Why, in the name of all that's decent and civil, would Tchaikovsky have remarked in his diary that Brahms was a "scoundrel" and "a giftless bastard"? What could summon such a fork-tongued comment about the great German composer? For one, Johannes Brahms was extremely voluble in his own blunt opin

Bombast, Classical, Dark, Moody, Pathos, Romantic music

At age 12, Franz Liszt performed a rendition of Beethoven's "Symphony in C-minor" as the master composer sat in the audience. Legend has it that after the superb performance, the great maestro kissed the juvenile Liszt on the forehead. Liszt's future as the most brilliant of pianists seemed to be sea

Death, Dramatic, Eclectic, Moody, Organic, Religious, Romantic music

Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian composer and a member of “the Mighty Handful” (Mussorgsky, Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin), a group of composers who sought to create a specifically Russian style of music. As part of this goal, much of Mussorgsky’s wor

Classical, Epic, Expansive, Grotesque, Romantic music, Whimsical

Clara Josephine Wieck (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896) was a German musician, one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, as well as a composer. Her prestige — she became known as "the high priestess of music" — exerted over a 61-year concert career, changed the format and re

Layered, Romantic music, Sensual