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

Have your say… • Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and X (Twitter)

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Richter and Coote in NY honours joy • Plus an MBE for long-serving BBC Music columnist

Beecham’s own remedy proves the cure for orchestral malaise

Also in February 1909…

Music to my ears • The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites…

Concert Heaven Concert Hell • Top artists recall their best and worst performances

My Hero • Mezzo Bethany Horak-Hallett remembers the inspiring influence of the late Deborah Roberts, soprano and conductor

Is AI really all-consuming?

FAREWELL TO…

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN • Pick a theme… and name your seven favourite examples

Richard Morrison • Minimalism was much more than a return to basics… it was a revolution

AWARD 2026 • VOTING OPENS THURSDAY 29 JANUARY!

The Reichtrack • As he approaches 90, the US composer Steve Reich tells Tom Service about his pride in playing an important part in bringing tonality and pulse back to music

My favourite composer • Colin Currie on Steve Reich

Music to die for • Did legendary crime novelist Agatha Christie once harbour ambitions to become an opera singer? Andrew Green follows the clues…

Scores to settle • Agatha Christie on film

Hallé’s comet • As the Hallé’s vibrant new principal conductor, Kahchun Wong is looking to blaze a trail across Manchester’s music scene, writes Clive Paget

Made in England? • Former Hallé conductors

In Denmark let me dwell • Rick Jones assumes the role of composer John Dowland, as he sails over to the very castle that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet

All in the mind • Pianist Nicolas Namoradze is allowing audiences to peek into the depths of his brain as he performs, writes Claire Jackson

Cells and organoids • Composing post-death

Small screen BIG music • Television drama is getting ever more sophisticated, but why has it become such a draw for Hollywood composers? Michael Beek grabs the remote…

The Best of British Countryside, with BBC Countryfile Magazine!

Starting out • The composers who cut their teeth on TV

Bridging the gap • Despite the UK government’s ambition to provide musical opportunities in state schools, independent charities continue to subsidise the shortfall, writes Clare Stevens

Heidelberg Germany • A visit to the home of Germany’s oldest university and a sparkling spring music festival gives Jeremy Pound plenty of food for thought

Grace Williams’s style

Grace Williams • For long neglected outside her own nation, the Welsh composer is starting to enjoy her time in the sun again, explains Geraint Lewis

GRACE WILLIAMS Life&Times

Frederic Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated • Amanda Holloway is stirred by the best recordings of an hour-long piano masterpiece born out of a 1970s Chilean political protest song

High-octane Hamelin flies the flag

Three other great recordings

Continue the journey… • We suggest five works to explore after Rzewski’s The People United

Welcome

Intimate performances full of imagination • The...