The story has it that the Goldberg Variations were written for the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727–1756), who entertained the long white nights of Count Hermann Karl von Keyserling (1697–1764), the Russian ambassador to Saxony. Bach was well paid for

Browse streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, as well as broadcasters like the BBC, and you will find curated playlists of music for relaxation, calm, winding down, nighttime, and sleep. That Max Richter’s Sleep – his landmark

‘With this recording, I brought to life a deeply cherished, lifelong vision: to delve into the essence and to record Frédéric Chopin’s complete cycle of 27 études – Op. 10, Op. 25, and the three études without opus numbers –

The French-American composer Betsy Jolas reaches her centenary this year, and this is being celebrated by the first recording of her orchestral music. These are all recent works, dating from 2006 to 2021, and reveal a composer who deserves far

The Carnival Season in 1715 was a time of great uproar – not only for the two months of the Carnival season but also because Europe was in a time of change. In France, Louis XIV had just died, leaving

Sir András Schiff now rarely announces his recital programmes in advance; he reveals them on stage, or via a sheet of paper outside the hall after the concert, although what he plays is not unpredictable to those familiar with his

Gaetano Donizetti’s setting of the final days of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, as Anna Bolena, is a story of love and hate, loyalty and lies, and, ultimately, one woman’s death so another can take her place. In today’s

Last week, Yunchan Lim appeared in Hong Kong with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the baton of Wilson Ng, bringing us his own take of the piano concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann. I sat