What do you get when you mix religiosity with sexual passion? Audiences got the answer on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It was on that date that Pietro Mascagni’s one-act melodrama Cavalleria Rusticana saw its official

Say ‘Mazurka’ and most people will reply ‘Chopin’. Fryderyk Chopin wrote at least 69 pieces in this form: 45 published during his lifetime, 13 published posthumously, and a further 11, which are known but where the manuscripts are in private

Have you ever thought about writing a full-fledged piano concerto in a little less than 3 week? For most of us, this seems an almost impossible task, but it was not a problem for Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). You see, Anton

Just as pianists develop a strong attachment to the instrument they play most regularly so they can also form a very special relationship with the person who looks after that instrument – the piano tuner / technician.

“She plays duets instead of Grützmacher,” my father grumbled. “Janet, practice your études!” My father, trained in the European tradition, knew the benefits, and difficulties, of the strict methods of Dotzauer, Piatti, Klengel, Duport, and Becker, all brilliant cellists and

A 2014 report shows that 37.4 million commercial passenger flights had been scheduled in that year. That means that an average of 102,465 daily flights departed and landed in all corners of the globe. We have certainly come a long

In 1920, Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss acquired a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which they eventually named Dumbarton Oaks. They engaged an architect to renovate and enlarge the house, and designed a series of

The Premiere of Beethoven’s Last Symphony During the final stages of putting the finishing touches on his 9th symphony (which was also Beethoven’s last symphony), Beethoven was adamant that it should be premiered in Berlin. For years, Beethoven had lamented