John Cage Festival wants YOU to get involved in the composer's centenary celebrations.

The experimental rocker went from discovering classical albums in a dumpster to playing Carnegie Hall.

Years ago I remember sitting in the Sydney studio of the ABC Classic FM playing a recording of Beethoven’s late String Quartet in A minor Op 132. I think it was around 4am that I was playing the piece and the 20-minute slow movement suddenly got to me as I lay on the studio floor, exhausted and emotional, listening to this music that Beethoven had written and dedicated to his God after achieving a recovery from a terrible few months of ill health. He entitled the movement Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit (A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity) and the music is so plaintive, you can really hear the direct thoughts of someone who is just grateful to be alive.  If I had one shred of Beethoven’s genius I would have written my own Heiliger Dankgesang as I recovered recently from my annual summer flu. I’m generally a pretty healthy person and usually only have one burst of illness at the end of the year when my system is so obviously run down that when you make the mistake of actually relaxing the germs promptly swarm in like Visigoths at the gates of Rome. It says a lot for the power of the…

In December 1839, Schumann arranged the first performance of Schubert’s Great C major Symphony, which had been gathering dust since the composer’s death in 1828. Hearing it turned Schumann’s mind to writing one of his own. It’s not as if he hadn’t thought about it before; he’d had some success with an unfinished symphony in G minor in the early 1830s. But in January 1841 Schumann finally sat down to write and within just four days he had finished sketching what we now know as his First Symphony. The orchestration took another few weeks but was complete by February. By any stretch of the imagination, this is extraordinary. With its completion, Schumann was only just getting started in his “symphonic year” of 1841. In April and May he composed the Overture, Scherzo and Finale. As soon as it was finished, he embarked on another symphony, this time in D minor. This occupied him from May to October and was his most radical achievement of the symphonic year. The movements are interconnected by a network of themes, which are adapted and developed across the whole piece, not just within movements. The D minor symphony of 1841 is rarely heard today because it was a…

The composer made a faltering start in his symphonic writing, but more than redeemed himself in later years. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The legendary film composer on how two simple notes have terrified millions of moviegoers.

The composer of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film score has his sights set on Oz. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Will relentless multitasking be the death of us? Just look at Mozart… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Wagner is almost as famous for being an anti-semite as for writing operas. We discover there may have been a more complex cause behind his prejudice.

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is a metaphysical journey from the depths of human suffering to the heights of celestial ecstasy – with everything in between. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Investors threaten to demolish the home of great American composer Charles Ives.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival pays tribute to the Velvet Gentleman: eccentric genius, bad pianist.