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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was born January 27, 1756. He died December 5, 1791.

TRACKLIST : 01. Allegro In Fa Minore ( 05:53 ) 02. La Ricordanza ( 06:04 ) 03. Allegro Vivace In Sol Maggiore ( 03:57 ) 04. Allegro In Do Maggiore (I) ( 04:23 ) 05. Larghetto In Do Maggiore, "Una Furtiva Lagrima" ( 02:54 ) 06. Presto In Fa Minore ( 03:58 ) 07. Larghetto In Do Maggiore ( 02:35 ) 08. Allegro In Do Maggiore (II) ( 07:20 ) 09. Adagio Ed Allegro In Sol Maggiore ( 06:37 ) 10. Due Motivi Del Celebre Maestro Fäer Messi In Suonate ( 10:15 ) 11. Valzer In Do Maggiore ( 04:01...

Pierre Boulez, who began his career as a radical modernist composer dedicated to overthrowing classical traditions and lived to become one of the most revered and sought-after orchestral conductors in the world, died Jan. 6 in Baden-Baden, Germany. He was 90. His family announced the death to the Philharmonie Paris but did not disclose a cause. Mr. Boulez (pronounced boo-LEZZ) came to public attention as the leading voice of postwar avant-garde music in France, an enfant terrible given to making public suggestions such as “the most elegant way of solving the opera problem would be to blow up the opera...

Gilbert Kaplan, who has died aged 74, was an American economist, journalist and businessman who came to wider attention through his determination to be an orchestral conductor and in particular his obsession with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 2 (the Resurrection), a work that he conducted on more than 100 occasions. Some saw him as a charlatan, a Wall Street millionaire who had "bought" his way on to the podium with his lavish donations to impecunious orchestras. Others felt that he offered a fresh insight into the music, unsullied by a traditional approach to interpretation and the institutionalised training of the...

Maestro Riccardo Muti laments the decline of the essence of Italy, its savours, its habits and its music. He has a nice way of evoking an image: The Alps separate the world of frost and suet from the sun and the oil. Our blood circulates differently. And the essence of our spirit is melody. Pavarotti was the greatest of the past half-century not just for voice, but because he sang with a mixture of joy and sadness that is in our nature. Unfortunately Italy today can no longer either suffer, or smile. … I remember the first time I went...

Kurt Masur, the music director emeritus of the New York Philharmonic, who was credited with transforming the orchestra from a sullen, lackluster ensemble into one of luminous renown, died on Saturday in Greenwich, Conn. He was 88. The death was announced by the Philharmonic. Mr. Masur (pronounced mah-ZOOR) was the Philharmonic's music director from 1991 to 2002. When he took its helm, the orchestra was roundly considered to be a world-class ensemble in name only, its playing grown slipshod, its players fractious and discontented, its recording contracts unrenewed.

I love this work. And the violinist is sort of transfixing too.

Leading concertmasters* and close friends have shared reports of the death today of Joseph Silverstein, legendary concertmaster of the Boston Symphony from 1962 to 1984. He was 83. After stepping down at Boston he became music director of the Utah Symphony, 1993 to 1998, a most uncommon upgrade.

David Stock, a prolific musician who served as a composer-in-residence for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and was the founder of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, died peacefully surrounded by his family on Monday, Nov. 2. He was 76. Stock, who had been under the care of hospice, died following a brief illness due to a rare blood disorder, according to his son-in-law, Jonathan Mayo.

Born November 9, 1930; died July 27, 2015 Born in Prague, Ivan Moravec enjoyed a loyal following among piano buffs thanks to his recordings and relatively rare concert appearances.

Maestro Paul Freeman who, for 24 years was the Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta – a post he held since his founding of the orchestra in 1987 – died Tuesday night, July 21. He was 79 and, according to a statement issued by the orchestra, he had been fighting a number of physical challenges over the last few years.

Gunther Schuller, a composer, conductor, author and teacher who coined the term Third Stream to describe music that drew on the forms and resources of both classical and jazz, and who was its most important composer, died on Sunday in Boston. He was 89.

With a body of work of 169 compositions, whose genres include symponies, concertos, operas, ballet, chamber music and even a choral setting of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy, Tchaikovsky composed some of the most popular theatrical music within the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer to acquire a solid reputation and career abroad, to the point that he appeared at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York in 1891. Tchaikovsky studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he received a western-oriented teaching that set him apart from the nationalist Russian composers known as “The Five,” with...

What’s your favorite piece of classical music? KUSC asked you to pick your favorites, and during the last week in April, we counted them down. Now, we present to you The KUSC Classical Top 100 - as chosen by you! ...

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“Truly,” Beethoven remarked in 1827, “in Schubert there dwells a divine spark.” Franz Schubert himself worshiped the older composer and was a torchbearer at his funeral. In the following year, he asked for one of Beethoven’s string quartets to be played at his own sickbed, days, if not hours, before he died at the age of thirty-one. Many of Schubert’s works contain homages to Beethoven: the Fate theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the animating motif of Schubert’s terrifying song “Der Zwerg” (The Dwarf). His “Auf dem Strom” (On the River, for voice, piano, and horn) takes up the theme...

Introducing the KUSC Top 100 Countdown, Southern California’s biggest classical music survey. What’s your favorite piece of classical music ever written? It’s time to vote. Choose from our list of favorites, or write in a title of your choice. You have a total of three votes. Voting ends April 8th at midnight. Then, we’ll tally the votes and start counting down the Top 100 beginning April 22nd.

Will classical music disappear?

Classical music with its soothing melodic tones and harmonies is now more readily accepted in pet care as being a positive for the animals who get to listen but is it really? The answer may be “yes”, “no” and “it depends on what kind.” In addition to being able to observe a positive impact, it makes sense that the right sort of classical music needs to be played from the animal perspective to be effective. Soothing music may have a universal component for all species. Factors such as lower pitch and regular tempo are typically associated with more pleasant music...

Felix Mendelssohn, one of history's greatest composers, was born on this day 206 years ago. Octet for Strings Hebrides (or Fingal's Cave) Overture Violin Concerto Symphony No. 3 (Scottish)