The author admits to being a passionate admirer of his music and a constant pilgrim to the places where the musician lived and worked: Bergedorf, Venice, Naples, Vienna, London, Warsaw and, above all, Dresden. We also publish in this issue the essay that took second prize in the competition, an article devoted to the Italian writer, historian and librettist Apostolo Zeno (1668-1750), Metastasio’s predecessor at the court of Vienna and the most sought-after author among the great composers of his age.

The essay is written by the Belgian PhD in Musicology Bruno Forment, who currently lives in the United States. With his characteristic blend of academic rigour and readability, Brian Robins presents a survey of the musical and historical significance of Mozart’s last opera, La Clemenza di Tito, a work which, he observes, has over a long period aroused stern judgments and criticism.

A short article by Steven Plank on Couperin, the Leçons de Ténèbres and the paintings of Georges de La Tour rounds off the essays in this issue of Goldberg. In addition, we have a key interview with one of the most influential figures in the world of early music, Joshua Rifkin. His opinions and research on the performance of Bach’s choral music are well known, as is the attendant controversy of the last twenty years. In this conversation with Uri Golomb, however, we discover a new Rifkin who accepts and advocates the view that “making music touches on a host of other questions”.