The easiest way for amateur music lovers to get to know orchestral pieces used to be through piano transcriptions and chamber arrangements. Liszt’s versions of Beethoven symphonies are the genre’s ...

The conductor’s final ever concert was at Sage Gateshead with the Royal Northern Sinfonia playing an all-Haydn programme. He leaves classical music changed emphatically for the better – and with less ...

Ivan Hewett explains why the Austrian’s humour and common touch make his music ideal for a crisis Ivan Hewett is The Telegraph’s Classical Music Critic and an author whose works include Music: Healing ...

When discussing Haydn’s music it's difficult to avoid using words like ‘elegant’, ‘witty’ and ‘brio’, but I'll do my best. The writer E.T.A Hoffman should shoulder much of the blame for Haydn's ...

Sometimes a composer becomes so well known for a particular genre of music that other pieces go unrecognized. The following are three examples of composers who are famous for one thing but who ...

Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago Sunday. He was, by any measure, a prolific composer. In addition to the five dozen or so string quartets, he wrote hundreds of trios, piano sonatas, oratorios, masses, ...

The Emerson String Quartet cultivates the full range of the quartet repertoire, right up to the most contemporary offerings. But every quartet needs to revisit the source periodically, and that means ...

A small step in the evolution of the trumpet. “Ear Trumpet 1”. Photo by Eknath Gomphotherium, used with permission. We’re back with a new episode! Whooo! How did the trumpet morph from a simple horn ...

On his visits to London, Haydn discovered audiences who were eager to be surprised – and he met their expectations Tom Service: Why did the Haydn fan recoil from the skirl of the pipes? They had more ...

This past week marked a musical anniversary that is worth recalling, not only on account of the performance, but also in view of what happened in the theatre on the night. February 2 was a Monday in ...

Haydn comes to Trenton and Beethoven goes to Freehold this weekend. Pianist Stephan Moller will undertake an epic journey encompassing all 32 Beethoven sonatas, presented in chronological order, on ...

In our daily series Armchair Arts, a Telegraph critic offers expert analysis. Today, Ivan Hewett looks at a playful but majestic work Ivan Hewett is The Telegraph’s Classical Music Critic and an ...