In popular perception, the Russian composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) is primarily associated with the ideas of the “Mighty Handful.” This group of five prominent Russian composers attempted to create a distinct musical style that sought to capture elements of

The Buddying Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff made his first tentative attempts at composition during the summer of 1886. The resulting piano piece is unfortunately now lost, but his piano-duet transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony was later played to Rachmaninoff’s “musical hero.”

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died from tuberculosis at age twenty-six, on 16 March 1736. He was first buried in a common pit next to the cathedral at Pozzuoli in Naples. His first biographer and friend installed a memorial tablet in the

Catalan soprano Montserrat Figueras, together with partner and husband Jordi Savall, was a leading voice in the early music movement by focusing on the vast vocal repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque periods. Her approach to these immense

Throughout his career, Giuseppe Verdi considered numerous novels and plays by French, Italian, Spanish, and German writers as possible sources for operatic projects. He did contemplate setting several Shakespearean plays, including Hamlet, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Romeo and

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) left behind a substantial number of meticulously crafted compositions for various instrumental and vocal combinations. However, he is primarily remembered for his ten organ symphonies. Inspired by the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, these works

Johann Pachelbel, famed composer of the even more famous canon, died in Nuremberg at the age of fifty-two on 9 March 1706. While his music enjoyed extraordinary popularity in Central Germany immediately after his death, 19th-century historians considered him a

Zoltán Kodály died on 6 March 1967 at the age of 84 in Budapest. At the time of his death he was universally recognised as a composer, pioneering ethno-musicologist, ground-breaking educator, and music critic. The “Kodály Method,” created by colleagues,