The Life and Music of Clara Schumann

We humans seem to love comeback stories, and there is no comeback quite as compelling in the classical music world as Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. It was written three years after the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony, a premiere so catastrophic that it lives on ...  Show more

A piece that I have been asked to cover probably a dozen times is Handel's Messiah. It's a piece I love, but a piece that I've never conducted or played, and so therefore I don't know it incredibly well. There are plenty of pieces like this in the repertoire, and so I've decided ...  Show more

It’s time to delve into the tale of Clara Schumann, the phenomenally gifted composer who was, in many ways, The Greatest Schumann. Each episode is also accompanied by a playlist in Apple Music – you can find those here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/curator/classic-fm/1211395150 Cl ...  Show more

Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto - famously featured in David Lean's film "Brief Encounter" - is one of the world's most popular pieces of classical music. Some of its fans describe the way in which it has touched and shaped their lives. Featuring a pianist from Taiwan whose memo ...  Show more

This is a recording of the third movement/section of Schumann's masterpiece, Fantasy in C. This movement is one of my all-time favorite works in the piano literature. Edited by his wife, Clara, this work was originally dedicated to Franz Liszt, although later editions did not inc ...  Show more

This piece is one of Schubert's vocal pieces arranged for piano solo by Franz Liszt. It has become a very popular piece for voice as well as many other instruments. This recording is dedicated to my dear mother-in-law. This is one of her favorite classical works. This recording w ...  Show more