“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”
Maurice Ravel
The history of classical music, however, is full of fabulously gifted individuals with slightly more earthy ambitions. Love stories of classical composers are frequently retold within a romanticized narrative of sugarcoated fairy tales. To be sure, happily-ever-after stories do on rare occasions take place, but it is much more likely that classical romances lead to some rather unhappy endings. Johannes Brahms had an overriding fear of commitment, Claude Debussy drove his wife into an attempt at suicide, Francis Poulenc severely struggled with his sexual identity, and Percy Grainger was heavily into whips and bondage. And that’s only the beginning! The love life of classical composers will sometimes make you weep, or alternately shout out with joy or anguish. You might even cringe with embarrassment as we try to go beyond the usual headlines and niceties to discover the psychological makeup and the societal and cultural pressures driving these relationships. Classical composer’s love stories are not for the faint hearted; they are heightened reflections of humanity at its best and worst. Accompanying these stories of love and lust with the compositions they inspired, we are able to see composers and their relationships in a completely new light.
Throughout classical music history, ostensibly professional relationships between teachers and students have sometimes turned romantic. Some of the resulting marriages ended up being loving, long-lasting partnerships built on deep mutual admiration and respect. Others curdled rapidly due to destructive power
In the 1930s, Peter Burra was a rising star in British letters. But his death at the age of twenty-seven in an airplane crash brought those hopes to a sudden, violent end. Though Burra’s life was cut tragically short, his
Composer Johannes Brahms was famous for being a prickly, sarcastic bachelor. However, despite his gruff exterior, he did harbour tender feelings for a number of women throughout his life. Many of the women he fell for were musically talented. Mezzo-soprano
In the world of classical music, where precision, passion, and elegance reign supreme, the drama offstage can often rival the intensity of the performances themselves. Enter the unexpected and electrifying love story of two of the genre’s brightest stars: Chinese
Women loved Franz Liszt, and Franz Liszt loved women. The pianist and composer is almost as famous for his love life and his effect on women as his music-making. Today we’re looking at ten of the most intense love affairs
There has been some speculation that the doomed love affair between the young and brilliant painter Richard Gerstl and Mathilde Schoenberg—mother of two and wife to Arnold Schoenberg—served as a catalyst for the composer’s historic leap towards atonality. While such
Louis Spohr’s marriage to Dorette Scheidler, and their subsequent residence in the town of Kassel marked an important turning point in Spohr’s creative life. Although he was at the height of his powers as a violinist, he devoted an increasing
We all have the image of the suffering and tormented artist in our minds. Constantly in money troubles and frequently neglecting personal hygiene, such artistic geniuses are all alone in a shallow world that does not understand nor appreciate them.
