Beethoven's Ninth has topped the ABC Classic 100 countdown for the fifth time. We explore its mystique and shed light on composers following in Beethoven's footsteps.

Dvořák, who was so inspired by the folk music of his native Czech culture, wrote this symphony during his time in America, ...

I’ve been listening to a symphony that I would describe as an almost perfect masterpiece by a composer of towering importance ...

Dvořák on cheery form, inspired by the Bohemian folk music that he loved. A more timid sibling to the limelight-stealing New World Symphony, the composer dedicated his Symphony No.8 to the music world ...

In early 1824, 30 members of Vienna’s music community sent a letter to Ludwig van Beethoven petitioning the great composer to reconsider his plans to premiere his latest work in Berlin and instead ...

The great composer’s iconic dark and broody notes, now in sunny C major? You probably won’t even recognise it! The first four notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 are some of the most famous in all of ...

Many of Beethoven's works are titled, yet many of these names came from friends or from those to whom the pieces were dedicated. The Sixth Symphony, however, is one of only two symphonies Beethoven ...

These accounts are quite magnificent, and their claims on the allegiance of collectors remain strong. Their freshness and vigour remind one of what it was like to hear these symphonies for the first ...

No Sibelius symphony begins quite like the Fourth. That grinding, primal bottom C; the cellos, basses and bassoons pushing up ...

Conductor Michael Seal commands the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Antonin Dvořák's much-loved 'New World Symphony' ...

Philip Glass' newest symphony, an homage to Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to premiere at the Kennedy Center — until it didn't ...

Mark Forrest introduces a week of highlights from the BBC Proms, including a performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and ...