Composers Archive

Frederick Chopin knew all of Bach’s Preludes by heart; he used them diligently in his own practice sessions and also as instructional material for his piano students. When Chopin decided to write some preludes of …

More than two hundred years ago, a 17-year-old kid from Vienna wrote a song that would change the way composers thought about songwriting. That young man was Franz Schubert, and his song “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (Gretchen …

Nicola Bennetti was born on 1 July 1987 in West Kilbride (Ayrshire) to Italian parents. In 1997 she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya. While at the school …

The piano as an instrument during the 1700’s and 1800’s appeared and sounded quite different from today’s instruments. The piano progressed from using a plucked string technology to using the later approach where a felt-covered …

When he created his ‘Great’ symphony in C major, Franz Schubert composed a work of mighty proportions. Robert Schumann, who became aware of the score after Schubert’s death, spoke of  The symphony’s amazing attributes. Not …