Composers

Ludwig van Beethoven
http://www.raptusassociation.org/
Exceptionally complete and well done website devoted to Beethoven. In addition to an extensive biography of the composer, there is a list of his works that includes opus number and the respective dates of composition, first performance, and publication, a picture gallery containing images not only of Beethoven himself, but also his family and friends, his teachers, buildings known to him, and monuments to him, information on the creation of many of his compositions, other musicians’ commentaries on Beethoven, articles on Beethoven’s relationship with other famous musicians, information on his friends, new research on Beethoven, and more.

http://www.lvbeethoven.com/index_En.html
Another comprehensive Beethoven website, also extremely well executed. In addition to a detailed biography, this site offers a list of books, a comprehensive list of the composer’s works (many with accompanying full-length MIDI files), a genealogy of Beethoven’s family, a discussion forum, a list of recommended recordings of Beethoven’s music, and much more.

http://www.kingsbarn.freeserve.co.uk/
Yet another site dedicated to Beethoven, and offering a wide variety of information about the composer. Rather than offer a biography, this site includes a timeline, a picture gallery, anecdotes about the composer, a list of the main concerts during Beethoven’s life, his family tree, information on his health, finances, and daily routine, a list of addresses (many with accompanying photographs) where Beethoven stayed, an article about life in Vienna during Beethoven’s time, a “Who’s who” of people associated with Beethoven, photographs and descriptions of pianos and other instruments Beethoven played, a list of his works and descriptions of many of them, audio files (available only to those who register on the site’s discussion forum), MIDI files, a list of recommended recordings, a virtual tour of Beethoven’s Vienna, with numerous photographs, and more.

Hector Berlioz
http://www.hberlioz.com/
A comprehensive site dedicated to one of France’s greatest composers. It includes a timeline-style biography with a wealth of hyperlinks, musical scores (Scorch Player is required in order to view and play the music – there is a link from the website to download it), an annotated list of his compositions with the complete texts of his vocal works, some of his treatises and a bibliography of all his published texts, a discography, and much more. Most of the site is available in English, but a few texts are available only in French.

Johannes Brahms
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/brahms.html
Johannes Brahms was one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. This website offers a concise biography, a list of his compositions, some with audio examples, and images of the composer and his music.

http://weihaozhu.tripod.com/
A website dedicated to Brahms, and which includes his biography, a discussion of his music set in the context of the Romantic era, a complete list of his compositions, and images of the composer, his music, and associates.

Frédéric Chopin
http://www.carolinaclassical.com/articles/chopin.html
Frédéric Chopin is perhaps the best-known Polish composer, as well as a major contributor of music for the piano. This site offers his biography, along with audio files and a list of his compositions.

http://www.ilovechopin.us/
This site offers full-length audio files of a wide selection of Chopin’s piano compositions.

http://www.chopin.pl/spis_tresci/index_en.html
Though not yet completed, this website of the Frederick Chopin Society in Warsaw, offers a variety of information, including his biography, a discussion of his music, a list of his compositions, images of the composer and related items, and more.

Antonin Dvořák
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/dvorak.html
Antonin Dvořák is considered to be the greatest Czech composer of the Romantic era. This site offers a concise biography, images of the composer, and a list of his symphonies with audio examples.

Edvard Grieg
http://www.mnc.net/norway/EHG.htm
Edvard Grieg is by far the best-known Norwegian composer. This site offers his biography and links to other sites that contain additional information, including MIDI audio files of selections of Grieg’s music.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
http://www.fannyhensel.de/hensel_eng/frameset.htm
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, sister of composer Felix, was also an accomplished composer. This site offers her biography, a list of her compositions with descriptions, external links, and more.

Franz Liszt
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/liszt.html
Franz Liszt was one of the great Romantic composers and a virtuoso pianist. This site offers a concise biography of the composer.

Gustav Mahler
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/mahler.html
Gustav Mahler was one of the greatest Austrian composers of the late Romantic era. This site offers a biography, a discussion of his Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), and links to other sites.

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mahler.html
This site offers a concise biography, audio examples of his symphonies and some of his song cycles, and images of the composer.

http://www.andante.com/profiles/Mahler/mahlerintro.cfm#INTRODUCTION
Another site devoted to Mahler, it offers a biography, detailed discussions of his symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth), a timeline, a filmography and a discography.

Felix Mendelssohn
http://www.carolinaclassical.com/mendelssohn/index.html
Felix Mendelssohn was one of the finest German composers of the Romantic era. This site includes a biography of Mendelssohn, some audio examples of his music, and sheet music of some of his piano music in .pdf format.

Giacomo Puccini
http://www.r-ds.com/pucciniana.htm
Giacomo Puccini is one of the best-known Italian opera composers of the late Romantic era. This website is devoted to Puccini, and includes a biography, numerous photographs and other images, and detailed information on each of his operas.

Sergei Rachmaninoff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the last great Russian Romantic composers. A site offers an in-depth biography with numerous links to related articles, two audio examples, and links to external sites. NOTE: the audio files are in the relatively uncommon .ogg format, which is not recognized by many of the most popular audio-playback programs. There are a number of programs that do play this format, though; one such player that is available for Windows, Mac OS X and other platforms is VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).

http://www.rachmaninoff.co.uk/
A website devoted to Rachmaninoff, with a detailed biography, a list of his compositions, including information on their premiere, publication, et al., reviews of recordings of his music, external links, and a discussion forum.

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3606/start.html
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was, after Tchaikovsky, the most famous Russian composer of the Romantic era. This site is dedicated to him, and while not the most attractive site, it does offer a brief biography, a complete list of works, numerous images of the composer and his surroundings, a number of audio examples, articles on Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimsky-korsakov
A concise biography of the composer with numerous internal links to related articles.

Gioacchino Rossini
http://www.nndb.com/people/194/000025119/
Gioacchino Rossini is best known for his operas and their overtures, in particular his overture to the opera William Tell. This site offers a biography of the composer, with a number of links to related articles.

Franz Schubert
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/schubert.html
Franz Schubert was one of the finest composers of the early Romantic era. This site offers a concise biography, a list of his symphonies with audio examples, and images of the composer.

http://www.carolinaclassical.com/articles/schubert.html
Offers a detailed biography, with an image of the composer and numerous audio examples.

Clara Schumann
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~eversr/clara.html
Clara Wieck Schumann, wife of Robert, was an accomplished composer and pianist in her own right. This website offers a biography, images, a complete list of her compositions, two MIDI audio examples, a bibliography, and links to other related sites.

Robert Schumann
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/schumann_r.html
Robert Schumann was one of the greatest German composers of the early Romantic era. This site offers a concise biography and audio examples of his four symphonies.

http://www.carolinaclassical.com/schumann/index.html
A biography of this important German composer, with links to audio examples of his music

Bedřich Smetana
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/smetana.html
Bedřich Smetana is another highly respected Czech composer. This webpage offers a concise biography of the composer.

http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/smetana.html
Another concise biography of Smetana, with an audio example of one of his most famous works, “The Moldau.”

Richard Strauss
http://www.richardstrauss.at/html_e/17_willkommen/0fs_index.html
A site devoted to Richard Strauss, with a detailed biography, including information on his private life, a list of his works with audio examples (NOTE: clicking on Works brings up a page in German, but selecting one of the categories on this page will return the viewer to English), many photographs and other images of the composer and his associates, including several video clips, and more. This site requires Flash Player, and includes a link from which it can be downloaded.

Pyotr I'yich Tchaikovsky
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/tchaikovsky.html
Pyotr I’yich Tchaikovsky was perhaps the greatest Russian composer of the Romantic era. This site offers a concise biography of the composer, a list of works, some with audio examples, and images of the composer.

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/5648/Tchaikovsky.htm
A fairly comprehensive site dedicated to the famous Russian composer. It includes his biography, his family tree, discussions of his compositions, images, links to other websites, and more.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/tchaikovsky4/
Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony is one of his masterpieces, and this site offers a multimedia exploration of this work. Click on Tchaikovsky’s name to read a biography of the composer, or click on Keeping Score: MTT on Music to access the Flash-based multimedia presentation. Included are video clips of Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, discussing the work, as well as a movement-by-movement video of Thomas and the Symphony performing portions of the work, with the appropriate measure of the musical score highlighted as the work progresses. The presentation requires at least Flash Player 6 (there is a link on the website to download the player), and is best viewed in the Netscape, FireFox, or Safari (for Mac) browsers.

Giuseppe Verdi
http://www.r-ds.com/verdiana.htm
A website dedicated to the great Italian opera composer. It includes a biography in the form of a timeline, with many links to images, discussions of his works, et al., a list of his works and detailed discussions about most of them, a bibliography, numerous photographs and other images of the composer, his associates, et al., and more.

http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/verdi.html
Offers a concise biography of Verdi with a small number of audio examples.

Richard Wagner
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/wagner.html
Offers a concise biography and images of the composer.

http://www.carolinaclassical.com/articles/wagner.html
Richard Wagner was one of the greatest composers of opera. This site offers a biography, including links to numerous audio examples.

Performers

Claudio Abbado
http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/abbado/
A concise biography of this world-renown conductor.

Atlanta Symphony
http://www.atlantasymphony.org/
The orchestra’s official website, with biographies of the principle conductors and more.

Yefim Bronfman
http://www.yefimbronfman.com/
The official website for this virtuoso pianist. It includes his biography, a discography, including some audio examples, and his current tour information.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
http://www.cso.org/
The official website of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with a wealth of information, including an introduction to classical music that offers a tour of the orchestra, a timeline of classical music, and a glossary of musical terms, biographies of the orchestra’s conductors, composer-in-residence, and many of the orchestra members, a history of the orchestra, and more.

London Philharmonic Orchestra
http://www.lpo.co.uk/index.html
The London Philharmonic is one of London’s premiere orchestras. This is their official website, with information about the orchestra and its members and leaders, a listing of their current concert season, and more.

Murray Perahia
http://www.murrayperahia.com/
Contains a biography and discography of this virtuoso pianist.

Robert Shaw
http://www.singers.com/choral/robertshaw.html
A biography and discography of Robert Shaw, world-renowned choral conductor and Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony.

Fritz Wunderlich
http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/wunderlich/
A website dedicated to the famous German tenor. Includes a short biography, a list of his stage roles, an interview with Wunderlich, photographs, reminiscences by other musicians, a bibliography, external links, and more.

Miscellaneous

Opera Basics
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/multimedia/multimedia.html
To view this multimedia presentation on opera, click on Opera Basics. The presentation includes a description of the various voice types used and a scene-by-scene description of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto. The presentation includes video clips from the English National Opera’s production of this opera. Flash Player is required; a link from which it may be downloaded is included on the site. Other interesting multimedia presentations on music may also be found at this site, including that on Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, listed above.

Program Music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_music
An article on program music, with numerous links to related articles.

Ring of the Nibelungs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen
The Ring of the Nibelungs is a monumental set of four operas by Richard Wagner. This article describes this “operatic mini-series”, including its history, the music, the story, recordings of the cycle, and more. There are also links to articles on each of the four individual operas that make up the Ring of the Nibelungs.

Symphonic Poem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_poem
An article on the symphonic (or tone) poem, with numerous links to related articles.