Hailed in his lifetime as Beethoven's successor and a powerful symbol of musical classicism, Johannes Brahms was nonetheless a controversial figure in a world infatuated with the bold new directions taken by Wagner and Liszt. Today Brahms' stature is unassailable, and his works remain staples of the repertoire in each of the many genres in which he composed. This engaging survey of Brahms' music covers his major orchestral, choral, and piano music,...

In the years spanning from 1800 to 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven completed nine symphonies, now considered among the greatest masterpieces of Western music. Yet despite the fact that this time period, located in the wake of the Enlightenment and at the peak of romanticism, was one of rich intellectual exploration and social change, the influence of such threads of thought on Beethoven's work has until now remained hidden beneath the surface of the notes....

In eighteenth-century London, a young orphan who sings like an angel but is unable to speak is befriended by the great composer, George Frederick Handel, and finds his way home.