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

“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

First taught by his mother, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson studied at the Julliard School under Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. The unique persona and creative genius of the pianist account for his recent rise to fame. Currently one of the

Pianist, Scholar and Composer When Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915) attended the funeral of his student Alexander Scriabin in 1915, he caught a rather severe flu. Instead of taking proper medicine and rest, he continued to resist the virus and persisted

“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

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

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