Dvořák could easily have ended up a jobbing musician in some small town but his ambition and genius led him down a different path.

Why did the brilliantly crafted works of one of the greats of 19th-century French opera suddenly disappear from the repertoire?

One of the most remarkable late starters among composers, Leoš Janáček grew to full creative stature only in his mid-sixties.

Always inventive, Rameau’s love of pushing the limits of convention won him both ardent admirers and die-hard detractors.

Beethoven completed just one opera, but even that proved a tortuous effort. So was writing for the stage where the great composer met his match?

On International Women's Day, we're celebrating a respected and pioneering career of composer Margaret Sutherland.

As a contemporary of Strauss and Schoenberg, it was inevitable that Alexander Zemlinsky’s brilliance would be overshadowed.

He’s complex, lengthy and often frustrating. But give Bruckner due attention and he has power to captivate like no one else.

Now he is thought of as an old Dutch master, but Louis Andriessen a former apostle of Marxist modernism would doubtless shy away from such titles.

Accompanist to Frederick the Great, the second son of JS Bach was also a composer of rare inventiveness and beauty.

Over a lifetime that witnessed unprecedented musical and social upheaval in his homeland of Russia, Alexander Glazunov remained resolutely his own man.

Italy's operatic sensation Giuseppe Verdi, at times could be just like the operas he penned: a character of enormous dramatic contrasts.