One might almost think that Mozart invented the genre of the piano quartet, as there were hardly any models worth mentioning at the time. Accordingly, audiences in Vienna were little prepared for such a work, and somehow this still seems to be the case today: In any case, the two piano quartets occupy a rather special position in MozartR…

Giovanni Bottesini, whose 200th birthday was in December 2021, is probably the most famous double bass player in music history. After training on the violin and viola, he entered the Milan Conservatory at the age of 13. However, as there were only places available for bassoon and double bass, the talented boy was forced to switch from the v…

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887, Heitor Villa-Lobos is considered the father of Brazilian music. Depending on how you count them, he wrote between 800 and 2000 works, of which the large cycles became the best known: his “Brazilian Bachiana” (Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1 to 9) on the one hand, and Choros Nos. 1 to 14, his homage to the street…