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.

Please Note: Our digital edition does not include the cover mount items or supplements you would normally find with printed copies

Welcome

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

BBC Music Magazine

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Striking similarities

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BBC Singers given lifeline from proposed closure plan • Rethink follows major public outcry against the ending of the 99-year-old ensemble

Winds forecast in Tokyo, but thankfully no rain…

THE MONTH IN NUMBERS

Sound Bites

Rising Stars • Three to look out for…

Bridgetower and Beethoven sparkle in Kreutzer premiere

Also in May 1803…

Just nine minutes needed to bow away the blues

DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…

Eric McElroy

We reveal who’s recording what and where…

REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings

My Hero • Pianist Shani Diluka on why the composer CPE Bach has been such an important figure in her musical education

Mozart’s final testimony • Deeply expressive and profound though Mozart’s Requiem is, we have done a great disservice by seeing it as a personal expression of anguish, says Tom Service

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 • Byrd and Weelkes should inspire us to keep our glorious choral tradition

Notes from childhood • As pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason releases a new album devoted to the music of youth, she speaks to Jessica Duchen about being a role model, her dedication to self-improvement and growing up in a famously musical family

The desire to inspire • Isata on being a role model

A house full of noises • Growing up in a musical family

Lucia Lucas • In May 2019, as Don Giovanni for Tulsa Opera, Lucia Lucas became the first transgender artist to take a leading role with an American company. She tells her story to George Hall

Leading the way • A positive example

By Royal Invitation • As this year’s big moment at Westminster Abbey approaches, Andrew Green meets some of the choristers who sang at the coronation of Elizabeth II back in 1953

Brief encounters • Meeting the composers

From brush to bow • Close friends with leading musicians of his day, the great English painter Thomas Gainsborough was a keen player himself. Michael White visits Gainsborough’s House in Suffolk to find out more

A cultural hub • The house restored

Beethoven reframed • Gianandrea Noseda’s new symphony cycle reevaluates the composer through the music of George Walker and the art of Mo Willems, as he tells Charlotte Smith

At the cutting edge • Promoting new works

French master • Roger Nichols shares his personal recollections of the much esteemed yet reserved French composer Henri Dutilleux, who died ten years ago this month

Finding Dutilleux • Jeremy Thurlow, composer

A former pupil’s view • Kenneth Hesketh, composer

United Kingdom

UK Summer Opera

Europe

North America

Rest of the World

Sheffield UK • Claire Jackson visits the city’s Chamber Music Festival where, at The Crucible, the click clack of snooker balls gives way to intimate harmony

Josephine Barstow

György Ligeti • Ivan Hewett traces the life and career of the great avant-garde...