Robert Mansell was born in London, England, where he started writing music almost as soon as he began to play the piano. Towards the end of a career as a business executive, he moved to America where he stayed for thirty years before returning to Britain in 2009. During that period overseas he became musically […]

Bach’s devotion to the organ, and his desire to excel on it, is without question but whereas much of his output was written with a specific purpose or occasion in mind, the toccatas and fugues are less easily categorized. Almost all of them date from Bach’s Weimar years (1708-1717), when he had the most opportunities […]

Interviewed by Musical America in 1921, Rachmaninoff was asked: “would you agree that the heart should be the composer’s guide through the labyrinths of accepted forms?” “Yes”, he replied, “the heart above all. Of course, the head must aid in the building of great musical structures, but by itself the head is impotent. If a […]