In 1887, Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz brought together a number of works for solo piano that he’d written the previous year and created his Suite Española No. 1, Op. 47. The works take the entire country for their inspiration, with

Composers tend to be a peculiar lot, particularly as it pertains to the best and most conducive circumstances in which they compose their best music. Of course, reports of that nature tend to be highly anecdotal, but more often then

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his mother arrived in Paris in April 1778. As he quickly reports to his father, he wasn’t particularly impressed by the city of lights. In fact, he considered Paris to be a real dump! He complains

When you think of the music of Aaron Copland, you think of light. Open vistas. Cowboys. Cowgirls. Pure Americanisms. But in the early 1920s, Copland was in Paris, starting to write his first orchestral music. He and his roommate, the

The Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) launched his international career as a pianist and composer from Paris. He won a number of prizes and embarked on yearly concert tours to the United States, yet he was restlessly searching for a

Mozart indignantly writes to his father from Vienna: “You are looking forward to seeing me again, my dearest father! That alone can persuade me to leave Vienna…We had a grand concert here yesterday—probably the last. It was a great success,

If you are ever looking for a refined and sophisticated synthesis of jazz and classical music born from improvisation one name immediately comes to mind—Jacques Loussier (1934-2019). A conservatoire-trained pianist, Loussier created a veritable sensation in 1959 by establishing a

Mozart writes to his sister in April 1782: “My darling Constanze has at last summoned up courage to follow the impulse of her kind heart, and to write to you. If you are so good, dear sister, as to answer