Are you a stamp collector? I used to be, but not anymore. However, I still enjoy looking at stamps and being fascinated by the different designs. One afternoon, I was looking at my stamp collection, which made me wonder if

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Emanuel Ax has been described as “a quiet, self-effacing character and a genuinely poetic musician, the antithesis of the glitz that characterises some of his more populist colleagues.” A multiple

When we think about the great composers, it’s easy to imagine them as super-geniuses isolated in their own little rarefied world. But of course, the great composers were only human, living and working alongside other humans. Almost all of the

One of the greatest concert and opera conductors of the 20th century, George Szell was a child prodigy. Educated in Vienna, Szell made his conducting debut at the age of 16 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and he was appointed

The words “violin” and “fiddle” are often used interchangeably to refer to the same thing: i.e., a musical instrument with four strings and played under the chin with a bow. However, even though the instruments are almost identical, that doesn’t

Sandrine Piau initially made her name by working with William Christie in the field of Baroque music. Today, she commands a formidably wide-ranging repertoire, embracing operatic roles from Mozart to Poulenc and from Debussy to Britten. She also takes pleasure

One of the most popular artists of our time, Cecilia Bartoli has sold more than ten million audio and video recordings worldwide. She created the Cecilia Bartoli Music Foundation in 2018, aiming to bring classical music to a wider audience

In one of their recent issues, the BBC Music Magazine published an article on the most famous Requiems. Jeremy Pound asked composer Michael John Trotta, who had recently completed his own Requiem, to name his favorite. At first Trotta replied