A Puzzle.

[TerraEpon]

For the life of me I can't think of a single Shakespeare inspired work by Rimsky-Korsakov, which seems quite strange (unless you include The Tale of Tsar Saltan which is based on Pushkin's poem which was based somewhat on Winter's Tale)

Nope, nothing Shakespeare unless in his songs.
As for Sibelius, well I wouldn't really call incidental music "inspired by" (he also wrote a couple of songs for 12th night)

[thalbergmad]

I do like a nice puzzle or quiz.

My question and i bet my 2nd favourite banjo that nobody will answer is:

What composer studied with Joachim & Rheinberger and also conducted the Black Dike Mills Band?

Thal

[Revilod]

Liszt, Jonathan, is listed as a synesthete on wikipedia and a convincing anecdote, with a reference, about how he asked the Weimar orchestra to play according to colours is given.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_synesthesia#Franz_Liszt

[Mark Thomas]

"When Liszt first began as Kapellmeister in Weimar (1842), it astonished the orchestra that he said: 'O please, gentlemen, a little bluer, if you please! This tone type requires it!' Or: 'That is a deep violet, please, depend on it! Not so rose!' First the orchestra believed Liszt just joked; more later they got accustomed to the fact that the great musician seemed to see colors there, where there were only tones."

– Anonymous, as quoted in Friedrich Mahling, p. 230

[mbhaub]

Well, lookie here:

http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/syn-composers.htm

Who knew?

[eschiss1]

At least one or two such Liszt quotes are in Walker though as I recall he draws different conclusions from them.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for that everyone - just goes to prove I can't remember everything I've ever read 

[JimL]

Scriabin a pseudo-synesthete?  He is one of the most famous examples of a genuine synesthete there is!  He actually attempted to invent an instrument that displayed colors when it was played for the premiere of one of his final symphonies (Ecstasy?)  I forget the name of the thing, but it wasn't built.

[Mark Thomas]

A Clavier à lumières wasn't it?

[Alan Howe]

Scriabin a pseudo-synesthete?  He is one of the most famous examples of a genuine synesthete there is!

You misunderstand, Jim. According to Wikipedia synesthetes are...
<<famous people who have, or had, the neurological condition synesthesia. Following that, there is a list of people who are often wrongly believed to have had synesthesia because they used it as a device in their art, poetry or music (referred to as pseudo-synesthetes).>>
Scriabin comes in the second category.

[Delicious Manager]

I have to wonder whether Sibelius's seeing colours in music might have been linked to his profuse consumption of alcohol (smacks wrist for being flippant!)?