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Ronald Brautigam established himself as a leading performer on the international scene on both the modern piano and the fortepiano, receiving acclaim for his period-instrument interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven. He has performed with major modern and historical-instrument ensembles throughout the world and has an extensive, award-winning recording catalog. In 2024, Brautigam backed cellist Christian Poltéra on a recording of music by Brahms and Schumann.

Brautigam was born in Amsterdam on October 1, 1954. He studied with pianist Jan Wijn before moving to the U.K. and then the U.S., where he was a student of Rudolf Serkin. Brautigam's career took off in 1984 when he was awarded the Netherlands Music Prize, the highest distinction the Netherlands bestows on musicians. Following this award, he appeared in recitals and as a concerto soloist throughout Europe, as well as in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Australia. Among the orchestras he's appeared with are the Royal Concertgebouw, the BBC and London Philharmonics, and the Sydney Symphony. Brautigam has worked with many top conductors, including Simon Rattle, Christopher Hogwood, and Riccardo Chailly. On the fortepiano, Brautigam has performed with many of the world's best period-instrument ensembles, including Tafelmusik, the Freiburger Barockorchester, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He is also an enthusiastic chamber musician, working alongside such musicians as Melvyn Tan (in four-hand fortepiano works), Isabelle van Keulen, Nobuko Imai, and Sharon Bezaly.

Brautigam began recording in the 1980s when he signed with the Decca label. After a move to the BIS label in 1995, Brautigam's output accelerated, and he began collecting accolades. He has recorded the complete keyboard works of Mozart and the complete solo keyboard works of Haydn, Joseph Martin Kraus, and Beethoven, all on the fortepiano. Brautigam gave the world premiere in 2005 of an Adagio from a lost concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Beethoven in 1789, with Conrad van Alphen leading the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra. Brautigam has also edited a reconstruction of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in F flat major, WoO 4.

In 2009, Brautigam began a collaboration with Michael Alexander Willens and the Kölner Akademie, recording the complete concertos of Beethoven on the fortepiano. He once again teamed with Willens and the Kölner Akademie in 2019 to issue a recording of Mendelssohn's piano concertos. Brautigam has continued a prolific performing and recording schedule in the 2020s, often issuing multiple releases yearly, including two volumes covering the piano concertos of Johann Wilhelm Wilms in 2022. In 2024, he backed cellist Christian Poltéra on the album Brahms: Cello Sonatas; Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston, as well as a recording of Schubert's D 959 and 960 sonatas. He has earned major recording awards, including several Edison Awards, a Diapason d'Or de l'année, two MIDEM Classical Awards, and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Brautigam is a professor at the Musikhochschule Basel. ~ Keith Finke

Riccardo Chailly is a dynamic and sometimes controversial conductor known for his devotion to contemporary music and for his attempts to modernize approaches to the traditional symphonic repertory. His many recordings for the Decca label include modern masterworks by Zemlinsky, Hindemith, and Schnittke, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, and a number of operas. In 2021, Decca issued a box set of Chailly conducting the complete works of Stravinsky, and he led the La Scala Theater Orchestra in backing Anna Netrebko on her album Amata dalle Tenebre.

Chailly was born in Milan on February 20, 1953. The son of composer Luciano Chailly and an occasional rhythm & blues drummer, Chailly began his conducting career as Claudio Abbado's assistant at La Scala, cutting his teeth on the standard operatic literature. He attained considerable success as an opera conductor in his own right, making guest appearances at London's Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and numerous Italian and German houses; he also made several notable recordings, including an Andre Chénier with Luciano Pavarotti. Nevertheless, he decided to focus his energies on symphonic conducting instead, feeling that it offered a wider avenue for artistic exploration. To that end, he became the principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1982, eventually leading them on their first North American tour in 1985; he was also the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 1982 to 1985.

In 1988, the newly rechristened Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra named the 35-year-old Chailly as its chief conductor and artistic director. This would prove to be the defining post of his career, and he would cut back on his touring and operatic engagements to make it the center of his artistic activities. The relationship with both the orchestra and its audience was rocky at first, marked by resentment toward his "modernistic" approach to the works of Bruckner, Mahler, and Brahms. (Among other things, Chailly moved the group away from its signature sound and toward a more flexible palette of orchestral color, adaptable to the needs of each composer.) However, after that adjustment, Chailly assumed a position of confident leadership over the group, maintaining its position as one of Europe's finest ensembles but also establishing it as a source of innovation and fresh perspective. Chailly left the Concertgebouw in 2004, and was replaced by Mariss Jansons.

Chailly was the first music director of the Orchestra symphonica Giuseppe Verdi, serving from 1999 until 2005. In 2005, he assumed a new post with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where he served until 2016. In 2015, Chailly was named music director of La Scala in Milan, and the following year was named to the same role with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras across Europe and the U.S., including such illustrious groups as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony.

Chailly is a noted champion of Edgard Varèse and Alexander Zemlinsky, both of whom he feels have been under-appreciated. He also maintains an interest in the performance practice of the Baroque era, and in his performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, he attempts to balance the sound of the modern orchestra with the style of the period. As an operatic conductor, Chailly has made several notable Rossini recordings, including La Cenerentola, starring Cecilia Bartoli. In 2019, Chailly released an album dedicated to Nino Rota's music for films by Federico Fellini, as well as a La Scala production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. In 2021, Chailly and the La Scala Theater Orchestra backed soprano Anna Netrebko on the album Amata dalle Tenebre, and Decca issued the Stravinsky Edition box set containing Chailly's recordings of all of that composer's works. That year, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra extended Chailly's contract until 2026. ~ Allen Schrott & Keith Finke

A famed composer of the 20s and 30s, Vincent Youmans wrote popular songs and became famous for his Broadway musical hits. Among his Broadway hit songs are "Who's Who With You," "Country Cousin" and "Oh Me, Oh My, Oh You."

Vincent Youmans career began when he was four years old. He was born in New York to a hat chain owner and a housewife. His parents encouraged his musical genius when they gave him piano lessons at four. His education took him to Trinity College, Heathcote Hall and finally to Yale University where he studied engineering. With no interest in engineering, he dropped out of Yale. He then entered the US Navy preparing musical shows for the troops. One of his songs was used by John Philip Sousa and renamed "Hallelujah" in 1927.

After his stint in the Navy, Vincent Youmans concentrated heavily on his musical career. His first Broadway hit "Who's Who With You" was performed in the 1918 show From Broadway to Piccadilly. In 1920 his song, "Country Cousin," was published and earned him a job at Harms Music as a pianist and songplugger. Vincent Youmans then worked with Victor Herbert, assisting him in rehearsing singers for his musicals. The experience he gained in his first two jobs made him one of many successful composers of his time.

In 1923 Vincent Youmans collaborated with Herbert Stothart for the musical The Wildflower. Another show for the duo, Mary Jane McKane, was unsuccessful in 1923 but garnered much musical success for Vincent Youmans under its 1925 title No, No Nanette. It featured the songs "Tea for Two" and "I Want To Be Happy." During the late 20s Vincent Youmans did several Broadway musicals including Oh, Please, Hit the Deck, Rainbow and Great Day.

Success came for Vincent Youmans with Flying Down to Rio. The cast included such film legends as Gene Raymond, Delores Del Rio, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With hits such as "Carioca," "Music Makes Me," "Flying Down to Rio" and "Orchids in the Moonlight," it is no wonder Vincent Youmans, along with Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, earned a 1935 Oscar nomination for Best Music in the film.

Unfortunately in 1933 Vincent Youmans contracted tuberculosis and entered a sanatorium in Colorado. After a few years he was able to leave and parted to Louisiana where he began to compose again. In 1943 he opened "The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue" in Boston. The show was full of ballet, puppets, music and costumes. Not a rousing success, the show ended without playing New York City as Vincent Youmans planned.

In 1945 Vincent Youmans was forced to return to the Colorado sanatorium because of his failing health. At the age of 48 he died in Denver, Colorado. "Through the Years" was played at his funeral. A popular musical figure on the Broadway circuit, Vincent Youmans was also a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Dmitry Shostakovich was a Russian composer whose symphonies and quartets, numbering 15 each, are among the greatest examples from the 20th century of these classic forms. His style evolved from the brash humor and experimental character of his first period, exemplified by the operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, into both the more introverted melancholy and nationalistic fervor of his second phase (the Symphonies No. 5 and No. 7, "Leningrad"), and finally into the defiant and bleak mood of his last period (exemplified by the Symphony No. 14 and Quartet No. 15). Early in his career his music showed the influence of Prokofiev and Stravinsky, especially in his prodigious and highly successful First Symphony. He could effectively communicate a melancholic depth and profound sense of anguish, as one hears in many of his symphonies, concertos, and quartets. Solomon Volkov, in his controversial Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich explains the composer's seeming bombast as deft satire of the pomposity of the Soviet state, pointing to the "forced rejoicing" of Fifth Symphony's ending. Typical traits of Shostakovich's style include short, reiterated melodic or rhythmic figures, motifs of one or two pitches or intervals, and lugubrious and manic string writing.

Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906 and educated at the Petrograd Conservatory. The acid style of his early Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk irritated Stalin, and Shostakovich was attacked in the Soviet press. Fearing imprisonment, he withdrew his already rehearsed Fourth Symphony; his Fifth Symphony (1937) carried the subtitle "A Soviet Artist's Reply to Just Criticism." It is more ingenious than most critics have fathomed, for it managed to satisfy both the backward tastes of the party censors and those of more demanding aesthetes in the West.

The 1941 German invasion of Russia inspired the composer's Seventh Symphony, subtitled "Leningrad." Impressed by the symphony's epic-heroic character, Toscanini, Koussevitzky, and Stokowski vied for the Western Hemisphere premiere; the score had to be microfilmed, flown to Teheran, driven to Cairo, and flown out. The work became an enormous success the world over, but eventually fell into obscurity. Still, the composer had for a time become a worldwide celebrity, his picture even appearing on the cover of Time.

Shostakovich ran afoul of the government again in 1948, when an infamous decree was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party accusing Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and other prominent composers of "formalist perversions." For some time he wrote mostly works glorifying Soviet life or history. Artistic repression diminished in post-Stalinist Russia, but curiously Shostakovich still drew in his modernist horns until the Thirteenth Symphony, "Babi Yar," a 1962 work based on poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The work provoked major controversy because of its first movement's subject: Russian oppression of the Jews.

In 1966 Shostakovich wrote his Second Cello Concerto, a work on an even higher level than his solid First, but one that did not capture as much attention from either artists or the public. That year, Shostakovich was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. He continued to compose, his works growing more sparsely scored and darker, the subject of death becoming prominent. His Fourteenth Symphony (1969), really a collection of songs on texts by Lorca, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker, and Rilke, is a death-obsessed work of considerable dissonance and showing little regard for the Socialist Realism still demanded by the state. Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975. ~ Rovi Staff

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, or, as it is often called, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, was founded in 1888, its first concert taking place on November 3 of that year. Concertgebouw means concert hall in Dutch, and the ensemble adopted that name from the lavish site where it has been based since 1888. The building, known for its splendid acoustics, houses a large auditorium (the Grote Zaal) and a small one (Kleine Zaal).

The Orchestra's first conductor was Willem Kes, who enforced a common etiquette on Dutch audiences previously unobserved: eating, late arrivals, and talking during performance were banned. Kes built the orchestra into a fine one, even if it still fell short of world-class caliber. Upon Kes' departure in 1895, the legendary Willem Mengelberg was appointed music director. He would serve for nearly 50 years in that capacity, molding the orchestra into a first-rate ensemble and making many famous recordings with the group.

During his reign Mengelberg took sabbaticals to conduct other orchestras in Europe and America, including the New York Philharmonic. During his absences, other conductors were engaged to serve as substitutes, including Pierre Monteux and Bruno Walter. While Mengelberg was highly respected and his orchestra widely admired, the repertory tended to be somewhat narrow, focusing largely on the Germanic sphere, especially on Beethoven and Richard Strauss. But he conducted works by Gustav Mahler, and the orchestra featured appearances by Rachmaninov and Prokofiev in performances of their works.

During World War II, Mengelberg sided with the Nazis, and after 1945 was banned from conducting the ensemble for six years. That same year Eduard van Beinum was appointed his successor. He broadened the repertory and maintained the orchestra's high performance standards during his 14 years on the podium. He died in 1959 during a rehearsal, and for the next four years, leadership of the orchestra was shared by Eugen Jochum and Bernard Haitink. Haitink was appointed chief conductor in 1963 and served in that capacity until 1988. During his tenure, the orchestra made numerous highly acclaimed tours and recordings.

Haitink's successor was Riccardo Chailly, who further broadened the repertory of the orchestra, and like his predecessors, produced a spate of critically acclaimed recordings. In 2004, Mariss Jansons was appointed conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Today the ensemble consists of 120 players and is widely considered one of the finest orchestras in the world.