Classical Musicians and Reviews

Includes embedded videos, text and translations, general remarks about each piece and specific listening guides. Learn to love Renaissance choral music (no prior knowledge required)!

A few classical music fun facts. Maybe they will spark an interest or maybe they are just a bit of trivia to lighten your moodl

This article provides excerpts and details from five of the meanest, harshest, and the most unsympathetic reviews of Classical composers that are viewed as geniuses today.

Sergei Prokofiev was a major twentieth-century composer who has left us some beautiful music as a legacy. His compositions were often unusual for his time.

Read about classical music composers depicting morningtime, Ravel, Debussy, Haydn, Elgar, Roussel, Grieg and Delius all taking inspiration in different ways, from Greek classical literature and a painted ceiling to time spent on an orange plantation.

With all the choices in music to listen to today, it's no wonder that many people don’t listen to classical music. One of the reasons may be a lack of knowledge about this musical genre.

Composers inspired by the sea. Britten, Wagner, Debussy, Elgar, Delius, Ravel, Alkan and Mendelssohn all wrote with the sea in mind amid storms, calm seas, the waves and from the sea shore.

Read about composers' visions of travel. Ravel, Mahler, Honegger, Offenbach, Vaughan Willliams , Jan Sandström and John Adams all composed pieces based on a form of transport, boats, bikes, locomotives and aeroplanes, and of course, feet.

Read about great female pianists, Kathryn Stott, Mitsuko Uchida, Angela Hewitt, Maria Joao Pires, Marta Argerich, Alicia de Larrocha and some wonderful pianists from a bygone age like Lili Kraus.

The cornett, cornetto, or zink produces a lovely sound that often resembles the human voice. It has finger holes like a recorder and a mouthpiece like a trumpet. It's popular with early music fans.

Read about what tragedies befell some of our most treasured composers - Purcell, Dvorak, Alban Berg, Weber, Bizet, and Felix and fanny Mendelssohn.

Read through the night with John Field, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Manuel de Falla, Britten, Rossini and Mozart and Schönberg. On the way visit gardens, sirens and lovers working out a painful relationship, tolling bells and evening sunsets and a bit of light entertainment fit for a soirée.

Doug Perry is a percussionist, composer and music educator based in Connecticut. His musical passions and abilities span a wide range of genres from jazz to classical, traveling down many other musical avenues along the way.

Have you heard of the ondes Martenot, the lira organizzata, theramin, barytone, arpeggione, musical saw, musical clock or glass harmonica? Unusual instruments great composers have written for.

The Ars Nova period in music history began in 14th century France and would lay the groundwork for modern music notation.

Rigoletto is a popular opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi. In this article I discuss the opera's history, plot, and leading characters. I also include some of its lovely music.