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

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...