Pavel Kolesnikov, born on 25 February 1989 in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, never expected to become a prize-winning pianist. In fact, he studied both the piano and the violin for ten years before focusing on the piano. He had

One of the leading Italian lirico-spinto sopranos of her day, Renata Scotto was one of the defining voices of the postwar era. She invested her roles with a rare combination of vocal agility and dramatic power, always grounded in her

At the ripe old age of twenty-one, Edward Elgar (1857-1934) was still selling musical wares at his father’s shop in the High Street of Worcester. And in his spare time, he was engaged in all manners of local amateur music-making.

On 22 February 1903, Hugo Wolf tragically died in an insane asylum. In imitation of his hero, Robert Schumann, he had attempted to drown himself in October 1898. And just like Schumann, the impending paralysis of tertiary syphilis was accompanied

The Austrian composer, pianist and teacher Carl Czerny (1791–1857) was one of the towering figures in the history of nineteenth-century pianism. He is probably best known for his extensive pedagogical works, such as his études and exercises. Yet, Czerny was

Richard Wagner was the manliest of composers. He was a titan who looked at opera and demanded more gods, added dragons, and maidens to guard the cursed gold. Wagner’s stories are not dainty salon entertainments; they are mythic endurance tests

I just love the piano music of Frédéric Chopin. It makes me laugh, it makes me sigh, it makes me feel as if the world has suddenly become brighter, softer, and a little more magical. There is something in the

The legacy of Henri Duparc (1848-1933), who died at Mont-de-Marsan on 12 February 1933, rests on a remarkably small body of works. Although he only composed a limited number of French mélodies, either sixteen or seventeen, depending on the source,