tied to traditions and inherited reflexes, whether from

First created in 1853 as work for piano and cello, Gounod combined an improvisation with Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier. By superimposing his melody over the 1722 work, Gounod

It’s the nightmare every classical musician dreads: a heart-stopping memory lapse. Even the most celebrated classical musicians have experienced them. Even during the high-stakes pressure of the Tchaikovsky Competition or on the hallowed stage of La Scala, memory slips are

Everyone knows that Ludwig van Beethoven’s music is among the most popular and influential in classical music history. However, not everybody knows that we would have had many more works if he hadn’t spent years of his life trying to

The history of classical music is full of tragic stories of composers who died too young: Chopin, Schubert, and Mozart. Sadly, the history of the art is also full of tragic stories of pianists who met the same fate. From

The cello is often said to be the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice. Its warm timbre and expressiveness have inspired composers from Vivaldi to Elgar. Nowadays, thanks to YouTube, audiences can enjoy the results of that inspiration

Few pianists in history have embodied artistic courage quite like Maria Yudina. A deeply religious musician living in the Soviet Union during the twentieth century, Yudina was both revered – and feared – for her uncompromising moral and musical vision.

What if Mozart had lived to teach Beethoven? What if Gershwin had written his “American symphony”? What if Debussy had finished his mysterious Poe operas? Classical music history is filled with “what-ifs,” but few are as haunting as the early