BBC Music Magazine

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

Instruments of battle

Have your say…

FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL to the digital edition

The full score • Our pick of the month’s news, views and interviews

Young players invited to enjoy the thrill of pedal power

THE MONTH IN NUMBERS

SoundBites

RisingStars

Prokofiev’s death is put in the shade by Stalin mania

Also in March 1953…

Ma goes on the hunt for a little cello inspiration

DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…

Julian Marshall

StudioSecrets • We reveal who’s recording what and where…

REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings

MyHero

Strauss’s deceptive dawn

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 • Female musicians have come a long way – but archaic attitudes still exist

LORD of the RING

Memorable moments • Five key scenes from the Ring

Towering interpretations • Five famous Ring recordings

Plain speaking • Ten opinions on Wagner

My life with Wagner • Four leading conductors and singers explain why they fell in love with the German’s music, and describe how to approach his challenging scores

Titans of Wagner • We present several of the greatest singers of his formidable music dramas, past and present…

Kazuki Yamada • THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

The Birmingham fast track • How the CBSO opens doors

Playing the hero • As a musical idol of the Romantic period, Liszt felt the ‘strongest kinship’ with the scandalous yet extravagantly talented poet Lord Byron, writes Paul Roberts

An audience with Franz Liszt • Danhauser’s eminent gathering

The city of light • Exactly a century ago, Paris was the go-to centre for music, with an astonishing range of new works by Satie, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Milhaud and many others. Roger Nichols recalls the premieres of 1923

‘Order is terrifying’ • Cocteau on Stravinsky

Out of the Blue • As we mark International Women’s Day, composer Michael Daugherty and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers tell Charlotte Smith about Blue Electra, a new work inspired by the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart

Winged words • Amelia Earhart’s poetry

Orkney Scotland • The St Magnus International Festival captivatingly presents modern and traditional repertoire in an ancient setting, writes Tom Stewart

The Orkney Islands

Howell’s style

Dorothy Howell • Leah Broad introduces a British composer whose evocative and attractive music was championed by Proms founder Henry Wood

HOWELL Life&Times

Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 2, ‘The Four Temperaments’ • Amanda Holloway introduces a work famously inspired by a picture in a pub, and names the recordings that best capture its range of moods

An urgent and characterful classic

Three other great recordings

Continue the journey… • We recommend five works to explore after Nielsen’s Second Symphony

Welcome

Reviews • Recordings and books rated by expert critics

Performer’s notes

Haydn’s horns shine bright in this set of symphonies • Misha Donat is suitably stirred by this latest chapter in Giovanni Antonini’s ambitious recording cycle

Orchestral

An intoxicating set of violin...