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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Soaring beauty, spectacular, vocal fireworks and delicately coloured musical pictures: soprano arias from Haydn’s greatest operas and oratorios, including The Creation and The Seasons. This album is ...

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 ...