Illuminating The Masters

Maurizio Pollini reveals his pathways into Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, as well as to more modern composers.

Ben Finane

DIY: Music Career Conservatories are teaching aspiring musicians the business of the business.

By Brian Wise

Off the Page, Against the Grain It is the rare performer who improvises in classical music.

By Bradley Bambarger

Music Education

By Ben Finane

music + life

Making House Calls

A top clarinet repairman has no home office.

By Jil Simon and Elliott Simon

Style and Substance

Crossing over without watering down.

By Brian Wise

Hollywood Mixing Bowl

New faces, new ideas, and a new concert hall intermingle in the Los Angeles classical music scene.

By Scott Timberg

A Musical Boarding

At Saint Thomas Choir School, a particular kind of education.

By Damian Fowler

discovery

At Play with Bach Pianist Jeffrey Biegel adorns pieces by J.S. Bach with his own ornaments in a solo session for the new Steinway & Sons label.

By Bradley Bambarger

Searching for Samuel Barber

The American master has temporarily disapeared.

By Daniel Felsenfeld

Music in the Afternoon

What Hemingway can teach us about performing-arts criticism.

By Ben Finane

Love letters to Venice from Curt Cacioppo; Christine Brewer tears into Strauss; Thomas Fey conducts Salieri; Javier Perianes offers keyboard sonatas of de Nebra; Günter Wand makes a case for his Brahms; as does Anne-Sophie Mutter; Peter Serkin and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson deliver Peter Lieberson; Neeme Järvi suggests Johan Halvorsen; Gershwin by Grofè; and Frèdèric Meinders plays his own transcriptions.

After the Flood The new documentary Music Makes a City chronicles how a mayor, a conductor and a now-lost faith in arts funding revitalized the city of Louisville.

By Lucia Rahilly