Italian composer Maurizio Guernieri (b. 1962) wanted to explore the world of wind instruments, which he felt, as a string musician, was an unfamiliar corner of the musical world. His 2019 work Musicografie (Images in Music) starts each movement with

Composer Gustav Mahler is famous for his monumental symphonies that reshaped late-Romantic music. Yet he wrote his final symphonies in the shadow of a devastating tragedy: the 1907 death of his daughter Maria Anna Mahler, nicknamed Putzi. The loss shattered

For a composer who wrote one of the most beloved violin concertos ever, brought works by Bach and Schubert into the mainstream, and grew up as one of the most impressive child prodigies in music history, Felix Mendelssohn is still

The twentieth century was a turning point in the history of the cello. For the first time, cellists could be widely heard through recordings, radio broadcasts, and international touring, allowing their playing styles to be preserved, compared, and debated across

One would be hard pressed to argue that the harp is not one of the most unique – and beguiling – of the instruments currently still in frequent use in the Western classical canon. Although you can find one in

Baroque music – composed roughly between 1600 and 1750 – is some of the most recognisable and beloved music ever written. You almost certainly know more of it than you think. The driving pulse of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the soaring

Uruguayan composer Enrique Crespo (b. 1941) was the founder of the ensemble German Brass in 1974, playing trombone in the group. In 1977, seeing a need for more brass ensemble music, he wrote the American Suite No. 1 for brass-wind

The piano concerto was the supreme musical mistress of the 19th-century. Composers-pianists from Beethoven to Rachmaninoff have left us unforgettable masterpieces that still dominate concert halls today. But what is hiding behind those familiar favourites? This question brings me to