“Christmas With Beethoven” is Howland’s fifth Christmas CD. The cover features a picture of composer Ludwig von Beethoven wearing a Christmas hat. Howland, 63, considers her arrangements in the CD an ...

One of the greatest composers in history added to his musical legacy with the invention of the CD, over 150 years after he died. In the late 1970s, executives in the recording and hi-fi industries ...

__1770: __Ludwig van Beethoven is born to a family of musicians in Bonn, Germany. His Ninth Symphony will play a role in determining the length of the music CD. Exactly how big a role is a matter of ...

The Allegri Quartet’s earliest incarnation began playing in 1953. Orchestral personnel change constantly and no one bats an eyelid. String quartet members are similarly replaced and retired, leading ...

It’s an absolute pleasure to delve into the Beethoven Symphonies every so often, even – or especially – when one feels plenty saturated with Beethoven in concert and on record. True, there’s much ...

The Harmonie, a small instrumental group made up of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, hit its stride in late 18th century Vienna. Early repertoire mostly consisted of operatic ...

Between the 2009 recession and the growth of music streaming, the early 21st-century flood of classical music compact discs has dwindled to a trickle. That makes new CDs from musicians with ...

Joshua Kosman has covered classical music for the San Francisco Chronicle since 1988, reviewing and reporting on the wealth of orchestral, operatic, chamber and contemporary music throughout the Bay ...