Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824) was the daughter of the Imperial Secretary of Commerce and Court Councilor to Empress Maria Theresa. She lost her eyesight at the age of 4, and although she initially responded to treatment, she relapsed into her

Whether we like it or not, Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest disruptive forces in the history of music. He was a revolutionary man who lived and worked in revolutionary and tumultuous times, and his music exerted tremendous

“amazing skill, personality and vigor” – Harold C Schonberg Percy Grainger (1882-1961), Australian pianist, composer and noted eccentric, is most famous for ‘Country Gardens’, his transcription of an English folksong, with its frolicking rustic lilt. But Grainger was much more

The American soprano Kathleen Battle read the words of the poet Toni Morrison and commissioned Morrison and the composer André Previn for a song cycle. Seeing the names of those three people in one sentence tells you from the beginning

Fabled pianist Eugen d’Albert compared his wives to Beethoven symphonies. He once told a friend that he intended to marry until he got up to the ninth, with chorus! Unfortunately, he only lived long enough to manage the “Pastoral.” For

“Never play faster than you can think” This well-known maxim by pianist, teacher and composer Tobias Matthay has a relevance both in day-to-day practice, and also in performance. When we practice, in our eagerness to move on to a new

How did Josef Strauss incorporate his life passions in his compositions? Born into one of the most famous Viennese musical families, Josef Strauss (1827-1870) really had no intention of becoming a musician. Even his father, the world-famous Johann Strauss Senior

9 November 2020: Dowland, Britten, Wigglesworth, Brahms This concert will be live streamed on the Wigmore Hall website in HD, and all concerts in the Autumn Series will be available on demand for 30 days after the date of the