Conductors Archive

Johannes Brahms composed his third symphony in the space of only four months, which is especially noteworthy because it had been six years since the completion of his second symphony. The symphony in F major …

Early sketches for the Beethoven symphony #6 date from 1802, though its actual composition waited until the summers of 1807 and 1808, which Beethoven spent in the village of Heiligenstadt. In that rural retreat, a …

Mendelssohn worked on sketches for his third symphony when he was in Italy in 1831, but set them aside, not completing the work until 1842. The strength of the work is immediately apparent in the …

Musicians who have performed for many years often take up conducting. Examples are Yitzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Yehudi Menuhin, Joshua Bell, and many others. Now pianist Yuja Wang joins this amazing group. Ms. Wang was …

It is amazing that Sergei Rachmaninov ever wrote a second symphony. He was so shattered by the terrible premiere of his first symphony in 1897—“the most agonizing hour of my life,” as he later put …