Salieri at 200 Celebrating Five Operatic Gems On 7 May 2025 we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), an Italian composer whose contributions to the classical music landscape were profound yet often overshadowed by myths

“The Father of Haydn’s Style” In 2025, we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the passing of the highly influential Italian composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700-1775). Sammartini was one of the foremost composers of the 18th century and a key figure

“The music is beautiful, but too clever and old fashioned for the theatre” The above quote originates in a letter from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father Leopold. Mozart was in Naples in 1770 and had just seen a performance

“Wendling is the foremost flute player of his time” 300 years ago, on 17 June 1723, the town of Rappoltsweiler, now Ribeauvillé, recorded the birth of Johann Baptist Wendling (1723-1797). His family originated from the Alsace region, and his father

Mozart: “Benda was always my favorite” Jiří Antonín Benda (1722-1795), later known as Georg Anton Benda, was born 300 years ago on 30 June 1722 in the Bohemian town of Benátky nad Jizerou, twenty-two miles north-east of Prague. He was

If you have ever taken formal piano lessons, there is a good chance that you will have played some of Johann Baptist Cramer’s celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano. Published in two sets of 42 each in 1804

“Ideas came to me with such rapidity” You most likely have come across the composer Anton (Antoine) Reicha (1770-1836) in a footnote in a book on Beethoven. They were teenage buddies in Bonn, and even played in the same orchestra.

“Bückeburg Bach” An early 20th century dictionary entry on Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795) considered him “an industrious composer whose work reflects no discredit on the family name.” Carrying and doing justice to the Bach family name was no easy