Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) may have written only nine symphonies (a pittance compared with Haydn’s 104 and Mozart’s 41), but in those nine works, he managed to thoroughly expand a form that might have become a bit too complacent. From

As Mozart approached his final years, his work finally started to achieve the promise of his early years. His operas gained an international audience, he was being commissioned to write for private clients, and his works were becoming of a

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was born in Bohemia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and became one of the leading composers and conductors in late 19th-century Vienna. As a composer, he struggled to get his works recognised and performed. As a

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) took the Ballade from being a favourite kind of German poem to something much more eloquent. In the pens of Goethe and Schiller, it was a narrative poem, and the most familiar we know in music includes

On Fridays, the publisher Mitrofan Petrovich Belaieff had his musical gatherings, bringing together the cream of the St Petersburg composers. The earlier group, who came together around Mily Balakirev, known as the Mighty Handful, or just The Five (Balakirev, Alexander

Rising in stately spirals, J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 opens in the strings and flute before the keyboard enters. One of the most noble of the Six Brandenburgs, it uses the basic chamber music ensemble of flute, violin, and

In they come, swaggering and posing, the heroes of the bull ring: the toreadors! In Bizet’s Carmen, the latest love of her life, Escamillo, appears in a procession to the bull ring in Act IV. Escamillo’s arrival and dallying with

As the well-dressed man about town in the 19th century, you’d have your snuff box to hand. Something elaborate in gold or silver, with fine chasing or inlay work or made of tortoiseshell, perhaps. Some of these were elaborate enough