For a patriotic German in the decades before Bismarck, Britain’s power was an object of envy. But there was one thing, at least, that you could always hold over the Anglo-Saxons on their foggy little island. On 1 January 1837, Robert Schumann sat down in Leipzig to hear a new piano concerto by the 20-year-old William Sterndale Bennett.
Richard Bratby
Bigamists, lunatics and adventurers: the raucous world of 19th century British music
Victorian Britain was a wild time for British composers, but are there any masterpieces waiting to be unearthed?
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