Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

Reichardt, Johann Friedrich  ( born in  Königsberg, 1752;  died  Giebichenstein, 1814). German composer, conductor, and writer. Court composer and conductor to Frederick the Great and Frederick II, 1775–94. Instituted many reforms. Visited London and Paris 1785 and again some years later. Dismissed from court post for sympathy with French Revolution. Conductor Kassel Opera (Germany) 1808. Wrote at least 12 operas,  Singspiele , setting of Milton's  Morning Hymn , over 1,500 songs (incl. setting of  Erlkönig , highly praised by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy), and much chamber music. Author of several books on compostions.

Superman , John Williams Is it a bird? Is it a plane? etc. etc.  Superman   (1978) is surely one of  John Williams ’s classic movie scores. His music for  Star Wars , Saving Private Ryan ,  Jurassic Park ,  E.T.  and  Harry Potter  have all made it into the top 300. But for reasons which are frankly a mystery to us,  Superman  is nowhere to be seen.  The Magnificent Seven , Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein’s 1960 score for the Western classic  The Magnificent Seven  is a Classic FM favourite, but glance at last year’s Hall of Fame and the iconic music for John Sturges’s film is nowhere to be found. Let’s fix that. Raiders of the Lost Ark , John Williams The score for everyone’s favourite (and completely daft) American adventure film is right up there with the best movie music ever written –and yet it’s missing from the Classic FM Hall of Fame. What gives?  Gone with the Wind , Max Steine...

Arnold Schoenberg (September 13, 1874 - July 13, 1951) was one of the founders of musical Modernism, an incredibly influential figure from the early twentieth century to at least twenty-five years after his death – with  Stravinsky , one of the two most influential composers of his time. Even those fundamentally antithetical to atonality were moved to see musical aesthetics very much as he did. As a composer, Schoenberg largely taught himself, sometimes relying on the advice of his friend, the composer Alexander von Zemlinksy. Zemlinsky's sister Mathilde became Schoenberg's first wife. The marriage came close to foundering when Mathilde left Schoenberg for an artist. She returned, but the marriage never recovered. Nevertheless, when she died in 1923, Schoenberg was devastated. Still, he remarried quickly, this time choosing the sister of the violinist Rudolf Kolisch, Gertrud. It was a love match. From the early twentieth century, Schoenberg was considered a leading light o...