He had rhythm, he had music… but for all his catchiness and easy-going charm, Gershwin deserves to be taken much more seriously.

Saint-Saëns has a reputation as the curmudgeon of French music. But his music is also passionate, daring and wickedly funny.

The composer who encapsulated the spirit and landscape of America eventually became an ironic figure of suspicion in his homeland.

Was he mad, or simply a misunderstood visionary? A brilliant but extraordinary character whose music is a truly sensual experience.

In a time of religious upheaval, Tallis’s brilliance allowed him to remain relatively unscathed.

Gluck swept away Italian opera seria and French tragédie lyrique. But his greatest legacy was a music theatre of overwhelming power.

Once a devoted disciple of Schoenberg, Berg went on to tread his own path, eventually proving a formidable challenge to his former teacher.

A love of all things Irish may have influenced Arnold Bax but there is a great deal beyond the Emerald Isle to discover in his music

The musical superstar of his day, Dufay was feted by popes and princes. Take a look at how a modest provincial Frenchman got to consecrate Brunelleschi’s dome.

Melancholic French composer Ernest Chausson’s declared wish was “to write one page that enters the heart”. In fact, he wrote many.

The master of Lübeck was so original that JS Bach felt compelled to walk hundreds of miles to hear him. Explore one of choral and organ music’s early geniuses.

His atmospheric fountains, pines and festivals still regularly enthral concert audiences worldwide, but Respighi was not simply a three-hit wonder.