CATEGORIES

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.

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.

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.

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?

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'.

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

Federico Colli

\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music

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

Golden years

Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience

Sweet Sixteen

As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse

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.

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

Music to die for

From wrathful Verdi to ethereal Fauré, there are many different ways to compose a Requiem, as Jeremy Pound discovers

Avian anthems

From Vivaldi to Messiaen, composers have often been inspired by birdsong. But accurately mimicking chirrups and tweets in music is far more difficult than it sounds, finds Tom Stewart

THE BIG 400!

BBC Music Magazine has reached its 400th issue! To celebrate, we look back over eight milestone issues since the very firstin 1992

Northern light

From her first piano lesson, composer Errollyn Wallen has lived and breathed music; and though inspired by a range of styles, her composing is a deeply personal expression, as she tells Kate Wakeling

Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor

Jo Talbot celebrates the Mozart of the 19th century’ as she searches out the finest recordings of this masterful work for piano, violin and cello

Antonio Salieri

Forget the hate-filled murderer of Mozart, says Alexandra Wilson; the real Salieri was an opera composer of considerable standing

Aix-en-Provence France

Rebecca Franks breathes in the spring air in the popular southern city, where the music making sparkles and the sun always shines

Composing is like breathing. It's just something I do, like a hobby, really...or an addiction

The world's most performed classical composer, a small, black-suited figure with a mop of white hair and mutton-chop whiskers, stands on the huge Brucknerhaus stage, almost invisible among the sea of musicians.

A cast of thousands

From its unlikely conception in a pub, The Really Big Chorus has become a cultural phenomenon, offering amateur singers the opportunity to take part in vast performances, writes Andrew Green

Tours de force

What secrets lurk behind the stages of the world’s great concert halls? To find out, Brian Wise takes backstage tours of five leading venues in London and New York

A Marriner's tale

This month marks 100 years since the birth of Sir Neville Marriner, legendary founder and director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Michael White speaks to those who knew him best

Larger than life

Before Milos Forman’s Amadeus came Peter Shaffer’s theatrical take on Mozart and Salieri, staged in 1979 at London’s National Theatre. lifts the curtain...

MUSIC MALICE & MURDER

Everything you've heard is true,' proclaimed the posters for Miloš Forman's Amadeus - a cinematic tale of genius and envy, based on Peter Shaffer's acclaimed stage play about Mozart and Salieri's bitter rivalry. Forty years on, Charlotte Smith looks back at a very special production

Start spreading the music...

No city has been sounded and celebrated by composers and musicians as thrillingly as New York and, in particular, Manhattan – a place where 800 languages are spoken, and even more musical genres are currently being played, remade and born.

NY Philharmonic seizes an unlikely Korea opportunity

When an agreed ceasefire ended the Korean War in July 1953, a full and final peace settlement between North and South Korea was envisaged. It never happened.

Stroud England

Despite the sleepy reputation of its Gloucestershire surrounds, Stroud's Hidden Notes Festival likes to push boundaries

Closing the gap

The number of female conductors on the world's orchestral podiums might be rising, but there is still some distance to cover

Keep it in the family

Sibling connections can lead to meaningful musical partnerships – as long as childhood rivalries don't get in the way