Brahms may not have been the most enterprising of composers. The first of his four symphonies was 20 years in the making, a gestation period culminating in an initial performance in 1876 when the composer was 44 years

 The young Italian-German violinist Augustin Hadelich is the rare artist who can make Mozart sizzle. Many musicians find the refined style of Mozart by containing expression. Hadelich seemed released by it. At Milwaukee

 In Mozart Requiem, the first of three wildly contrasting works presented by Milwaukee Ballet in its immensely enjoyable “Spring Series” last weekend, Amy Seiwert's choreography mirrors the structure of Mozart's work for

The “Edo factor” was in full gear at the All-Beethoven Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday evening. With music director Edo de Waart as conductor, the MSO is a disciplined, efficient entity. There were no guest artists in this meat-and-potatoes orchestral program

 One of the founding fathers of German Romanticism, Carl Maria von Weber, is today best remembered for his seminal opera, Der Freischutz (1821). Weber was the quintessential Romantic artist, turning to myth, folklore

 “Carmen is a woman meant only for love and death.” These were the ominous words that Prosper Merimee used to describe the coarse Gypsy character he authored in his grungy 1845 novella. Yet Carmen’s name would soon...

After the warm acoustics of Carnegie Hall, the sound of Uihlein Hall was duller than ever in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) concert of Friday evening. My ears were working hard to find a small percentage of the depth heard...

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is one of the great composers not programmed enough...

One week. Six North American orchestras. Such was the Spring for Music festival at Carnegie Hall last week, which featured the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on Friday evening. The festival, for which orchestras compete by proposed...

Hans Richter, who conducted the premiere of Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 3 (1883), suggested to the great composer that he consider the subtitle of “Eroica” for the work. Never eager to draw comparisons with his predecessor, Beethoven, Brahms...