The middle movement of Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 (1935), later arranged by the composer for orchestra as Adagio for Strings, is “one of the most…

A string quartet of ASO musicians performs the works of Italian-born Nino Rota (1911-1979). Born into a family of musicians, Rota was no stranger to music and was a child…

Much of Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) opus is a testament to the influence of literature on his life. The son of a book publisher and dealer, Schumann was heavily immersed in…

Ranked among the greatest American composers, William Grant Still was nicknamed the “Dean of African American Composers” for the many firsts he achieved during his substantial career. He was the…

Widely regarded as the masterpiece of his oeuvre, Sir Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1900) tells the tale of a man traversing the path from death to Purgatory. Based…

One of the most revered Romantic composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Richard Strauss’s symphonic poems and operas remain an indispensable feature of the standard repertoire. This…

One of “The Five,” a group of 19th-century composers in Russia, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was well known for his development of a distinctly Russian style of classical music. His musical…

A great nation in turmoil after the abrupt end to a ruling dynasty leaving no clear path forward. This was Russia in the Time of Troubles, the seventeenth-century period in…

Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) first premiered his symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid, 1903) during the Vereinigung Schaffender Tonkünstler’s second concert in 1905. Though the piece was based on Hans…

A contemporary of Saint-Saëns, Emmanuel Chabrier was an independent-minded and important innovator—many saw him as having paved the way for French modernism. With his comic opera The King in Spite…

One of the leading composers of the 20th century, Alban Berg was born in 1885 to an affluent family in Vienna, Austria. Initially trained by his aunt in piano, Berg…

This week’s offering from the archives of the Bard Music Festival celebrates the music of two seminal composers from south of the border: Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas. In times…

Nowadays unjustly neglected, Neoclassical composer Walter Piston is often praised for his individuality and disciplined handling of material, which is highly evident in Violin Concerto No. 1.  In his youth, Piston taught himself how to…

A highly gifted pianist and composer, Taneyev was a protégé and champion of Tchaikovsky’s, serving as a soloist in early performances of the older composer’s piano concertos. Taneyev was one…

Arguably one of the greatest German symphonists of the 20th century, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) was the youngest of four, born to an artistically inclined family. Between 1924 and 1929,…

Written by Dame Ethel Smyth, English composer and leader in the women’s suffrage movement, The Wreckers was first performed in Germany in 1906 and was mounted in the composer’s homeland…

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927) has been popularly noted as leaving his biggest mark on the classical music landscape as a teacher. A largely impactful force of Austrian Romanticism, notable students of…

In collaboration with Bard’s Fisher Center, ASO Online illuminates the work of German Romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber, featuring his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1 and…

Roger Sessions, a composer with a profound impact on the American musical scene post-World War II, completed his first symphony in 1927, at the age of thirty. This early three-movement…

SummerScape’s production of Anton Rubinstein’s operatic masterpiece Demon first premiered to great acclaim in 1871. Although performed frequently in Russia, the work remains something of a rarity in the West…