In the afternoon of 24 February 1901, Gustav Mahler conducted the sixth Philharmonic concert in a performance of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony. Mahler had been unhappy that Bruckner had left so many passages and themes “of a Beethovenian grandeur not carried

Much has been made of Marin Alsop’s appointment as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007. And rightfully so, as she was the first woman to hold this position with a major American orchestra. Her achievement forever raised

Claude Debussy writes, “I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the

On occasion, failure to win a major international competition can be beneficial for an artist’s career. Such was the case with the British pianist Freddy Kempf, born in Croydon to a German father and a Japanese mother on 14 October

The biblical narrative of the New Testament has been called the “greatest story ever told.” And while the story of Jesus Christ is deceptively easy to understand, it is also the most difficult to interpret. One such interpretation premiered on

On 22 September 1830, Frédéric Chopin invited all of musical Warsaw to his home for a dress rehearsal of his E-minor Concerto. The rehearsal was enormously successful and a press review announced, “I hasten to bring a piece of good

Evgeny Kissin, born on 10 October 1971, was undoubtedly one of the most astonishing child prodigies in the second half of the 20th century. But even more remarkable is the fact that Kissin has matured into one of the most

When Emperor Hirohito ascended to the throne in 1927, he initiated a period known as the “Showa Restoration.” It advocated the revival of Shinto, and the so-called “State Shinto,” which had been developing over a period of time, came to