You know that Prokofiev wrote some of the greatest music ever. You know that his ballet scores have become some of the most performed dance music ever; on and off stage. You know that he was a child prodigy. You

Argentine-born Pianist Martha Argerich Liszt: Funerailles I’ve been fortunate to hear Argentine-born pianist Martha Argerich live in concert in London twice in recent years, first in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto and then in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. On both occasions I

“It was as if I had been born anew” Prokofiev and Shostakovich are household names in 20th century Russian music, but until recently hardly anybody recognized the name Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996). Born in Poland but forced to flee his homeland

What links Pergolesi, Humperdinck, Weill, and Monteverdi? The same thing that links Pavarotti, Alagna, and Caruso. They are part of a list of some 100 composers, conductors, opera singers, and others who have had minor planets named after them. We’ll

It has been said that every Iranian household contains two books, the Koran and Hafez. And a little saying suggests, “While one is read, the other is not.” More than 600 years after his death, the 14th-century poet Hafez of

Louis Gottschalk & Cuba by Antonio Iturrioz “Give me your hand, my child; I predict that you will become the king of pianists.” So said Frédéric Chopin to American pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, after hearing him perform at

For well over one hundred years, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, K271, carried the mysterious nickname “Jeunehomme.” That nickname turned out to be the invention of the art and music critic Théodore de Wyzewa and the Mozart specialist Georges de