Curated playlist
19th-century male pianists
- Ludwig van BeethovenBeethoven was deaf when a singer turned him around to see applause. It happened at the premiere on the 7th of May 1824.
- Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche's sister edited his writings to fit her own ultranationalist views.
- Johannes BrahmsComposer Johannes Brahms once cut off a friend's toast in Berlin to raise a glass to Mozart.
- Robert SchumannComposer Robert Schumann fought his own piano teacher in court for the right to marry the teacher's daughter.
- Franz SchubertFranz Schubert gave just one public concert of his own music. He died at 31 with more than 1,500 works.
- Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyHearing his voice on an Edison recording in 1890, Tchaikovsky said, "This trill could be better."
- Felix MendelssohnAt 20, Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin.
- Antonín DvořákAntonín Dvořák wrote a string quartet in just three days. He did it on a 1893 holiday in Spillville, Iowa.
- Sergei RachmaninoffRachmaninoff left Russia in 1917 with one small suitcase of sketches and scores.
- Alexander ScriabinComposer Alexander Scriabin died in 1915 from a pimple on his lip. It turned septic within days, and he was 43.
- Carl CzernyCarl Czerny was ten when Beethoven took him as a piano pupil. He noticed cotton in Beethoven's ears.
- Johann Nepomuk HummelMozart taught Johann Nepomuk Hummel piano for free when the boy was eight.
- Anton RubinsteinAnton Rubinstein gave 215 concerts in 239 days on one American tour. The Russian pianist called it slavery.
- Franz Xaver Wolfgang MozartFranz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was born in Vienna on the 26th of July 1791, four months and ten days before his father died. His father was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the baby was the youngest of six children born to the composer and his…