The artistic destinies of those who lived through the cultural ferment in France between 1870-1939, form an interlocking web of cross- influences and political intrigue which can be difficult for the historian to unravel.

The piano study or ‘Étude’ has long engaged and challenged pianists, and the practice of writing Études to provide practice material for perfecting a particular pianistic technique, such as playing octaves, thirds or rapid scalic passages, developed in the early

How does one kill time on board a transcontinental flight? Some are determined to sleep over. Some keep watching movies until get tired and fall asleep. Those in the business or first class may lie down to have a decent

To help identify and organise pieces of music by a particular composer, individual compositions or sets of works are usually given an “Opus” number. The word “opus” is Latin and means “work” or “work of art”, often abbreviated as “Op.”,

The Sonata in A, D959, is the middle panel of the triptych of Schubert’s final sonatas. Schubert completed his final three piano sonatas in September 1828, just a few months before his death at the age of 31. Schubert numbered

Zuzana Růžičková (1927-2017) experienced personal tragedy and suffering on an unimaginable scale! She was a happy but sickly child suffering from tuberculosis, who “was in love with music from the beginning.” She asked her parents to buy her a piano

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) believed that art was separated from reality and existed as a pure form. Having deep faith in theosophy and perceiving himself as the Divine in the world, he was also influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of Übermensch

French pianist Jean-Claude Englebert (1923-2011) was born in Paris to a family of musicians. His father, Oscar, was a renowned violist and his mother, Suzanne, was a concert singer. He attended the Paris Conservatoire, taking the first prize in music