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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LETTER of the MONTH

FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL to the digital edition

Adolfo Corrado thrills in BBC Cardiff Singer triumph • Mozart, Rossini and Verdi prove a winning combination for 29-year-old Italian bass

Cardiff Singer 2023 • The prize-winners

Another royal accolade for Master of the King’s Music

THE MONTH IN NUMBERS

SoundBites

RisingStars • Three to look out for…

This Week’s Composer airs to war-weary radio listeners

Also in August 1943…

For better grades, seek Extra-Terrestrial help

DÉJÀ VU • History just keeps on repeating itself…

Kenneth Fuchs • The Grammy Award-winning American composer, 67, crafts works which proudly wear their tonal hearts on their sleeves. His Cloud Slant, based on paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, heads a new recording from conductor John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, the first in a Fuchs series out on 14 July on the Chandos label.

We reveal who’s recording what and where…

REWIND • Great artists talk about their past recordings

MyHero • Composer Debbie Wiseman reflects on her long-term collaboration with writer/director Peter Kosminsky

Rise of the machines? • Artificial Intelligence is suddenly everywhere, and its tentacles are stretching into the musical world. But there’s no need to panic… at least not quite yet, 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 • Should the results of our poll on the best British composers worry us?

The 25 GREATEST BRITISH COMPOSERS of all time • We asked 167 top musicians to vote for the best composing talent to emerge from these fair isles over the centuries. Here are the results…

Close… but no cigar • Some surprising non-appearances

Why I voted for…

A toast to great Britten • We salute the master of all forms, from intimate solo works to powerful operas and a vast-scale Requiem

Who voted for whom? • Who were the 167 musicians who took part in our poll? Here is the full list of everyone who voted, plus their five greatest British composers

Make mine a single… • Some of the composers to get one vote

How many of the 25 composers did you spot on our front cover? • A little explanation of each visual clue, from the obvious to the rather more obscure

Sarah Connolly • Having survived cancer treatment, the English mezzosoprano appears stronger than ever and is fighting for cultural organisations close to her heart, as she tells Amanda Holloway

Connolly at The Proms • On Pejačević and Alma Mahler

Lost in translation? • Stephen Johnson takes a look at how large-scale British works have fared in the hands of overseas conductors, from the composers’ own day to ours

Joining the Foulds • Oramo’s British exploits

Voices from the past • A new compendium gathering 600 years of first-hand accounts of music, art and society gives a fascinating insight, says Simon Heighes

The Taverner Choir

A song in her heart • Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) wrote 255 songs, many of them never published. Tenor Timothy Parker-Langston’s new online edition is making them...