When Claudio Monteverdi secured his first job at the ducal court in Mantua, he had to report to the maestro di cappella Giaches de Wert. A Franco-Flemish composer actively working in Italy, Wert was one of the leaders developing the

A Look at Debussy Piano Music — Preludes Following the model of Bach and his 24 Preludes and Fugues from 1722, Debussy also wrote his own set of Préludes for the piano. Debussy began Book 1 in December 1909, finishing

Prague Spring 2017 72nd International Music FestivalClosing Concert: 2 June 2017Krzysztof Penderecki & Prague Radio Symphony For Krzystof Penderecki, born on 23 November 1933 in Dębica, Poland, music is a fundamental and essential part of the human condition. He started

Maurice Ravel’s piano piece, Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), hides in its deceptively childlike title a radical piano work of great imagination. The pianist Alfred Cortot called it “one of the most astonishing examples of instrumental ingenuity ever contrived.

In Paris at the turn of the 20th century, a group of musicians, artists, and writers formed a group that took its name from a popular term for Parisian street criminals: “Les Apaches” (The Apaches). The Socété des Apaches formed

Amy Beach (1867-1944) was an exceptional musical prodigy. Gifted with perfect pitch and impeccable memory she was able to accurately sing 40 songs by age one. She taught herself to read at age three, and composed a number of dances

Much of the political landscape in 2016 was dominated by Hillary Clinton’s attempt to become the first female President of the United States. In the end, as we all know, it didn’t quite work out. However, Hillary Clinton was by

Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909) met his end in a rather unusual way. An avid hiker, photographer and skier, he undertook long solitary mountain hikes in the Tatra Mountains. During one of his expeditions on 8 February 1909, a sudden avalanche buried