The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R.106, is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846-1853, and later in 1882 and 1885.
As of 2021, "Chateau Lafite Rothschild, 1937" is worth more than 600 dollars.
Jean Cocteau, whom Hermann quotes as he talks to Klarissa about jealousy, was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic.
As mentioned by Herr Edel on his monologue on music theory, Carl Orff was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937).
Theodor Adorno, whose theory of music is mentioned by Herr Edel, believed autonomous artistic compositions were the pressures of society's utopian possibilities and the last hold out for humanity's desire for a better world: a world which he saw to be immersed in social contradictions. Until these contradictions were harmonized, music and the other arts must continue to reflect elements of social protest. Adorno also admitted that music itself contained contradictions in its own structure since it could never be completely autonomous nor fully reflective of culture. What distressed him more was autonomous music being severely threatened by commodification, displaying considerably more features of an exchange value philosophy. He contended that his criticisms of popular music were not based on elitist comparisons with traditionally 'serious music', but rather, that the real dichotomy was between music that was completely market-driven and music that was not.