Peter Züll

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) finished his masterpiece Otello in October 1885. The libretto by Arrigo Boito was based on Shakespeare's tragedy. The Bonfire Chorus is sung in the very first act: the peopl...

Only after John Golland passed away in 1993 the score of his Tuba Concerto Op. 46 was found. The first performance of this work was given by Andrew Duncan and the Halle Orchestra at the Halle Proms at...

The work of the Russian composer Anatol Liadov (1855-1914) is characterized by bizarre humour, originality, precision and imagination. Kikimora is a fairy tale for orchestra by Liadow about a female h...

The work of the Russian composer Anatol Liadov (1855-1914) is characterized by bizarre humour, originality, precision and imagination. Kikimora is a fairy tale for orchestra by Liadow about a female h...

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera contains two famous soprano roles, strong male solo roles, fine choruses and sharp dramatic situations. And yet it is not quite as popular as some other Ver...

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera contains two famous soprano roles, strong male solo roles, fine choruses and sharp dramatic situations. And yet it is not quite as popular as some other Ver...

If we say that zarzuela is Spanish light opera with spoken dialogue we shall be near the mark. Jose Serrano (1873-1941) is one of the most famous composers of Zarzuela. In 1910 he composed his one act...

If we say that zarzuela is Spanish light opera with spoken dialogue we shall be near the mark. José Serrano (1873-1941) is one of the most famous composers of Zarzuela. In 1910 he composed his one act...

Zu den brillanten 'Danzas Fantasticas' wurde der spanische Komponist Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) durch die Erzählung 'La Orgia' von José Mas inspiriert. Das Werk ist dreisätzig, jeder Satz ist in einem...

Danzas Fantásticas by spanish composer Joaquín Turina is a brilliant, wholly Spanish piece and his best-known work. It is inspired by the novel "La Orgía" by José Mas. The work does have three movemen...

The opera "Macbeth" was first performed in Florence in 1847. A second revised version was premiered in the Paris Theatre Lyrique in 1865. The chorus "Patria oppressa" is sung at the very beginning of...

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera contains two famous soprano roles, strong male solo roles, fine choruses and sharp dramatic situations. And yet it is not quite as popular as some other Ver...

Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34, is the common Western title for an orchestral work based on Spanish folk melodies and written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887. Rimsky-Korsakov originally intended to wri...

The 'suite de Trois Morceaux' is one of the few compositions of Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) that is still immense popular. It's a short work for flute and piano or orchestra in three movements - Alleg...

The "Suite de Trois Morceaux" is one of the few compositions of Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) that is still immense popular. It's a short work for flute and piano or orchestra in three movements -- Alle...

With his L'elisir d"amore (The Elixer of Love), composed in 1832 Donizetti wrote something far greater than a mere comic opera: this was perhaps the first example of a moving, middleclass genre of the...

Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar (1862 - 1941) parodied the conventions of Romantic opera in his own operas and secular cantatas, his music itself is staunchly Romantic in voice, little troubled by even...

Il Pirata' (The Pirate) was Bellini's third opera. 'Il Pirata' is an opera in two acts to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani from a French translation of the tragic play 'Bertram', or 'The Castle of...

Prokofiev composed his first piano concerto while at the Conservatory, in 1911 and 1912, and premiered it himself on August 7, 1912. The concerto is a single movement divided into clearly marked secti...

Prokofiev composed his first piano concerto while at the Conservatory, in 1911 and 1912, and premiered it himself on August 7, 1912. The concerto is a single movement divided into clearly marked secti...

Emmerich Kálmán's most beloved operetta "Die Csárdásfürstin" had its first performance at the Vienna "Johann Strauss-Theater" in November 1915. Only in the German speaking countries it was performed 5...