Wolfgang Birtel

The music of small forms was what the French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) focused on. In 1874, after many years spent in the 'provinces', the teacher of Camille Saint-Saëns took the position of...

Originally composed for piano solo, Rubinstein's 'Melody' Op. 3/1 is the best-known work written by the Russian composer. Thanks to the simple, yet tender melody and its expressive harmony, the name o...

Who would have thought that ragtime would enjoy another renaissance! But more than 50 years after the death of its main representative, Scott Joplin, the film 'The Sting' has made this once popular st...

The latest addition to the Violinissimo series, La donna è mobile, presents well-known opera melodies in 25 arrangements for violin and piano. Suitable for intermediate level violinists, the repertoir...

Josef Suk (1824-1935) was a bit in the shadow of the two famous Czech composers Antonín Dvorák and Bedrích Smetana. This affected Suk especially because Dvorák was also his father-in-law, a fact that...

The reputation of the Bohemian composer Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) has always been somewhat overshadowed by that of Bedrich Smetana and Antonín Dvorák. This is a pity, for Fibich, though he died young,...