No country does winter like Russia, and no composer evokes Russia like Tchaikovsky. Today we’re looking at Tchaikovsky’s most wintry works. What makes a piece of classical music “wintry”, you might ask? Here’s a starting point: References in the title

Everyone approaches the winter holidays differently: some people feel excitement, while others feel dread. It can be a season of celebration, crushing loneliness, and everything in between. The great composers also experienced a wide variety of Christmas celebrations. Today, we’re

When most people think of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), their minds jump to the grand, earth-shaking moments of his music. The first four notes of the Fifth Symphony, the tender glow of the Moonlight Sonata, or the heroic sweep of

Ask a dozen Austen-readers what makes her novels sing, and most will answer, it’s all about wit, moral clarity, and an ear for social nuance. But if you listen closer, literally, you’ll hear music threaded through her pages. From piano

Christmas is always an emotionally charged time of year. It can be everything from a season of hearty celebration to crushing loneliness. Today, we’re looking at five emotional, memorable Christmases from the lives of the great composers: Wagner, Chopin, Tchaikovsky,

For choral musicians, Christmas is an especially joyous time, as it is filled with the warmth of singing beloved carols and sacred works that celebrate the spirit of the season. That shared experience of harmonising in festive concerts creates a

When cultural historians describe the development of eighteenth-century European arts, they often speak of the middle decades as a battleground between the elegance of the Rococo and the rising emotional force of Romanticism. Nowhere is this transitional turbulence more audible

In our last article about Maurice Ravel (Read “Maurice Ravel at the Turn of the Century”), we left off shortly after the resolution of the affaire Ravel, the controversy surrounding Ravel’s exclusion by the judges of the Prix de Rome