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• Personalities
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical
• Instrumentalist

1928–2012 Dutch harpsichordist After studying at the Schola Cantorum in Basle, Dutch-born Leonhardt made his debut as a harpsichord player in Vienna in 1950. He was professor of harpsichord at the Vienna Academy of Music 1952–55. From 1954 he taught at the Conservatory in Amsterdam, where he was organist of the Nieuwe Kerk. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Conductor
• Late Romantic

(Goos’-taf Ma’-ler) 1860–1911 Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler bestrode the world of music at the end of the nineteenth century. ‘My time will come’, he remarked about his often misunderstood compositions. For Mahler the conductor, due recognition did come during his lifetime, but another half-century had to pass before a fully sympathetic appreciation of his creative achievement was possible ...

• Stage & Scene
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

No discussion of this period in opera’s history would be complete without looking at Gustav Mahler (1860–1911). Although he is known primarily for his expansive, neurotically tinged symphonies and orchestral song cycles, he contributed hugely to the development of opera through his work as a conductor. Mahler was born in 1860 and he began his conducting career at Bad ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1860–1956, French Born in 1860, Charpentier studied the violin at the Lille Conservatory and subsequently entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied both violin and composition. Having begun composition studies with Hector Pessard, he later studied under Massenet, whose advice contributed to Charpentier’s victory in the Prix de Rome in 1887. Part of the prize involved a ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

Composed: 1889–96 Premiered: 1900, Paris Libretto by the composer or Saint-Pol-Roux Act I From the balcony of her parents’ house in Montmartre, Louise can see Julien, a poet. He has written two letters to her father, asking to marry her, although she says she loves her parents too much to elope. Her mother drags her away ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Modern Era

(Goos’-tav Holst) 1874–1934 English composer As young men, Holst and Vaughan Williams were musically and personally close, collecting folk songs together and playing through each other’s works. Unlike Vaughan Williams, Holst had no private income; he made his living first by playing the trombone, then as an inspiring teacher, at St Paul’s Girls’ School, London ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Conductor
• Contemporary Classical

b. 1981 Venezuelan conductor From the age of five Dudamel was educated within the Venezuelan network of children’s orchestras known as El Sistema. In 1999 he was appointed music director of its leading orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (now the Simón Bolívar Symphony). After appearing as guest conductor with orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, he ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Composer

(An-dra Âr-nest’ Mo-dest’ Gra’-tre) 1741–1813 Belgian (French) composer Born in Liège, Grétry studied in Rome and in 1767 settled in Paris. With the success the next year of Le Huron he quickly became the leading composer of opéra comique, having particular successes with Zémire et Azor (1771), La caravane du Caire (‘The Caravan of Cairo’, 1783) and Richard Coeur-de-Lion (‘Richard ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical
• Instrumentalist

b. 1982 Chinese pianist Lang Lang entered the Beijing Central Conservatory at the age of 10, later continuing his studies in the US. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, and went on to become the first Chinese pianist to appear with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. By the time of his appearance at the opening ...

• Arts & Culture
• Classical
• Late Romantic

If any city could be cited as epitomizing the sense of decline and despair in the late nineteenth century it would be Vienna. Heartland of the oldest existing European empire, its shift from the liberalism of the 1840s towards the political conservatism of the 1890s onwards was typical, as was the inability of its emperor and ruling aristocracy to ...

• Instruments
• Percussion

The celesta is a type of keyboard glockenspiel, with a range of four octaves upwards from middle C, and a damping pedal like a piano. Inside the body of the instrument is a series of chromatically tuned metal bars, which are struck with felt hammers when the performer plays the keyboard. Creation of the Celesta The celesta was ...

• Instruments
• Woodwind

Unusually among musical instruments, a specific date has been posited for the invention of the clarinet. Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg has been claimed as the man who, in 1700, devised and built the first of these instruments. Like all the best stories, however, the history of the clarinet is shrouded in mystery. The instrument attributed ...

• Instruments
• Ensembles

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who have come together to play music. In theory, an ensemble could contain any number of instruments in any combination, but in practice, certain combinations just don’t work very well, either for musical reasons or because of the sheer practicality of getting particular instruments and players ...

• Instruments
• Stringed

The mandolin is a small, teardrop shaped, plucked stringed instrument. Its most famous form is the Neopolitan mandolin, beloved of all romantics for its use on Venetian gondolas. It is descended from the lute and, since its rejuvenation in the nineteenth century, has remained a popular and versatile instrument. Mandola The mandolin developed from the Italian ...

• Classical
• Late Romantic

The 1860s saw a number of major reorganizations in European politics. Italy became a united country under the king of (former) Piedmont-Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, in 1861 and its new national government tried to retain the kingdom’s liberal ideals, such as removing instances of operatic and intellectual censorship. However, Italy’s liberalism was not aspired to by other ...