Category: 1870-1879

In 1860s St Petersburg, a band of musical insurgents known as the Moguchaya Kuchka (The Mighty Five) came together under the enthusiastic, occasionally overbearing leadership of Mily Balakirev. They were united by a desire to create a distinctly Russian school of classical music, free from what they regarded as excessive German and Italian influences …

There was a time in the mid nineteenth century when Sweden appeared to have a talent for turning out neurodivergent symphonists.

One of them was the slightly screwy figure of Franz Berwald, whose musical talent was rarely matched by his disastrous interpersonal skills.
The other was Ludvig Norman, a man just as singular as Berwald, and just as dissatisfied by the Swedish music scene …

He composed one of the best-loved works in the classical repertoire. He also worked for a while in the unlikely outpost of Liverpool. But what else do we know about Max Bruch? Notwithstanding the cosy appeal of his most famous music – including the Scottish Fantasy, Kol Nidrei and the ever popular First Violin Concerto …