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BBC Music Magazine

Aug 01 2025
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

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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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The full score • Our pick of the month’s news, views and interviews

Wagner sees the bigger picture as the Ring opens in Bayreuth

Also in August 1876…

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

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

MyHero • Beatrice Rana reflects on the transformative effect of learning with her local hero and fellow pianist Benedetto Lupo

The queue to happiness

FAREWELL TO…

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

Richard Morrison • How shocking was it for a critic to compare The Beatles to Mahler?

Themagictouch • Performer, educator, campaigner and festival director… in all aspects of her busy career, violinist Nicola Benedetti aims to make music accessible for all, writes Ariane Todes

Elegance and optimism • Benedetti on recording Beethoven

Off to a winning start • The first ever Edinburgh Festival

Tour de force • Liszt was paid a small fortune for his exhaustive tours of Britain in 1840 and ’41, but the reality was hard slog and a paltry profit, writes Andrew Green

Ravishing reviews • Liszt in print

A jolly good cello • Guy Johnston has played many fabulous instruments – but none compares to his 300-year-old Stradivari which, he tells Michael White, challenges him every day

Dubious dealers • A history of Strad sales

Hero or hype? • Are some of the ‘great’ composers simply overrated? We invite five of our writers to reveal those whose feted talents leave them seriously underwhelmed

The art of the insult • Composers on composers

Magical Mystery Four • As we mark 65 years of The Beatles, Bob Chilcott, composer, former King’s Singer and Fab Four fanatic, explores the band’s many musical influences

Classical workings • McCartney the composer

From Me To You • Four top classical musicians come together to share with us why they had to get The Beatles into their life

Becoming Oscar • Michael Beek catches up with actor (and pianist) Sean Hayes ahead of his Barbican run as Oscar Levant in the play Good Night, Oscar

Hollywood virtuoso • The real Oscar Levant

Bologna Italy • There’s more to Bologna than culinary delights, writes John Allison – not least a music festival dedicated to its native son, Ottorino Respighi

Coleridge-Taylor’s style

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor • The British composer enjoyed major celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic, only to be cut off just as he reached his peak, reveals Terry Blain

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Life&Times

Hubert Parry • Written for the 1902 Coronation, Parry’s stirring anthem has many fine recordings, says Clare Stevens, but which deserves to wear the crown?

A strikingly grand performance

Continue the journey… • We suggest further works to explore after Hubert Parry’s I Was Glad

Reviews • Recordings and books rated by expert...

Formats

  • OverDrive Magazine

Languages

  • English