BBC Music Magazine - December 2021

Sergei Rachmaninov - All-Night Vigil (Vespers)

The composer's love of the music and rituals of the Orthodox Church were distilled in this masterpiece; Daniel Jaffé finds the best recording

Steve Reich

In developing a unique soundworld as he tackles fraught subjects, the American has proved hugely influential, says Claire Jackson

THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW - Kirill Gerstein

Mine wasn't the archetypal musician's tortured childhood, playing nothing but scales and etudes

RPS Music Awards 2023

Rebecca Franks meets the founders of Manchester Collective, winners of the Ensemble Award, to learn their recipe for success

Fair competitor gives Percy Grainger some Brigg ideas - APRIL 1905

His ringing voice - one of the loveliest I ever heard - was as fresh as a young man's... His effortless high notes, sturdy rhythms and clear unmistakable intervals were a sheer delight to hear.'

An orchestral odyssey

In the footsteps of Prokofiev and Britten, with assistance from a sprite and an A-list team, American composer Mason Bates has created a new audiovisual guide to the orchestra; he explains all to Tom Stewart

Call of the Nile

With its pharaohs, hieroglyphs, mummies and gods, Egypt has long fascinated composers, keen to capture its unique allure, says Claire Jackson

Compulsively driven

From the brick-counting Bruckner to Dvořák the avid trainspotter, Steve Wright introduces some of history's most obsessive composers

East meets west

For Steven Fox, music director of The Clarion Choir, Rachmaninov's anniversary year presents the perfect opportunity to celebrate the composer's often overlooked choral music, as he tells Charlotte Smith

The HUMAN TOUCH

As we celebrate Rachmaninov's 150th anniversary this month, Andrew Green talks with leading musicians who explain why there's so much more to a composer often derided as nostalgic and melancholic