A titan without ego

At the end of the film Mr. Holland’s Opus, Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss), an elementary school music teacher for 30 years, finds his subject cut from the curriculum along with the rest of the arts

After the premiere of his orchestral piece Coptic Light in 1986, Morton Feldman was described by an irate American critic as ‘the most boring composer in the history of music’. Listeners coming to his

Some years ago, Colin Matthews – a lifelong Londoner – bought himself a composing retreat on the Somerset/ Dorset borders and half-seriously confessed to fears that the view of cows from his windows ‘

A scholarly investigation lasting more than 30 years has resulted in two organ pieces by JS Bach enjoying their first performances in over three centuries. In November, the renowned organist and condu

From espresso machine to percolator, there are many ways to make a cup of coffee, and such is the case with Bach’s cantata, too. Sporting just two soloists plus cameo narrator, tracking down a vocal d

‘I felt that I should like to kiss the hands that had awakened a new world of music for me.’ The year was 1888, the occasion was the Paris debut of a 27-year-old pianist named Ignacy Jan Paderewski. A