It’s the nightmare every classical musician dreads: a heart-stopping memory lapse. Even the most celebrated classical musicians have experienced them. Even during the high-stakes pressure of the Tchaikovsky Competition or on the hallowed stage of La Scala, memory slips are

Everyone knows that Ludwig van Beethoven’s music is among the most popular and influential in classical music history. However, not everybody knows that we would have had many more works if he hadn’t spent years of his life trying to

The history of classical music is full of tragic stories of composers who died too young: Chopin, Schubert, and Mozart. Sadly, the history of the art is also full of tragic stories of pianists who met the same fate. From

The cello is often said to be the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice. Its warm timbre and expressiveness have inspired composers from Vivaldi to Elgar. Nowadays, thanks to YouTube, audiences can enjoy the results of that inspiration

Few pianists in history have embodied artistic courage quite like Maria Yudina. A deeply religious musician living in the Soviet Union during the twentieth century, Yudina was both revered – and feared – for her uncompromising moral and musical vision.

What if Mozart had lived to teach Beethoven? What if Gershwin had written his “American symphony”? What if Debussy had finished his mysterious Poe operas? Classical music history is filled with “what-ifs,” but few are as haunting as the early

There were a few years left of Ravel’s most productive compositional spurt before the havoc of the First World War – let’s see what he made of them… Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé – Part III: Lever du jour (Spirito;

The French Horns are much loved for their warm, velvety, and powerful sound. Hornists are thought of as disciplined perfectionists who have to deal with the pressure of managing this complex instrument with its high technical demands. But we audience