BBC Music Magazine is a must for anyone with a passion for classical music. Classical music connoisseurs and new enthusiast alike will enjoy the fascinating features and reviews of over 120 new works in every issue.
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
Welcome
BBC Music Magazine
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LETTER of the MONTH
WIN! 12 MONTHS OF PRIMEPHONIC
Bristol Beacon lights the way forward • A new name is unveiled for the south-west city’s former Colston Hall
Freelance musicians bring war to Parliament Square
THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
Sound Bites
Rising Stars • Three to look out for…
DECEMBER 1877 Vienna gives Bruckner’s Third a wretched reception
Also in December 1877
Multi-teared composer left off shower poll
DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…
Missy Mazzoli • American composer Missy Mazzoli made history in 2018 when she became one of the first two women ever to be commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Proving Up, her opera exploring the American Dream in 1870s Nebraska, was recorded by Opera Omaha and released this year on the Pentatone label.
Studio Secrets • We reveal who’s recording what and where...
REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings
Buried Treasure
Ravel’s exquisite escapism • Ravel is so moving, says Tom Service , because the French composer takes us away from the everyday with music of intense and undiluted beauty
FAREWELL TO…
Music to my ears • What the classical world has been listening to this month
READERS’ CHOICE
READER’S CHOICE
Our Choices • The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Richard Morrison • It’s time we stopped viewing English pastoralism as emotionally inferior
Liberating The Lark • The Lark Ascending was composed not as a prelude to war but as an elegy for Britain’s rural communities, says Andrew Green, who uncovers new evidence behind the genesis of Vaughan Williams’s 1914 masterpiece
Champions of The Lark • Four of the very best recordings
Lark pioneers • Four of the work’s firsts
A rural elegy
Playing The Lark • Three performance perspectives
Wayne Marshall • With a major opera production to organise and weekly online organ recitals, lockdown has been fruitful for the versatile organist, pianist and conductor, discovers Tom Service
Marshall on disc
Great Scott • Though lauded as a genius by his illustrious peers, the composer Cyril Scott rarely gets a look in today. On the 50th anniversary of his death, this multi-faceted maverick is appraised by Jeremy Nicholas
A bird in the hand
Exploring Scott • Recommended discs
Enduring myths
Loose changes
Hero worship • In 1902, a temple to Beethoven was built in Vienna, displaying artworks that underlined the composer’s humanity and vulnerability. Paul Riley tells the story
Artistic revolutions • Inside Klimt’s Vienna
Taormina Italy • The stunning seascape and ancient ruins that bewitched Wagner and Brahms also delight Erik Levi as he pays a visit to the Sicilian coast
Giuseppe Sinopoli
Paul Hindemith • Often dismissed today as a dry neo-classicist, the German was in fact one of the most visionary figures of his time, says John Allison
Hindemith’s style
HINDEMITH Life &Times
Flute Concerto No. 1, K313 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • The charm, intricacy and technical brilliance of Mozart’s masterpiece captivate Claire Jackson as...