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
Have your say…
LETTER of the MONTH
Plácido Domingo leaves LA Opera and NY Met • Star ends key partnerships with US organisations following press allegations
English National Opera invites artists to draw the curtains
THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
Rising Stars • Three to look out for…
Sound Bites
Handel’s coat button saves him in a sword fight
Also in December 1704
Root notes, swede music and a touch of glass
History just keeps on repeating itself…
Rebecca Saunders
Studio Secrets • We reveal who’s recording what and where...
REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings
Buried Treasure • Violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen introduces three cherished recordings
The world of wobble
FAREWELL TO…
Music to my ears • What the classical world has been listening to this month
CRITIC’S CHOICE
The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Richard Morrison • What’s so wrong with listening to classical music simply to ‘relax’?
The 50 GREATEST COMPOSERS of all time • Who do today’s leading composers rate as the finest? We asked 174 of them that very question and here, in their own words, we present the fascinating results
Music missing in action • Composers who failed to make the cut
In search of the best • BBC Music Magazine’s previous polls
OUT NOW ON NONESUCH
And the winner is... • Could it be anyone else? Johann Sebastian Bach tops the list with music of breathtaking brilliance
How they voted • So who were the 174 composers who took part in our poll? Over the next three pages, we list them all and the five composers each voted for
Poll chancers • The composer votes that surprised us
Iván Fischer
Hungarian fantasies • Fischer and the BFO on disc
The big bang • What are percussion’s most exciting and precarious orchestral moments? Amanda Holloway talks to ten players about the bars that get their hearts pumping
Beat masters • Five percussionists who became conductors
All in good taste • Opera is packed with sex, violence and risqué material, so do audiences need to be warned? Brian Wise explores the rise of movie-style ratings for productions
Aisle be gone • Music’s famous walkouts
Singapore • Slowly but surely, Western classical music is earning itself a loyal fan base in this young city state, finds new resident Elizabeth Davis
Music in miniature
Hildegard von Bingen • The 12th-century nun’s influential work represents an important development in the history of music, says Fiona Maddocks
Sense of style
HILDEGARD Life&Times
Symphony No. 3, ‘Scottish’ Felix Mendelssohn • From stormy scenes to lively dances, Terry Williams gazes northwards as he names the best recordings of a Romantic symphonic masterwork
The composer
A lean and balanced performance
Three other great recordings
Continue the journey… • Further works to explore after Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony
Welcome
Shostakovich sonatas reveal ferocious talent • David Nice is impressed by pianist Andrey Gugnin’s technical prowess as he takes on some of the composer’s most testing works
An interview with Andrey Gugnin
Orchestral
Rattle’s best of British is an unadorned pleasure • Malcolm Hayes finds there is no need for...