I spent much of last year studying Wagner’s great tetralogy of music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelung. If anyone hasn’t done so, I would heartily recommend it – simply to list the number of things I found fascinating about

Milstein and Heifetz are but two violinists comprising the golden age of violinists. A discussion would not be complete without including David Oistrakh, Fritz Kreisler, Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern. Heifetz and his teacher Leopold Auer were viewed as traitors

Arnold Schoenberg Brettl-Lieder (excerpts) The French cabaret, around the turn of the 20th century, was much more then a simple place for drinking, dancing and entertainment. It was a gathering place for the artistic and literary elite that also served

With the start of a new year, it is always good to summarise the highlights of the previous one and reflect on ways to make the very most of the one to come. The year 2012 has been busy. We

‘It’s really an unsuccessful event, or a harsh word – failure – that makes people learn. To define ‘successful’ is difficult, but for me, it’s that no matter how hard you try, how high you’ve reached, there’ll always be somebody

It is generally acknowledged that no single operatic composer influenced Richard Wagner as decisively as Carl Maria von Weber. When Richard was nine, Weber came to Dresden to rehearse and conduct his opera Der Freischütz. In his autobiography, Wagner gives

In 1884/85, a wealthy patron of classical music named Jeanette Thurber set out to establish a uniquely American school of classical music composition. To accomplish this ambitious undertaking, she founded in quick succession the National Conservatory of Music of America