The 1976 memorial at the Babi Yar massacre site only recognised Soviet victims, despite the killing of more than 30,000 Jewish people. In 1991 a Jewish memorial was installed nearby.
Jennifer Boyer/Flickr
On September 29 1941, Nazis murdered more than 30,000 Jews in a ravine outside Kiev. Dmitri Shostakovich's 13th Symphony, Babi Yar, is a damning critique of the Soviet Union's lack of recognition of the massacre, and a condemnation of Stalinism.
In Franz Schubert’s Winterreise (winter’s journey), a man steps out on a mid-winter night to rid himself of his lost love.
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A year before his death at 31 Franz Schubert published 'Winterreise' or 'winter's journey', a series of 24 poems set to music exploring unrequited love. Schubert described them as 'truly terrible'.
Swedish organist Anna von Hausswolff.
Anders Nydam
In the late 1930s, Australia sought to restrict the flow of refugees, ruling that musicians were 'unsuitable' as migrants. Yet some talented Jewish musicians did arrive here and their work has enriched our cultural life.
Debussy’s Clair de Lune belongs to the Impressionist movement, which included visual artists like Claude Monet.
Wikimedia
Debussy's Clair de Lune, meaning 'moonlight', is one of the most easily recognised pieces of music, but its origins are complex. The piece was influenced by poetry, Baroque music and the Impressionist movement.
Is birdsong simply a hard-wired, functional, primitive sound – or could we call it 'music'? Australia's pied butcherbirds show there are surprising overlaps between birds' and humans' musical abilities.
With An Alpine Symphony, Richard Strauss achieved something remarkable: the painting of the German alps, complete with cow meadows and waterfalls, in sound.
Brahms’ piano quartet in G minor was composed for a piano, a violin, a viola and a cello.
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Whoever finds it beautiful is beyond help, quipped critic Eduard Hanslick upon hearing Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor for the first time. Fortunately, posterity did not agree with him.
Carl Seffner’s 1908 statue of J.S. Bach in front of St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Germany.
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Johann Sebastian Bach's The Art of Fugue is a work of high art. But in keeping with the late works of artists such as Shakespeare, Beethoven and Goya, it contains elements of pathos, humour, gravity, exuberance and tragedy.
Best Classical Album winners Flight Facilities, playing at the ARIA award ceremony last year.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
High-profile awards ceremonies are often only as interesting as the controversies they create. The 2016 ARIA Awards has started strongly in this area. Although the main ceremony is still a month away…
Trump’s use of a Puccini aria has caused some raised eyebrows.
Michael Reynolds/EPA // Wikimedia Commons
The rate of female composers working in Australia hasn't risen in seven years. At one leading ensemble, 41 of 47 composers commissioned have been men. What's going wrong, and how can it be fixed?
In his 150th anniversary year it seems appropriate that Sibelius and his reception receive a critical re-evaluation.
French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand presents Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (centre) with the highest decoration in France, Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, in 2011.
Wikimedia Commons
The classical music world is marking the 150th anniversary of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with concerts across Finland and in Australia too. But who was the man behind the music?
