Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem: The poetry is in the pity

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem publicly challenged the notion that war is a necessary evil. Few major works of the 20th century have met with such unanimous and unambiguous praise from critics and audiences.

In search of Les Troyens

What happened after the legendary city of Troy was sacked? The story continues in Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, which has less to do with history than with Roman myth-making.

Coffee – A Turkish blessing on Vienna

Such is the prestige of Viennese coffee houses that at the end of 2011 UNESCO qualified them as an intangible cultural heritage, places “where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill.”

Anecdotes from the life of Anton Bruckner (III)

Anton Bruckner revered his musical predecessors. In the shadow of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (who died just three years after Bruckner was born), he was deeply conscious of his heritage.

Anecdotes from the life of Anton Bruckner (II)

Bruckner learned to play the organ at the Monastery of St Florian, near the village where he was born. Decades later, he was buried in its crypt underneath the instrument he adored.

Anecdotes from the life of Anton Bruckner (I)

One of the oddest characters to be found in late 19th century Vienna was the composer Anton Bruckner (1824-96). Naive and eccentric, his unshakeable religious faith moved him to create astonishing symphonies of great beauty.