Whether providing respite from captivity, or depicting a forest thronged with birds, a sense of place and colour is key to Olivier Messiaen’s music.

No-one captured the spirit of 19th-century Paris better than Offenbach, whose mastery went far beyond his famous operettas.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was admired by Elgar, likened to Mahler in the US and fêted as one of Britain’s top composers. But this was no rags-to-riches tale.

Has the formal beauty of Palestrina’s music blinded us to its true meaning?

Take a look beyond the myths of Mozarticide and discover a badly maligned operatic master once hailed as the worthy heir of Gluck.

The finest keyboard player of the Tudor age, Gibbons was also the creator of wonderfully idiosyncratic music.

The Stalin-approved Armenian composer’s music ranges from the celebrated ballet Spartacus to a little-known piece about his poodle.

Spohr was once thought of as an equal to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Explore the many delights of a neglected German master.

Once thought merely an inspired primitive by even his closest colleagues, Mussorgsky has proven to be a giant of Russian music.

Fifty years after his death, the Czech master’s stunningly diverse music deserves an audience as wide as his range of influences.