If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an advocate of both old and new music.
Together with his son-in-law Richard Wagner, he was in the forefront of the Romantic movement and anticipated the musical revolutions of the early 20th century with his new composition techniques.

Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C are among his most famous. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded.
In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favour of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career as a pianist, the earnings from which, before her marriage, formed a substantial part of her father's fortune.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness.

The British Oliver Knussen was one of the greatest and most performed composers of his generation and a celebrated conductor who championed modern music. He was born in 1952 in Glasgow, as the son of a London Symphony Orchestra player. He started composing from a young age and conducted his first symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. The performance brought him a great deal of press attention and a commission from Benjamin Britten. Knussen composed two more symphonies, the last of which has become the most successful. Other well-known works are his horn concerto and violin concerto, which were performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra last year, and his children operas Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, based on the books by Maurice Sendak. The oeuvre of Knussen has remained relatively small, since he was highly critical of his own works.
A combination of persistent ill health and composer’s block caused him to stop composing and start focusing on conducting. Between 1992 and 1996, he was principal guest conductor of The Hague Philharmonic and he was conductor of London Sinfonietta between 1998 and 2002 and Conductor Laureate afterwards. From september 2006, Knussen was Artist-in-Assocation of the Birgmingham Contemporary Music Group. As a conductor, he advocated modern music and he was a mentor to young composers like Mark-Anthony Turnage and Ryan Wigglesworth.
Knussen lived in Snape in Suffolk, in the house of Benjamin Britten.