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.

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

Welcome

BBC Music Magazine

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LETTER of the MONTH

Domingo Hindoyan named as RLPO chief conductor • Highly rated Venezuelan to succeed Vasily Petrenko from September 2021

Saying it with flowers, lockdown-style

THE MONTH IN NUMBERS

Sound Bites

Rising Stars • Three to look out for…

Cage bemuses New York with the sound of silence

Also in August 1952

In search of love, dolphins head for song school

DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…

Iain Farrington

Studio Secrets • We reveal who’s recording what and where...

REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings

Buried Treasure • Pianist Anna Fedorova uncovers three rarities from her own record collection

Riddle of the Ring

FAREWELL TO…

Music to my ears • What the classical world has been listening to this month

READERS’ CHOICE

Our Choices • The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Richard Morrison • The BBC Proms has no excuse not to reform its Last Night traditions

THE PEOPLE who shaped the THE PROMS • To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Proms, Michael White introduces the extraordinary figures, past and present, who have moulded and changed this august and unique music festival

Proms in the Park • How the Last Night moved outdoors

Meet the Promenaders • The Albert Hall’s standing army

Me, myself and I • Solo performers at the Proms

“If I want to play in tune, I have to feel in tune! Because my body is all I’ve got” • THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Big waves • Theremin repertoire to discover

Game changers • With its players from BME backgrounds, Chineke! is shining a light on the lack of diversity within the rest of the classical music world, says Richard Morrison

Five of the best • BME composers to explore

Scales of the unexpected • From contrabassoons to harmonicas, we take a look at some of the more unusual concertos to have found their way into the concert hall over the centuries

Honks & hyacinths • Five concerto oddities

Allure of the East • Culminating in rich portrayals of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel, the ‘exotic’ Orient inspired countless composers, says Stephen Johnson

Intoxicating tales • Five operas inspired by 1,001 Nights

Hollywood dreams • Film composer Alexandre Desplat talks to Michael Beek about realising boyhood ambitions – and his foray into the concert hall

Sydney Australia • Among the many cultural thrills the Australian city has to offer are some of classical music’s most impressive venues, discovers Clive Paget

Dame Joan Sutherland

Carl Czerny • Though cursed for his tricky piano exercises, the Austrian provided a vital link between generations of composers, says Chris de Souza

Czerny’s style

CZERNY Life&Times

A German Requiem Johannes Brahms • Natasha Loges explores Brahms’s unique reflection on the journey towards the grave and the afterlife as she compares the best recordings

The composer

A masterclass in perfect pacing

Three other great recordings

Continue the journey… • We suggest works to explore after Brahms’s A German Requiem

Overlooked sonatas brought into the light • Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s first volume of works by four contemporaries of Beethoven is very special, says...