In the preface of his 1829 collection of poems entitled “Les Orientales” Victor Hugo wrote, “in the age of Louis XIV one was a Hellenist, nowadays one has to be an orientalist.” French intelligentsia in the 19th century was clearly

As always, Mozart provides his father Leopold with a detailed report of his concert activities at the Vienna Augarten. He writes on 29 March 1783: “I need not tell you much about the success of my concert, for no doubt

The American composer Joan Tower has made her reputation as not only a composer but also as a pianist and conductor. Her works are bright and reflect her international upbringing, as well as her classical training.

We all have heard stories of how much Salieri and Mozart hated each other. Well, they really didn’t! Clearly they were competitors in the high-pressure, high-reward musical environment of Vienna with Salieri holding all the important government positions, but there

On 20 March 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sent his father the famous list of subscribers who paid an entrance fee of six gulden for three concerts at the Trattnerhof. “Here you have the list of all my subscribers,” he writes,

Whether we like it or not, Hector Berlioz is primarily associated with a single composition. Everybody knows his Symphonie Fantastique, but his religious works, the dramatic legends, his songs and even his operas are rarely scheduled for performance, and they

Ever since Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) fictionally poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he has gotten some seriously bad press. But as we know all too well, factual information and historical fact have never stood in the way of Hollywood telling a good

When Hector Berlioz went to see a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Paris in 1827, he could hardly have guessed that it would turn into a life-changing experience!