By all accounts, Peter Tchaikovsky was an emotionally troubled man. He suffered from nervous depression, which was heightened by the constant social presssure to hide his homosexuality. The composer had affairs with women and even married Antonina Miliukova -- with disastrous emotional effects to bot

Dark, Dramatic, Elegant, Grand, Lush, Psychological, Romantic music, Voluminous

Rossini's parents expected the future composer to get right to work -- they enrolled him in music lessons at the age of four. The young Rossini started writing compositions as a teenager; by the time he was in his 20s, he had already written more than seven operas. In 1812, Italy's most important ope

Bombast, Dramatic, Epic, Funny, Sardonic

The short and turbulent life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time, has been the source of much speculation, scholarship, and one Academy Award-winning film. Mozart was the ultimate child prodigy, the quintessential temperamental artist, and the proverbial candl

Charming, Classical era, Decorative, Ebullient, Lyrical

The portion of the nineteenth century that posterity has dubbed the Romantic era saw the birth of one of Western culture's greatest archetypes: the Romantic genius. The spirit of the age was incarnated in several dozen men and women, artists whose powers of expression were matched only by the origina

Dramatic, Grand, Monumental, Moody