At the insistence of his grandmother, Leonard Bernstein was born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence Massachusetts on 25 August 1918. His parents, Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, always called him Leonard, and to his friends and many others he

Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are often referred to as the ‘New Testament’ of the pianist’s repertoire, and for many pianists they offer a remarkable, quasi-religious journey – physical, metaphorical and spiritual – through Beethoven’s creative life. This is truly “great”

Claude Debussy once told a journalist in Vienna, “See how they are mistaken. Some think I am a melancholy northerner, other that I am from the south, from Provence, the country of Daudet—tireli, tirela! Well, I am just a native

The world of opera is a world of fantasy – people fall in love just by hearing the other person, all rumours are instantly believed, and miscommunication rules. Three French operas stand out because of their use of exotic locations

Janet Baker, born in Yorkshire on 21 August 1933, considers herself perfectly lucky. “I have all the thing which, to the outward eye, spells success,” she writes. “A marvelous career, the kind any performer dreams about… All my working life

Scrolling through Twitter recently, this concert poster immediately jumped out at me: It’s striking, isn’t it? Not just the bright colours and simple design, but the choice of image which instantly says “summer” – appropriately, for a summer concert. It’s

Maxim Vengerov, born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, combines “superb technical command with lyrical eloquence that easily captivates audiences.” He is hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and sometimes lauded as “the greatest living string player in

Popular for just over a century, the Bourrée or Bourée started as a folk dance in the mid–17th century but upon its adoption by the Academie of Dance at the French court (the Academie was established by Louis XIV in