CATEGORIES

Frenchmaster

Roger Nichols shares his personal recollections of the much esteemed yet reserved French composer Henri Dutilleux, who died ten years ago this month

Beethoven reframed

Gianandrea Noseda's new symphony cycle reevaluates the composer through the music of George Walker and the art of Mo Willems

From brush to bow

Close friends with leading musicians of his day, the great English painter Thomas Gainsborough was a keen player himself. Michael White visits Gainsborough's House in Suffolk to find out more

By Royal Invitation

As this year's big moment at Westminster Abbey approaches, Andrew Green meets some of the choristers who sang at the coronation of Elizabeth II back in 1953

Notes from childhood

As pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason releases a new album devoted to the music of youth, she speaks to Jessica Duchen about being a role model, her dedication to self-improvement and growing up in a famously musical family

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

Musical destinations – Berlin Germany

Jeremy Pound heads to the German capital’s Philharmonie concert hall to enjoy a late-summer feast of spectacular orchestral playing

Backstage with... Violinist/director Alexandra Wood

Warming up: ‘We want to give the idea of the music evolving’

Herbert Howells Requiem

Though Howells wrote his Requiem in contented times, it would go on to become associated with personal tragedy, as Jeremy Pound explains

Reinhold Glière

Dismissed by some as being stuck in the past, Glière was nonetheless blessed with a rare melodic gift and fine technique, says Erik Levi

The Sound of Silence

As the conflict in Ukraine prompts the barring of contemporary Russian works and artists from global stages, Erik Levi looks at how Britain similarly censored German composers during World War I

Playing for her life

Hélène de Montgeroult risked the guillotine during the French Revolution – but there’s far more to this talented composer than her remarkable survival, as pianist Clare Hammond tells Rebecca Franks

Shining a light

Awarded by composers to composers, The Ivors have propelled a wealth of outstanding British talent to the forefront of musical life during the past two decades, as Kate Wakeling discovers

And did those feet...?

Since Parry wrote his much-loved setting of Blake’s poem more than a century ago, a wide array of versions of Jerusalem have followed in its famous footsteps, as Jason Whittaker explains

I like the feeling of falling into a different era, not just in my music but in any music

THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

To be Franck

César Franck has sometimes been unfairly dismissed by critics as plodding and passé, but as we mark the BelgianFrench composer’s 200th anniversary, Roger Nichols says there is much to admire in his colourful melodic language

Whipping up a storm

The sonic extremes of storms, whether physical or cosmic, have attracted composers through the centuries –and with good reason, says Tom Service

REWIND

Great artists talk about their past recordings

DECEMBER 1781 Mozart and Clementi lock horns in a royal piano duel

The history books are not short of great performers and composers whose burgeoning careers as musical prodigies were micromanaged at every degree by their parents.

Jordan Ashman hits the heights

Percussionist takes BBC Young Musician 2022 crown

The genius revealed in Franck’s fiery visions

Julian Haylock introduces two works which totally changed the reputation of the Belgian-French composer