In this article, I examine classical music’s entanglement with elitism, its drift toward cultural gentrification, and the loss of immediacy in performance, arguing for art that resists commodification and restores a direct, human connection to its audience.

Son dönemde içinde bulunduğumuz durum ile Weimar Cumhuriyeti arasındaki paralellik korkutucu bir biçimde zihnimde canlanıyor. Böylesine yakıcı bir sürecin içinde olma ihtimali bile insanın kanını donduruyor…

Even during Beethoven’s lifetime, it was clear that in music history there would be a ‘Before Beethoven’ and ‘After Beethoven’. This owes as much to the collapse of the old Western world order with the French Revolution as it does to the singular overwhelming personality of Beethoven…

Schubert’s position in music history makes it difficult to know whether the special qualities of his music can be attributed to the Zeitgeist. I find it curi - ous there is so much discussion about Beethoven’s emancipation from clas - sical performing practices, while a similar discussion…

Schubert’s Sonata in C major, D 840, is the last of his unfinished sonatas. Bearing in mind his astonishing creativity during 1825, which saw the com position of three great piano sonatas (D 840, D 845, D 850) as well as the ‘Great’ C major Symphony, D 944…

The second of the Drei Klavierstücke, D 946, was one of my first serious encounters with Franz Schubert’s music. With some pieces of music one can sense their greatness, and they slowly reveal their secrets over time…

Since I became acquainted with Schubert’s music as a child, it has been a constant companion in my life. Only accessible through an intuitive grasp, Schubert’s music seemed to speak to me in a way that no other composer did…

It is a phenomenon of the late 19th century that actual research into folk music came to replace the previous practice of making crude re-harmonisations of traditional tunes without any consideration of their sources and musical content. The same treatment would be given to traditional-sounding tunes, composed in a rousing, stereotypical manner with the probable aim of pleasing national sentiment…

Seeing a transcription of a full song cycle on the programme, one very obvious reac tion from a music lover might be ‘Why?’ In the age of the Urtext, playing mere imitations of the originals seems like heresy…

Friedrich von Matthisson’s poem Adelaide is a curious case. Few have a good word to say about it. It is overly sentimental, clichéed and poorly executed. However, this rather sub standard piece of poetry awakened the imagination of many a composer, in cluding Beethoven and Schubert…