Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first visited the city of Mannheim — a little side trip after a performance in Munich — in 1763. Accompanied by his parents and his sister Nannerl, he only stayed for a couple of days before the

Musical Offering, BWV 1079 Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Ton Koopman Frederick the Great of Prussia, affectionately known as “Der Alte Fritz” (Old Fritz) is generally known as a brilliant military campaigner who established the reputation of Prussian military might. In addition,

Clara, Ludwig, or both? Robert Schumann (1810-1856) had one of the most fascinating and varied biographies of all the nineteenth-century German composers. Forced by his guardian to study law, he rebelled against its pharisaical quibbling at age nineteen and moved

Niccolo Paganini Niccolo Paganini (1782 –1840) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer who loved playing tricks during his performances. To impress his audience, he would sometimes tune one of his strings a semitone higher, and at other times he

The transitional period between Bartolomeo Cristofori’s pianoforte designs of the 1720’s and the essentially modern-day instruments produced by John Broadwood, Ignaz Pleyel and Sébastien Érard around the turn of the 19th century not only coincides with the approximate lifetimes of

This July, Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra – renowned for tackling heavy German fare – switched gears to buoy Opera Australia’s mostly minimalist production of Madama Butterfly. It worked: despite being the ostensible “B” cast the evening I went, the stage’s