George V, alongside Queen Mary, was crowned King of the United Kingdom, the British Dominions, and Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911. It had already been announced that the royal couple would travel to India to

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) famously claimed that Schiller’s translation of Carlo Gozzi’s dramatic fairy-tale Turandot in conjunction with Carl Maria von Weber’s incidental music “ruined a masterpiece of Italian literature.” With the centennial of Gozzi’s death on the horizon in 1906,

In the course of your instrumental studies or attending concert performances you might have come across works title “Partita.” It is a slippery term, and throughout history it has designated a number of different concepts. At times it was used

Franz Liszt first met Hector Berlioz a few months after the July Revolution. He attended the first performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in the company of the composer on 5 December 1830. Almost immediately, Liszt started work on his piano

Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944) started his recording career as guitarist around 1911, and his concert career at age 18. This continued for the next 40-some years touring, mainly in South and Central America. Largely forgotten except in his

The Indian mystic poet and saint Kabir is believed to have lived between 1398 and 1448. His writings, according to some scholars, are known “for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam.” He suggested, “True God is with the person

The opening song in Franz Schubert’s song cycle Die schöne Müllerin is the lively and distinctive “Das Wandern” where our hero journey-man miller sings as he walks along a stream, appreciating all that he sees and hears. It’s a simple

We are so familiar with a work such as Vivaldi’s Spring Concerto from The Four Seasons. As a violin concerto, it provides the violin with the opportunity to show off the player’s virtuoso skills. We’ve heard it and, dare I