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Articles, biographies and essays on composers, performers and great recordings, first published in our Facebook groups.

22 November 2025Lully Vs. Rameau — Death, Legacy, And Musical WorldsJean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau never met, and yet their artistic identities feel destined to be set against each other. They stand like two great pillars at opposite ends of…22 November 2025The Final Illnesses Of Bach Vs. Handel — A Comparative AnalysisJohann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) died nine years apart, in different cities, under different circumstances. Yet their declines reveal striking…22 November 2025The Death Of Lully — A Complete AnalysisIn the winter of 1686, Jean-Baptiste Lully stood at the height of his power. He was the musical sovereign of Louis XIV’s France, the director of the Académie Royale de Musique, the creator…22 November 2025Schumann - Das Paradies und die Peri - Oratorio - 1843 - Giuseppe SinopoliAmong the large-scale compositions of Robert Schumann, *Das Paradies und die Peri (1843) occupies a singular place. It was the first major oratorio-like work he completed, marking a…21 November 2025Handel’s Funeral At Westminster Abbey — A Full NarrativeaIn the days following George Frideric Handel’s death on the morning of April 14, 1759, London seemed to move more slowly, as if the city were absorbing the loss of a man who had shaped its…21 November 2025The Death Of George Frideric Handel — A Complete AnalysisHandel entered the final year of his life as a man outwardly celebrated but inwardly exhausted. For decades he had been London’s musical monarch — the composer of Messiah, Saul, Israel in…21 November 2025The Last 48 Hours Of Johann Sebastian BachThe morning of July 26 arrived like many others in that stifling Leipzig summer: thick air, low clouds, and a hush that pressed against the windows of the Thomasschule. Inside, Bach lay in…21 November 2025The Death Of Johann Sebastian Bach — A Complete AnalysisJohann Sebastian Bach, 65 years old, had lived long enough to see the world change around him. The Leipzig of 1750 was not the Leipzig he arrived to in 1723 as the towering Kantor of St.…21 November 2025Lully - Ballet Royal de la Naissance de Vénus - Christophe RoussetWhen Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the Ballet Royal de la Naissance de Vénus ("The Royal Ballet of the Birth of Venus"), France was entering a period of artistic transformation. The young…21 November 2025The Mozartdenkmal in the Burggarten, ViennaStanding before the Mozart monument in Vienna does not awaken in me any theatrical emotion or romantic idealization, but something more sober and more profound: the clear sensation of being…21 November 2025Visiting the monument of Franz Schubert in Vienna’s StadtparkVisiting the monument of Franz Schubert today in Vienna’s Stadtpark felt like standing halfway between his real life and the tribute the city now pays him. In front of the statue, it is…21 November 2025The Death Of Mozart — A Complete AnalysisMozart’s last year was one of astonishing productivity. He composed: And he performed, conducted, taught, and attended social events at pace. But beneath this brilliance lay: By autumn…21 November 2025A Psychological Profile Of Brahms During His Last YearThe final year of Johannes Brahms’s life is one of the most revealing psychological periods in the history of any composer. It was a year defined by grief, exhaustion, resignation, pride,…21 November 2025The Death Of Johannes Brahms — A Complete AnalysisThe death of Clara Schumann on 20 May 1896 marks the beginning of Brahms’s final decline. Clara had been more than a muse: she was his emotional compass, his confidante, the artistic mirror…20 November 2025Handel, Muzio Scevola - Opera - London 1721 -Rudolph PalmerMuzio Scevola is one of the most extraordinary works in Baroque opera—not because of its plot or vocal writing, but because it is the only opera in London composed collaboratively by three…20 November 2025Handel, Sosarme, re di Media - 1732 - Johannes SomarySosarme occupies a fascinating moment in Handel’s London operatic life. Composed and premiered in 1732, it appears during a turbulent period when the Royal Academy of Music had collapsed…20 November 2025Handel, Israel in Agypten, arr Mendelssohn - Hermann MaxBy the early 19th century, Handel was respected but rarely performed in full, especially his large-scale oratorios. The one exception was Messiah, usually presented in giant Victorianized…20 November 2025Thomas Tallis – A LifeThomas Tallis was born around 1505—a date never precisely fixed—into an England poised between medieval stability and the upheavals of the Reformation. Little is known of his early family…20 November 2025Hans Feodor von Milde (1821–1899) — The First TelramundHans Feodor von Milde was born in the Austrian Empire and studied with Manuel García, one of the greatest vocal teachers of the century. After joining the Weimar company, he developed into…20 November 2025Ataúlfo Argenta — A Life In 20 ChaptersAtaúlfo Argenta was born on 19 November 1913 in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, a small coastal town shaped by the restless sea and by the humble routines of working-class families. His early…19 November 2025Schubert’s Last 48 HoursThe light that entered Franz Schubert’s small room in his brother Ferdinand’s apartment on the Neue Wieden was thin, winter-colored, and unforgiving. It fell across the bed where the…19 November 2025The Death Of Franz Schubert — A Complete AnalysisThe last six weeks of Schubert’s life form one of the most productive yet mysterious chapters in music history. Despite his fragile health, he was composing with astonishing intensity: His…19 November 2025Lorin Maazel: Analytical Profile of Strengths and Weaknesses* One of the most precise baton techniques of the 20th century. * Gesture economy: minimal movement, maximum clarity. * Perfect beat patterns and instantaneous cueing. * Able to conduct…19 November 2025Lorin Maazel – Psychological Profile & Relations with Orchestras and ConductorsLorin Maazel belonged to that rare category of musicians whose intelligence and control were so absolute that they created an aura of mystery around the man himself. To observe him on the…19 November 2025Lorin Maazel — 30 Anecdotes & CuriositiesFamily friends remembered a toddler standing on a sofa, waving his arms with uncanny authority whenever music played. He could not read yet, but he could already shape a phrase. Maazel…19 November 2025Lorin Maazel – A Life In 20 ChaptersLorin Maazel entered the world in 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, but his upbringing was unmistakably American. Raised in Pittsburgh by intellectually fertile, culturally…19 November 2025Stravinsky - The Complete Piano Solos & Transcriptions - Alexey Zuev - 5 CDSIgor Stravinsky did not consider himself a virtuoso pianist, yet the piano accompanied him throughout his creative life. It served as his laboratory, his ritual space, and the matrix from…18 November 2025Tennstedt and Mahler — A Narrative PortraitThere are musical encounters that feel predestined, as if two souls separated by time were waiting to find each other. The meeting between Klaus Tennstedt and the music of Gustav Mahler…18 November 2025Klaus Tennstedt – Psychological Profile & Relations with Other Conductors and OrchestrasKlaus Tennstedt was, perhaps more than any other major conductor of the late twentieth century, a man whose inner world shaped every bar he conducted. To understand his relationships with…18 November 2025Klaus Tennstedt – 30 Anecdotes & CuriositiesAs a child in Merseburg, Tennstedt was so shy that teachers feared he lacked confidence. Yet at home he astonished his family by singing back long choral melodies after a single hearing.…18 November 2025Klaus Tennstedt – A Life In 20 ChaptersKlaus Tennstedt was born in Merseburg, in the German province of Saxony-Anhalt, in 1926. His childhood was shaped by the quiet rhythms of small-town life and the Lutheran traditions that…10 November 2025Mysliveček and MozartMysliveček and Mozart met in Italy around 1770, and the young Mozart developed great admiration for him. Contemporary accounts and Mozart’s own correspondence reveal that he regarded…24 October 2025Bülow and Brahms: Friendship and LegacyIn the mid-1870s, Bülow’s friendship with Johannes Brahms deepened. He was among the first conductors to perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 1, recognizing in them the…30 September 2025Weingartner's Early Admiration for BrahmsWeingartner’s Early Admiration for BrahmsFrom his student years in Graz and Leipzig, Weingartner was immersed in the music of Brahms. His teachers, including Carl Reinecke in Leipzig, had…24 July 2025🕍 I. The Origins of Fourvià ̈re: A Sacred Hill Long Before the BasilicaThe Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvià ̈re, which now majestically dominates the skyline of Lyon from its hilltop perch, was built between 1872 and 1884 in a striking neo-Byzantine style.…22 July 2025Today, 22/07/2025: Mozart, Bruckner and Mahler.In a single unforgettable day, we set off from Vienna and began our journey with a morning visit to the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace, once the imperial summer residence of the Habsburgs.…22 July 202522/07/2025: A Day to Remember: From Vienna to Salzburg by CarIn a single unforgettable day, we set off from Vienna and began our journey with a morning visit to the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace, once the imperial summer residence of the Habsburgs.…22 July 202522/07/2025📍 Location: 📌 In the village of Steinbach am Attersee, on the eastern shore of Lake Attersee, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich). From 1893 to 1896, Gustav…21 July 2025StadtPark Wien, 21/07/2025When the Stadtpark ("City Park") was officially opened in 1862, it was Vienna's first public park, a creation of the Ringstraße era, designed in the style of English landscape gardens by…20 July 2025The Burgtheater in Vienna: A Stage of Empires and HarmoniesIn the spring of 1741, amid the elegance of the Habsburg court, the Empress Maria Theresa commanded that the Hofburg’s ballroom be transformed into a permanent court theatre. Thus was…