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.
Welcome
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
BBC Music Magazine
Have your say…
Furtwängler the composer
St John’s College Choir to become mixed from 2022 • Historic Cambridge choir is set to welcome girls and women for the first time
How not to cast a diva, as Callas statue brings derision
THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
SoundBites
RisingStars • Three to look out for…
DECEMBER 1939 Clemens Krauss sets off a Vienna New Year tradition
Also in December 1939
London orchestra players get a dressing down
DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…
MEET THE COMPOSER
StudioSecrets
REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings
BuriedTreasure
Divine dissonances
FAREWELL TO…
Music to my ears • What the classical world has been listening to this month
Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Richard Morrison • As orchestras try to modernise their image, is it now time to ditch the DJ?
From darkness to light • As Christmas approaches and choirs get set for the busiest time of the year, Jeremy Pound visits Worcester Cathedral to find out how the ordeal of the last few months has also brought about a new optimism
Friends in need • The campaign to save cathedral choirs
Worcester source • Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
“I try to sing with my fingers. You have to transcend the keyboard to the point where what matters is the voice” • THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
A life at the console • Weir’s 80th-birthday box-set
A Winter Carol • Composer Grace-Evangeline Mason invites us to step out into the snow in her new carol, commissioned for BBC Music Magazine readers
Seasonal looks • Christmas over the years has inspired a glorious array of weird and wonderful covers from record company designers. We present our favourites…
Joy to the World! • Whatever you are doing this festive season, you can be sure the King’s Singers are literally flying to their next gig. Jonathan Howard and Patrick Dunachie share their experience of Christmas around the globe
Tis the season…
A matter of taste • As research shows how our enjoyment of food and music can be enhanced by each other’s company, Claire Jackson meets the performers who have introduced this fine couple to the concert hall
The ‘Candy Cane’ • Stuart Skelton’s cocktail
Entente Cordiale • Throughout his career, Saint-Saëns was a regular and popular visitor to England. Roger Nichols takes a look at some of his eventful cross-Channel trips
Saint-Saëns the globe-trotter • A much-travelled composer
RPS Music Awards 2021 • Ryan Bancroft, the winner of the RPS Conductor Award, tells Freya Parr how this most trying of years still had its plus points
Harmonious winners • This year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards recipients
New York City United States • Even in this pandemic-hit year, the Big Apple has plenty to offer the music-lover at Christmas, as local resident Brian Wise explains
Northern light A Bronx tale
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • For all his popularity, the Russian’s genius can perhaps be best appreciated if we explore beyond his greatest hits, says Malcolm Hayes
Tchaikovsky’s style
TCHAIKOVSKY Life&Times
Botticelli Triptych • It takes a master of orchestral colour to translate masterpieces by the Italian painter Botticelli; Rebecca Franks finds the...