After Frédéric Chopin was seen by three physicians in Mallorca in 1838, he wrote, “…in the last three weeks, I was sick like a dog, three of the best known physicians of the whole island came to examine me… the

Musicians will be familiar with this image of an iceberg. The tip, the visible part, represents our public persona and the music we perform and share with others, while the much larger mass which is hidden below the surface of

The concert hall is like the theatre, and the performer the actor on the stage. And for the audience, a concert is both a visual and aural experience – we “listen” with eyes as well as ears. Today audiences are

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes brought music, art, and dance into the 20th century. Eschewing the traditional, Diaghilev worked with the leading artists in all fields to bring a new life to a fairly moribund art form.

In 2016 we remember the 150th anniversary of the passing of Johann Baptist Wenzel Kalliwoda. Remember might be a somewhat misleading word, as the 20th century never managed to acknowledge his contributions to music. Interest in the composer was reawakened

You might never have heard of the composer Léo Delibes, but I bet you are familiar with at least one of his tunes. I am, of course, talking of the “Flower Duet” from his opera Lakmé. The opera has barely