Music
BBC Music Magazine
Eleanor Oldroyd Broadcaster
Having joined the BBC in 1986, Eleanor Oldroyd has become well known as the presenter of radio programmes including Radio 1's Newsbeat and 5 Live Sport, and is perhaps most familiar to many as the voice of 5 Live's cricket coverage. She commentated for BBC Radio on the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla, and has also presented programmes on choral music for Radio 3. Her book Composers of Barnes: The Flow of Inspiration was published in 2016.
3 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Identity crisis
Do national schools of piano playing still exist in 2025, asks Jessica Duchen – and indeed, has the concept ever really been an accurate one?
6 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
My Hero
Gavric salutes and Ga her mother, and fellow pianist, Zrinka Gavrić for setting her on the path to her own concert career
1 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Michel Legrand
With a portfolio ranging from iconic film scores to jazz standards and even a piano concerto, the versatile Frenchman is hailed by Mervyn Cooke
6 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
An American in China
Conductor Kazem Abdullah has built his career on introducing American works to international audiences. Tom Stewart meets him in Beijing
5 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
A stunning and scholarly performance
Jan Smaczny is enthralled by Isabelle Faust's unique approach to the demanding material of Bach's little-known violin works
2 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Rays of light
Multiple studies show that music can do wonders for our mental health. So which pieces do we turn to when times are tough?
8 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Thrilling Nielsen from start to finish
Malcolm Hayes finds perfect pacing in the latest instalment of Gardner's cycle
1 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
A vibrant and humane message
Jo Talbot is impressed and moved by Abel Selaocoe’s first Cello Concerto
1 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Screenplayers
Actors 'playing' instruments on screen can be the stuff of nightmares. But, asks Michael Beek, to what lengths have they gone to make it look convincing?
6 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Tempest
Jeremy Pound is storm-tossed and then enchanted as he seeks out the best versions of the Russian's Shakespeare-inspired fantasy-overture
4 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Concert Heaven Concert Hell
Top artists recall their best and worst performances
3 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Einstein's fiddle set for sale
A violin that Albert Einstein hid away from the Nazis is set to come up for auction this month.
1 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Alison Balsom calls time on career
Last Night of the Proms to be trumpeter's final concert
2 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Grave occasions reveal an unexpected taste
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the graveyard...
1 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pick a theme... and name your seven favourite examples
3 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Ravel's Boléro, a ballet with 'no music', takes to the stage
In 1984, a truncated version of Maurice Ravel's orchestral piece Boléro was used to accompany a routine by British ice-dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics. The pair won gold and Boléro went global, its seductive rhythms mesmerising a whole new generation of listeners. Four decades later, Boléro remains one of the most instantly recognisable pieces of classical music, the work’s ‘crossover’ popularity entirely undiminished.
2 min |
November 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Picture perfect
What are the best ever uses of classical music masterpieces in film? From heartbreaking love stories to apocalyptic visions, we select our top 12
9 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Richard Morrison
Thomas Hardy's dark poems are a vital record of a rich musical past
3 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Mark Kermode
Film Critic, Broadcaster
4 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Donizetti's opera comes to a bloody end as sopranos scrap
Nineteenth-century opera is packed with scenes of fiery confrontation, from the red-hot love entanglements in Bizet’s Carmen to the apocalyptic clashes between gods, demigods and humans in Wagner's Ring cycle. Few, though, are fierier than the convulsive episode Gaetano Donizetti placed at the heart of his opera Maria Stuarda, as he readied it for presentation at the Royal Court of Naples in 1834.
3 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Cold comfort
In the late 1980s, British pianist James Kirby braved cold, hunger and totalitarian rule to study in Moscow. Here he shares his memories with
8 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pick a theme... and name your seven favourite examples
3 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Man of the World
Though many may think of John Rutter as being the most British of choral composers and conductors, his huge popularity in fact spreads right across the globe,
7 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Concert Heaven Concert Hell
Top artists recall their best and worst performances
3 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Vienna Austria
If you're a classical music lover and you haven't been to the Austrian capital, it is definitely time you paid a visit, enthuses
3 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Learning the notes
Unique to the British cultural scene, chorister schools can offer often educational opportunities that are hard to match, writes
6 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Arvo Pärt
From serialism to the hypnotic tintinnabuli, the 90-year-old Estonian's world has shifted radically over the years,
6 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Why British hi-fi is up amongst the world's best
Our expert Chris Haslam gives advice on buying the latest hi-fi equipment
4 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Heroes & Villas
Rachmaninov holds a special significance for pianist Alexander Melnikov – a composer whose life bore similarities to his own,
6 min |