The first thing George Frideric Handel’s oratorio ‘Messiah’ did was to set a hundred and forty-two prisoners free.

Handel’s German boss fired the composer for spending all his time in London. When they met again, it was... rather awkward.

Lost for seventeen centuries, caught up in a war, and used as a pedestal for a plant pot, this is the world’s oldest surviving song.

A gifted composer of classical music in the romantic tradition, admired by Stanford, Elgar, and Sullivan.

Edward Elgar suffered from depression, and ‘Nimrod’ is his token of thanks to the true friend who supported him through it.

A Scottish widow’s lullaby for her fatherless child inspired his music, but Brahms’s message struck closer to home.