With Chinese New Year once again around the corner, let us take a quick look at the extended tradition of Western fascination with China in arts and in music. “Chinoiserie” is commonly characterized as the use of decorative Chinese motifs

After Frédéric Chopin was seen by three physicians in Mallorca in 1838, he wrote, “…in the last three weeks, I was sick like a dog, three of the best known physicians of the whole island came to examine me… the

Hector Berlioz’s visit to the Odéon Theater in 1827 not only inflamed a deeply burning passion for his future wife, the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, but also for the dramatic genius of William Shakespeare. Berlioz’s infatuation with Harriet gave rise

“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening!

In 2016 we remember the 150th anniversary of the passing of Johann Baptist Wenzel Kalliwoda. Remember might be a somewhat misleading word, as the 20th century never managed to acknowledge his contributions to music. Interest in the composer was reawakened

You might never have heard of the composer Léo Delibes, but I bet you are familiar with at least one of his tunes. I am, of course, talking of the “Flower Duet” from his opera Lakmé. The opera has barely

Dictatorial societies are notorious for fostering environments of suspicion and fear. It is always chilling to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s three-volume narrative The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn relied on eyewitness testimony and primary research as well as his own experiences as a

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was never particularly interested in making friends! Rather, he became thoroughly absorbed in a mission to write music worthy of his time, and to fight cynicism and indifference wherever he found them. That he mercilessly dismantled the