The crowd gathers in the cobbled yard, children lifted to their shoulders. They are called to the puppet theatre by the showman with the bass drum on his back. On top of the theatre appear three characters: a man in

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was a Dutch painter who expanded the modern abstract painter’s vocabulary by reducing his colour choices and moving to geometric elements to express his art. He is now regarded as one of the greatest artists of the

Franz Liszt: Hunnenschlacht When the newly constructed “Neues Museum” (New Museum) in Berlin was looking for frescoes to illustrate the history of mankind, they turned to the painter and muralist Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874). Kaulbach had made a name for

Adrian Williams: Chamber Concerto, “Portraits of Ned Kelly” Many countries, particularly those with recent wild pasts, have their favourite bad guys – for the US, it can range from Billy the Kid in the 1880s, nicely made into a ballet

In his 2016-2017 collection, George Crumb metamorphosed art by 8 artists into 10 piano works. These weren’t music representations of the actions in the pictures, such as what was done in the past with tone poems, but a far more

A recent work by American composer George Crumb (1919-2022) looked at 10 famous paintings dating from 1872 to 1990. Metamorphoses (Book I), subtitled Ten Fantasy-Pieces (after celebrated paintings), was composed between 2015 and 2017 for amplified piano. Crumb himself pointed

Creations Inspired by Characters in Wagner’s Siegfied, Tristan und Isolde and Ring Cycle For the artists and followers of Decadence in late–19th century London, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was their composer of choice. The artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was a devoted

In 1498, in response to the announcement of the end of the world that the European Christian world believed would happen in 1500, the 27-year-old Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) completed his sixteen designs for the Apokalyse (Apocalypse). Dürer was born in