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,

Gidon Kremer is considered one of the most original and compelling violinists of his generation. A winner of the Queen Elizabeth, Paganini and Tchaikovsky International Competitions, he has released an astonishing 120 CD albums with music ranging from the early

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