The Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 56 by Ludwig van Beethoven, more commonly known as the “Triple Concerto,” has not fared well with critics, scholars and audiences alike. Music critic Marion Scott suggested that the

One of the most important modern composers to take up the ideas of birds and music was the French composer Olivier Messiaen. He had been fascinated with birds for a long time but it was only in 1952, when he

Yekaterina Vasilyevna Geltzer was a prima ballerina of the famous Bolshoi Ballet, who danced in the theatre from 1898 to 1935. Her father Vasily was an outstanding mime dance and director at the theater, but he believed that his daughter’s

Considered the heir of the Russian Romantic musical tradition, Reinhold Moritzevich Gliére (1875-1956) primarily composed on a grand scale and in large forms. His music is well known for its expressive melodies and colorful orchestration inspired by Russian folklore. Gliére

“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening! The musical estate of Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1741) contains a

The Sorrows of Mary became the theme for the Stabat Mater, or, to give it its full name, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, or The Sorrowful Mother Stood. The sorrowful mother, Mary, standing at the foot of the cross upon which her

Although the madrigal in Italy was an occasion for setting some of the most notable poets of the age, when the madrigal got to England after 1558, it quickly succumbed to the most bawdy of texts. Composers were quick to

In 1951, the researcher Henry Solomon approached his classmate Robert Sarnoff, a rising executive at NBC television, about the phenomenal amount of film that each side in the Second World War had in their stocks. Solomon has been working with