Whether Beethoven saved his best symphony for last is a matter of opinion. However, one can hang several descriptors on his Symphony No. 9, and “anticlimactic” isn’t one of them. If you’re performing ...

Decades of research have been poured into every musical and instrumental aspect of the “Historically Informed Performance” (HIP) of classical music: From the way the continuo bands of the time ...

Though the modern listener may never know it, Beethoven composed after Haydn and Mozart, but not after Wagner and Brahms. Acknowledged as the reformer of the sonata form as used in the symphony, ...

Beethoven, the wild-haired German composer, is ubiquitous during the fall symphony season. It makes sense, as his booming, blustery compositions have a lot in common with the darkening, windy autumn ...

That’s right … in a series of concerts at the Mondavi Center that kicks off on Nov. 6, the nine celebrated Beethoven symphonies will be played by a solo pianist on a big, black Steinway concert grand.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, listeners will hear the complete Beethoven symphonies as recorded live by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The recordings, still in progress as ...

My opinion may be little better than the layman's, but I believe it is incorrect to consider Beethoven's cycle of nine symphonies the 'bedrock of western music." It is not. The bedrock of western ...

The Beethoven 9 as we explore the world of Beethoven through the lens of his symphonies with renowned classical biographer Jan Swafford. Each month is dedicated to a different symphony. Each week ...