Many music lovers only know a few things about Clara Wieck Schumann: that her father forbade her from marrying Robert Schumann, for instance, or that Brahms fell in love with her. But she was more than just a daughter, wife,

There are a variety of reasons why the exceptional composer and theorist Antoine Reicha (1770-1836) has been confined to the dusty pages of music history. For one, he brusquely turned his back on the performance and publication of his own

Comforting Stories of Persevering Classical Musicians Despite Hardship and Struggles The common image of the struggling artist started with Mr. Ludwig van B. We all know the story of him overcoming his disability to create some of the most uplifting

In the summer of 1800, Beethoven took quarters for himself and a servant in a house in the village of Unter-Döbling, about one hour walk from Vienna City Center. Beethoven habitually escaped the oppressive heat of the inner city during

Because of its brevity and seeming simplicity, the “Lied ohne Worte” became a musical and technical test bed for a good many aspiring composers. In addition, it could deliberately, or as was the case with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, inadvertently express

When Francis Poulenc described the musical scene in wartime Paris to musicologist André Schaeffner, he singled out two composers who took notice of modern trends. One was unsurprisingly Olivier Messiaen, who was forging ahead with a “synthetic modal techniques within

Biographers have suggested that Gabriel Fauré “always retained a great affection for his wife Marie Frémiet.” She did have, it was said, a withdrawn, bitter and difficult character. Combined with Fauré’s keen sensuality and desire to please, it possibly helps

One of the delights of the 2003 movie Les Triplettes de Belleville was the nightclub scene where the triplets, who had been stars of the French music halls in the 1930s, take the stage in their very old age with