Cellist Truls Mørk, born on 25 April 1961 in Bergen, Norway, has built a reputation as a performer of fierce intensity and grace. A celebrated artist who performs with the most distinguished orchestras, he has made numerous recordings with major

I recently discovered Stockhausen’s text-notated collections Aus den sieben Tagen — a wonderfully inventive approach to rethinking improvised music. To Stockhausen, what we commonly call improvisation is never entirely free; it remains tied to traditions and inherited reflexes, whether from

First created in 1853 as work for piano and cello, Gounod combined an improvisation with Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier. By superimposing his melody over the 1722 work, Gounod

Prokofiev was an extraordinary pianist, but he also loved his strings. Growing up on a rural Ukrainian estate in Sontsovka, thousands of miles from any major city, Reinhold Glière was engaged as a composition tutor. Prokofiev was only 11, and

It’s the nightmare every classical musician dreads: a heart-stopping memory lapse. Even the most celebrated classical musicians have experienced them. Even during the high-stakes pressure of the Tchaikovsky Competition or on the hallowed stage of La Scala, memory slips are

Édouard Lalo’s (1823-1892) fame in France rested almost entirely on his opera Le roi d’Ys, while the rest of Europe couldn’t get enough of his Symphonie espagnole. And let’s not forget that his Cello Concerto has retained a secure place

Everyone knows that Ludwig van Beethoven’s music is among the most popular and influential in classical music history. However, not everybody knows that we would have had many more works if he hadn’t spent years of his life trying to

The history of classical music is full of tragic stories of composers who died too young: Chopin, Schubert, and Mozart. Sadly, the history of the art is also full of tragic stories of pianists who met the same fate. From