1685 - 1750 Bach has been called 'the supreme arbiter and law-giver of music'. He is to music what... more

1770 - 1827 Beethoven coupled his genius for music with profoundly held political beliefs and an almost... more

1803 - 1869 The arch-Romantic composer, Berlioz’s life was all you’d expect – by turn turbulent and... more

1685 - 1759 Handel is one of the giants of musical history – a great man in physical stature, spirit and vision... more

1732 - 1809 Haydn was among the most prolific of all great composers and he wrote in every form... more

1811 - 1886 Composer, teacher, Abbé, Casanova, writer, sage, pioneer and champion of new music, philanthropist... more

1860 - 1911 Mahler is the last great Romantic symphonist, music conceived on the grandest scale and employing... more

1756 - 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was arguably the most naturally gifted musician in history, but he also... more

1797 - 1828 Schubert was not the first of the Romantics but he was, as one writer put it, 'the first lyric poet... more

1810 - 1856 Schumann is a key figure in the Romantic movement; none investigated the Romantic’s... more

1882 - 1971 From 1910 to 1945, Stravinsky was the single strongest influence on contemporary... more

1840 - 1893 Tchaikovsky is the most popular of all Russian composers, his music combining... more

1813 - 1883 No composer has had so deep an influence on the course of his art, before or since. Entrepreneur,... more