Carl Ruggles (1876–1971) was a musician from a young age, first playing his homemade violin (with a cigar box for the body) and then a quarter-sized violin from a local friend. His mother loved singing, and Ruggles learned his music

Pablo de Sarasate looked every inch the 19th-century virtuoso. Impeccably dressed, with a finely trimmed moustache, he carried himself with aristocratic poise. He commanded the room before he even played a single note. Audiences who heard him perform on his

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