Curated playlist
Composers for piano
- Benjamin BrittenAfter fire destroyed his concert hall in 1969, Benjamin Britten had it rebuilt within a year.
- 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.
- Wolfgang Amadeus MozartMozart finished more than 800 works in thirty-five years and died with his Requiem unfinished.
- Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its 1913 Paris premiere.
- Robert SchumannComposer Robert Schumann fought his own piano teacher in court for the right to marry the teacher's daughter.
- Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg died on Friday the 13th, fifteen minutes before midnight. He had long dreaded the number thirteen.
- Johannes BrahmsComposer Johannes Brahms once cut off a friend's toast in Berlin to raise a glass to Mozart.
- Gaetano DonizettiIn 1811, a teacher staged a play to keep young Donizetti in music school. Simone Mayr wrote it himself.
- Claude DebussyClaude Debussy was nearly 40 before the world knew his name. His opera Pelléas et Mélisande opened in Paris in 1902.
- Franz SchubertFranz Schubert gave just one public concert of his own music. He died at 31 with more than 1,500 works.
- George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He collapsed at age 38 while working on a film score.
- Maurice RavelMaurice Ravel was twice expelled from the Paris Conservatoire. He later became France's greatest living composer.
- Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyHearing his voice on an Edison recording in 1890, Tchaikovsky said, "This trill could be better."
- Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
- Béla BartókOnly ten people attended composer Béla Bartók's funeral in New York in 1945. He had fled fascism five years earlier.
- Felix MendelssohnAt 20, Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin.
- John WilliamsSteven Spielberg laughed at John Williams's two-note Jaws theme, thinking it was a joke.
- Charles Villiers StanfordCharles Villiers Stanford could not persuade Cambridge's music society to admit women, so he started a rival choir.
- Joseph HaydnJoseph Haydn's skull was stolen after his burial and not reunited with his body until 1954.
- Sergei RachmaninoffRachmaninoff left Russia in 1917 with one small suitcase of sketches and scores.
- Sergei ProkofievComposer Sergei Prokofiev died the same day as Joseph Stalin, and his coffin went through back streets.
- Alexander ScriabinComposer Alexander Scriabin died in 1915 from a pimple on his lip. It turned septic within days, and he was 43.
- Dmitri ShostakovichStalin walked out of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera in 1936, and the next day Pravda attacked it.
- Alexander GlazunovAlexander Glazunov conducted the disastrous 1897 premiere of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1.
- 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.
- Muzio ClementiBeethoven kept a volume of Muzio Clementi's sonatas on his music stand. His students also shaped Chopin and Liszt.
- 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…
- Anton RubinsteinAnton Rubinstein gave 215 concerts in 239 days on one American tour. The Russian pianist called it slavery.