A child accompanies Camille Saint-Saëns — white beard, tiny round glasses, a green leather notebook tucked under his arm — through a fantastical lantern-lit carnival where animals are the performers. It’s a…
In the galleries of Paris, painters like Monet and Renoir were breaking every rule — capturing light, water, and fleeting moments instead of sharp outlines. They called it Impressionism. Down the street,…
In the frozen Russian countryside, a boy with impossibly large hands discovers he can stretch across thirteen piano keys at once. Sergei Rachmaninoff grows up to become the most powerful pianist the…
Vivaldi taught orphaned girls at a Venetian convent to become world-famous musicians who performed hidden behind iron screens. This episode explores how he wrote “The Four Seasons” to paint musical pictures of…
Growing up in a cramped Brooklyn apartment, Aaron Copland dreamed of wide open spaces and invented music that sounds like the American frontier. This episode explores how he used big jumps between…
Fanny Mendelssohn composed over 400 pieces but was forced to hide them in a drawer because women weren’t allowed to publish music. One of her songs was so brilliant that for 150…
When King George I refused to speak to composer Handel, the clever musician secretly organized fifty musicians on a barge to serenade the royal party during a Thames river cruise. This episode…
Duration: 21 minutes | Composer: Erik Satie Erik Satie owned twelve identical gray velvet suits and was known as Paris’s quietest, strangest composer. This episode explores his mysterious life and the beautiful,…
Mussorgsky composed a musical tour through an art gallery, with a special walking melody that changes mood as listeners move from painting to painting. This episode explores how different instruments paint vivid…
A lively melody refused to stay put, wiggling its way from a simple song into one of Schubert’s most beloved chamber pieces. This episode follows the musical journey of “The Trout” as…
