In the years preceding World War II, Bohuslav Martinů was a much-respected composer experimenting with jazz, folk, and avant-garde creations in Paris. Forced to flee to the United States in 1940, he soon became the living composer whose works were

When Johannes Brahms first met Richard Wagner in 1863 he played his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 for the prophet of the “Artwork of the Future.” The work sounds like an impressive catalogue of variation

Krystian Zimerman is one of the rare cult figures among pianists today. In fact, there are not enough superlatives to describe his pianism, or what he calls “the art of organising emotions in time.” Anything he touches reveals infinite expressive

Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos, better known as Maria Callas, was born on 2 December 1923 in New York City. She was the daughter of Greek immigrant parents, and her father shortened his surname to “Kakos” and subsequently to “Callas,”

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1819-1888) was one of the most celebrated pianists of the nineteenth century, mentioned in the same breath as Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. He was also a most unusual composer, “remarkable in both technique and imagination,” and compared

In 1959 the Greek/American conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos wrote: “All my life I have searched for the perfect modern work. In this symphony I have found it. I shall perform it the next season.” The work in question was Erich Wolfgang

A highly gifted pianist and composer, Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915) was one of Russia’s most influential music theorists. His treatise on counterpoint was called “one of the best books of its kind” by Stravinsky. The delightful blend of rigorous counterpoint, brilliant

The South Korean lyric coloratura soprano Sumi Jo, actually born Jo Su-gyeong on 22 November, 1962 in Changwon, is known for her Grammy award-winning interpretations of the bel canto repertoire. The conductor Herbert von Karajan praised her as “a voice