Meet Frédéric François Chopin

People tend to think of Chopin as the ultimate romantic – a composer of music that seems to speak of languid infatuation, heartbreak, and love. Yet there is much more to his music than that. He was, in fact, a composer of piano music that was ahead of its time...

Meet Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

  Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, possibly more than any other composer in history, seemed to arrive as a fully formed masterful composer when he was still in his teens. Before he was yet twenty, he had written his masterful string Octet, his ravishing incidental...

Meet Johannes Brahms

The music of Johannes Brahms is often characterized as “warm.” But his works embody a wide range of emotions. Some are warm, yes, but others are troubling, some are reassuring, some are filled with yearning – but all have clearly been crafted by a...

Meet Franz Peter Schubert

During his brief lifetime of 1797-1828, Franz Peter Schubert composed a remarkable body of works, including more than 600 songs (including the song cycles Winterreise, Die Schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang), nine symphonies, masterful chamber works (including the...

Meet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  More than a composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a miracle who composed astonishing works in just about all genres . . .  symphonies, concertos, oratorios, keyboard works, chamber music, as well as enduring masterpieces for the opera stage. All this he did in...