Norman Lebrecht

Marx, Freud, Proust, Einstein, Bernhardt and Kafka. Between the middle of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a few dozen men and women changed the way we see the world. But many have vanished from our collective memory despite their enduring importance in our daily lives. Without Karl Landsteiner, for instance, there would be no blood transfusions or major surgery. Without...

Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn’t exist. Who was this titan of world culture? Through 100 recordings, Lebrecht brings to life the composer as we’ve never seen him before. Unruly, offensive, and hopeless in so much of his life, yes, but driven to a fault and devoted to his art, conquering deafness to compose some of the towering...

Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn’t exist. There’d be no Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson, down to cello-playing Ed Sheeran. Norman Lebrecht asks: why? Who was this titan of world culture? In 100 recordings, freely available on Idagio and YouTube, Lebrecht brings to life the composer as we’ve never seen him before. Unruly, offensive and hopeless...