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The last of Paganini’s 24 Caprices for solo violin, Op 1, has captured the imagination of many musicians. Paganini himself thought well enough of it to make it the subject of 11 variations and a ...

The transition in critical estimates of Rachmaninov from ‘salon’ (or, worse still, ‘popular’) to ‘serious’ has been slow. Today, the 1927 edition of Grove claiming that he is ‘too cosmopolitan in ...

Paul Dukas intended La Péri for Diaghilev's famed Ballets Russes, and its exotic subject matter allowed him to demonstrate his subtle mastery of orchestral colours. Rachmaninov's thrilling 'Paganini' ...

These concertos span Rachmaninov's career, from his farewell to Russia (the piano concerto No 1 of 1891) to his uneasy exile in the new world, where he encountered 1920s jazz and big bands but wrote ...

Misha Dichter will celebrate his 80th birthday tour with a performance at Dreyfoos Hall in West Palm Beach on December 16, featuring Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Accompanying him ...

Yevgeny Sudbin’s playing has terrific presence in this recording of Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody. The blend of personality and stylistic perception that marks Sudbin’s live performances is also ...

German conductor Christoph Poppen and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta achieved something remarkable by producing a performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No3, Scottish, that almost made me like the work. I'm ...

When it launched last year with an outstanding recording of Shostakovich's opera The Nose, the Mariinsky label seemed as if it was going to make available some genuinely important performances of the ...

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the great composer-pianist’s birth, here are the ways his virtuosity, creative brilliance, and life story changed the music world. Born on 1 April 1873 into a ...