Curated category
Composers for piano
- Benjamin BrittenBenjamin Britten was born on the 22nd of November 1913 in the fishing port of Lowestoft, Suffolk, and that birth date is no accident: it fell on the feast…
- Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven could no longer hear the applause his own music had earned. At the premiere on the 7th of May 1824, the contralto Caroline Unger had to…
- Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart was four years old when his father began teaching him minuets at the clavier, treating it as a game.
- Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky once received a score back from his mentor in the mail, returned with a note reading: "Not delivered on account of death of addressee." That…
- Robert SchumannRobert Schumann was born on the 8th of June 1810 in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, into a family of booksellers and translators with no particular…
- Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was born on the 13th of September 1874 at Obere Donaustraße 5 in Vienna's Leopoldstadt, a district that had historically served as a Jewish…
- Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms once interrupted a friend's toast in Berlin with five blunt words: "Quite right; here's Mozart's health." It was January 1896, near the end…
- Gaetano DonizettiGaetano Donizetti died in Bergamo on the 8th of April 1848, seated in a large chair in the palace of a noble family, speaking only in occasional…
- Claude DebussyClaude Debussy was nearly 40 years old before the world knew his name. Then, on the 30th of April 1902, his opera Pelléas et Mélisande opened at the…
- Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was born in the Himmelpfortgrund suburb of Vienna on the 31st of January 1797, the twelfth child of a parish schoolmaster and a…
- George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He spoke them on the night of the 9th of July 1937, as he collapsed in a borrowed house in Beverly Hills…
- Maurice RavelMaurice Ravel was born on the 7th of March 1875 in Ciboure, a Basque town in France less than 20 kilometres from the Spanish border.
- Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky once listened to a playback of his own voice on an Edison recording device and said: "This trill could be better." That was January…
- Aaron CoplandAaron Copland grew up above a Brooklyn shop at 628 Washington Avenue, in a family of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who had traveled through Scotland just to…
- Béla BartókBéla Bartók died in a New York City hospital on the 26th of September 1945, and only ten people attended his funeral. For a man later ranked among Hungary's…
- Felix MendelssohnFelix Mendelssohn was born on the 3rd of February 1809 in Hamburg, in the same house where, exactly one year later, the violinist Ferdinand David would be…
- John WilliamsJohn Williams played two notes for Steven Spielberg, alternating, low and ominous, and Spielberg laughed because he thought it was a joke. The film was Jaws.
- Charles Villiers StanfordCharles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin on the 30th of September 1852, into a family where music was not a hobby but a way of life.
- Joseph HaydnJoseph Haydn once described himself as a man with no escape from his own mind. "Usually musical ideas are pursuing me, to the point of torture," he told his…
- Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Rachmaninoff stepped onto the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in May 1892 knowing, he later admitted, that his one-act opera was "sure to fail." He was…
- Sergei ProkofievSergei Prokofiev died on the 5th of March 1953 , the same day as Joseph Stalin. His coffin had to be carried by hand through the back streets of Moscow, away…
- Alexander ScriabinAlexander Scriabin died on the 14th of April 1915 from a pimple. That sentence sounds absurd, but it is true. A small sore on his upper lip, first noticed as…
- Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich stood backstage at the Leningrad opera house on the 26th of January 1936, white as a sheet, waiting to take his bow.
- Alexander GlazunovAlexander Glazunov stood at the podium in Paris on the 17th of May 1907 to conduct the last of the Russian Historical Concerts, a man at the absolute peak of…
- Carl CzernyCarl Czerny was born on the 21st of February 1791 in Vienna's Leopoldstadt district, and he died in the same city on the 15th of July 1857, having never once…
- Johann Nepomuk HummelJohann Nepomuk Hummel was taught piano by Mozart at the age of eight, housed and tutored free of charge for two years by the most celebrated composer in…
- Muzio ClementiMuzio Clementi was born in Rome on the 23rd of January 1752, the eldest of seven children of a silversmith named Nicolò.
- Franz Xaver Wolfgang MozartFranz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was born in Vienna on the 26th of July 1791. He arrived into this world four months and ten days before his famous father died.
- Anton RubinsteinAnton Rubinstein once told a young Josef Hofmann, "When you are as old as I am, you may do as I do. If you can." That final dare captures the man entirely.