Joseph Haydn has entered music history as a jovial, grandfatherly figure with a reputation for a quick wit. Generations later, we still chuckle at the stories behind the Surprise Symphony or the Farewell Symphony. His famous good humor is all

By 1918, the century-old Franco-Belgian traditions of violin and organ studies, developed at the Paris Conservatoire, had undergone modifications that helped consolidate their tenets, empower their disciples, and spread their influence worldwide, to this day.

The 1960s saw the continuing evolution of the musical. More and more it took looks at contemporary society, either in the wild world of Wall Street, as in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, or at today’s youth,

On reading concert reviews What do you do when you read a concert review that you disagree with? Do you bristle with ripe indignation because the reviewer did not concur with your view of the concert and then fire off

The story of Christmas has had a powerful hold on the imagination of writers around the world for centuries. Literary greats ranging from Charles Dickens to Kurt Vonnegut have referenced a variety of Christmas rituals, but the central drama of

Madrid, the heart of Spain, is a city of both historical architecture and the latest of the modern. The classical sound in the city includes the guitar and the orchestra. At the center, the city visitor will find the Royal