Wolfgang Birtel

A tango written by Giacomo Puccini? Indeed! In 1942 'Piccolo Tango' by the Italian opera composer was published by an American music publisher. The question as to whether it was actually composed by P...

A 'Last Night of the Proms' without this march - unthinkable! 'Pomp and Circumstance Military March No. 1' with its middle section, the hymn-like 'Land of Hope and Glory' by Edward Elgar (1857-1934),...

Après un rêve, written by Gabriel Fauré for solo voice and piano, is a charming performance piece for concerts and festive occasions and one of the most famous and most popular melodies by the French...

Golliwogg's Cakewalk

La melancólica y popular "Pavana para una princesa muerta" de Maurice Ravel, compuesta en 1899, fue escrita originalmente para piano antes de que la arreglara para orquesta en 1910. Aunque está dedica...

La melancólica y popular "Pavana para una princesa muerta" de Maurice Ravel, compuesta en 1899, fue escrita originalmente para piano antes de que la arreglara para orquesta en 1910. Aunque está dedica...

The 19th century was not only the era of great forms, monumental symphonies and melodious sonatas, no, the Romantic composers proved to be versatile and highly imaginative on the field of little music...

A wedding without a famous wedding march - unimaginable! Wagner's 'Bridal Chorus' from 'Lohengrin' and Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' from the incidental music of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' vie for th...

The music scene took notice of Erik Satie (1866-1925) all of a sudden: The world premiere of his ballet 'Parade' on 18 May 1917 [siehe dt. Text!] caused quite a scandal. The production which involved...

'Novelty of form, selected modulations, strange tone colours, the use of completely unexpected rhythms', this is how Camille Saint-Saëns praised the debut work of a young colleague and continued: 'Abo...

The famous Golliwogg's Cakewalk is the final piece from Debussy's cycle Children's Corner which consists of 6 miniatures for piano, written for his daughter in the years 1906-1908.The style correspond...

Born in the village of Brand in the Upper Palatinate, Max Reger (1873 1916) was taught by the renowned music theoretician Hugo Riemann. After finishing his studies and working as a freelance performer...

It is therefore quite wrong to place just mechanical or mediocre players at the viola', warned Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart in 1784/85 in his 'Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst'. Some disreg...

Songs Without Words' - that's what Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) called his lyrical piano pieces, romantic miniatures in which the composer wanted to 'sing' on the keyboard instrument. With...