Music
BBC Music Magazine
Frenchpolish
From music of the past to jazz, from Spanish dance to kitchen crockery, Ravel took a remarkable range of influences as his inspiration and turned them into perfectly crafted masterpieces, writes Paul Riley
10+ min |
March 2025
BBC Music Magazine
The 11 best film scores of all time
Together, music and film can create magic, but which have done it best? Michael Beek asks top film and TV composers to vote
7 min |
March 2025
BBC Music Magazine
A way with words
Great operas are inextricably linked with their composer but, asks Jessica Duchen, how often do we acknowledge the important role of the librettist?
7 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Pick a theme... and name your seven favourite examples
Conductor Domingo Hindoyan nominates the best musical depictions of anger and frustration
3 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
A glittering beacon
Until its destruction in the fire of 1936, the Crystal Palace was one of the world's most exciting music venues, and its legacy still lives on today, writes Tom Service.
2 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Paul Riley traces the wandering existence of a cosmopolitan composer who made it his life's work and ambition to rip up opera's rulebook
7 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
The Awards are upon us once more!
Time to vote for the best recordings of the last 12 months
3 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
LEADING FROM THE FRONT
From running efficient rehearsals to learning to speak to orchestras with clarity and empathy, an array of exciting courses for conductors has bloomed in recent years, finds Clare Stevens
6 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Kindred spirits
As their second opera takes to the stage, composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K Smith talk to Charlotte Smith about their special partnership
7 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
The censors' refusal to play ball drives Verdi to despair
In the early months of 1857, Verdi had Shakespeare on his mind, and specifically King Lear.
2 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
11 Bed-Hopping Composers
Jeremy Pound lifts the covers off those notorious notesmiths who found the thrill of playing away simply too hard to resist
6 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
André Rieu Violinist, Conductor
King of the Waltz, Dutch musical impresario André Rieu has taken the world by storm with his Johann Strauss Orchestra.
3 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Late Bloomer
Three hundred years ago, Antonio Vivaldi published The Four Seasons. But despite the work's spectacular popularity today, it was not until the 20th century that it really discovered its true audience, writes Nicholas Kenyon
10 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Atlanta US
Though well known for its world-class orchestra, Georgia's leafy state capital also boasts a thriving opera scene, as Michael Beek discovers
3 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Ludwig van Beethoven
Terry Williams explores the best recordings of a symphony that shows the perky sense of humour lurking within its curmudgeonly composer
4 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Puppet of the Reich?
Wilhelm Furtwängler has long been seen as a symbol of Nazism. But, as Andrew Green explains, the conductor was a strong opponent of the regime
8 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
"The first time I was shown how to play Bach on the harpsichord, it gave me goosebumps
As Bach Collegium Japan celebrates its 35th anniversary, its legendary music director speaks to Amanda Holloway about a lifetime devoted to the great Baroque composer
7 min |
February 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day
Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Composer of the month - Bohuslav Martinů - Though the Czech absorbed many influences from his exile abroad, his colourful music was always distinctively his own
The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Symphonies Beside the Sea- Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction
Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction. It's a dimension of music-making that once was integral to many a British holiday experience, yet now has all but vanished. The tide went out, you might say, on the professional seaside (or pier, or spa) orchestra many decades ago. In their glory days, though - perhaps a quarter-century on either side of 1900-these ensembles were everywhere, from Bridlington to Eastbourne, New Brighton to Worthing, Blackpool to Bexhill-on-Sea, Cleethorpes to Brighton... the list is astonishing.
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?
As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?
3 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Do Notes Win Votes? - There are multi-dimensional ways that music is used by political campaigners and their supporters today.
It was a little bit of history repeating when Rishi Sunak announced the UK General Election to the heckling of his political opponents blasting out D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'.
2 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Västra Karup Sweden
The spirit of soprano Birgit Nilsson is alive and well in the town of her birth, home to a festival dedicated to her memory
3 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Federico Colli
\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Harmonic Progression
What happens when classical music-style levels of ambition, invention and sheer length are brought to pop? The answer, as Meurig Bowen explains, is Prog Rock
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Golden years
Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience
6 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Sweet Sixteen
As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse
8 min |
August 2024
BBC Music Magazine
FESTIVAL GUIDE 2024
It's that time of year again... Spring has finally sprung, and along with the promised sunshine we welcome a brand-new season of glorious summer music.
10+ min |
May 2024
BBC Music Magazine
The mighty Sampson
As soprano Carolyn Sampson turns 50, she tells Ashutosh Khandekar about the development of her voice through a remarkable catalogue of recordings
7 min |
May 2024
BBC Music Magazine
Music to die for
From wrathful Verdi to ethereal Fauré, there are many different ways to compose a Requiem, as Jeremy Pound discovers
6 min |