The French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) lived the Romantic life like no one else. He painted his life into his music, he conducted his love affairs in public, and never stepped back when he could step forward. From this

On 21 March 1925, Monte Carlo staged the first performance of L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells), by Maurice Ravel. The première of Ravel’s second and final opera was a resounding success, and the composer praised an

It is almost impossible to talk about one without the other, as the sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque are, according to the New York Times, “the best piano duo in front of an audience today.” (New York Times) They

If you look at playlists these days, you’ll find that lists of the “10 Best This” and the “10 Best That” have taken over. And did I mention that the “10 Happiest” and the “10 Saddest” are everywhere. Don’t get

A march, in its most simple definition, is a musical work with a strong rhythmic beat designed to keep soldiers in step. Outside of that very bald declaration, there’s a world of march music. The usual form of a march

If you are looking for perhaps the most famous river journey ever sounded in music, look no further than Bedřich Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau). The idea of turning the Vltava River into a tone poem occurred to Smetana in August

By the time Gioachino Rossini turned 38 years of age, he had composed 39 operas. He staged his first opera in 1810 in Venice, followed by productions in Bologna and Milan. Tancredi of 1813 established his international reputation, which quickly

Have you ever heard of the Romantic pianist and composer Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952)? He might not be a household name, but he composed beautiful music, especially for the piano. Bortkiewicz was born on 28 February 1877, in Kharkov (now Kharkiv,