The symphony began as a kind of warm-up act – a short instrumental piece played before a larger work, meant to settle a restless audience. Over the next two centuries, composers turned that warm-up act into one of classical music’s

Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin are the Himalayas of the violin repertoire – the phrase is George Enescu’s, and virtually every violinist who has ever attempted them would agree. Written around 1720, they remain the most demanding,

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The most popular Glenn Gould performances on YouTube have drawn millions of views. Gould stopped performing live in 1964, retreating to the recording studio and the television camera, but his filmed performances have found an enormous new audience online. His

As part of the enormous ARTE “europiano” project for the 2026 Fête de la Musique, pianist Anna Vinnitskaya joins the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov, in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The

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Over nearly thirty years, Beethoven wrote sixteen string quartets. Each one was unique, but they fall into three groups. The early quartets. The six quartets that make up Beethoven’s Op. 18 were written between 1798 and 1800. They are more