BBC Music Magazine

Full January listings inside

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Full December listings inside

TCHAIKOVSKY’S THE TEMPEST

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Welcome

As a violinist, I don’t mind admitting that Itzhak Perlman is one of my all-time heroes – up there with David Oistrakh and Anne-sophie Mutter as a player who tackles even the most difficult repertoire with effortless grace and, more importantly, whose...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Weinberg Marie-elisabeth Hecker (cello), Martin Helmchen (piano) Alpha Classics ALPHA827 147:28 mins (2CD) The only thing ‘amiss’ with this revelatory two-disc sequence of six...

LET THE PROMS BEGIN!

Also in this issue… The orchestras turning heavy metal into solid gold From Berio to The Beatles: the musical loves of Einaudi The Dutch composer who bravely stood up to the Nazis

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

JS Bach • Britten • Telemann • Shaw Telemann: Fantasia No. 1 in B flat major, TWV 40:14; Fantasia No. 7 in E flat major, TWV 40:20 (both Trans. viola); Caroline Shaw: in manus tuas (version for solo viola); Britten: Elegy for Solo Viola; JS Bach:...

Welcome

This month, as modern-day Europe scrambles to rearm, we mark 80 years since VE Day – the Allies’ formal acceptance of Germany’s unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. The battles of World War II extended far beyond tanks and bullets, of course, as...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Hymns of Bantu Works by JS Bach, Marais, Abel Selaocoe et al Abel Selaocoe (cello, vocal); Bantu Ensemble; Manchester Collective et al Warner Classics 2173245895 55:34 mins ‘When you come from a diverse mix of cultures,’ says Abel Selaocoe, South...

Welcome

Back when my sister and I were studying piano and violin respectively at the Royal College of Music, I remember her practising ‘Ondine’ from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. Thankfully, the strains of this notoriously difficult work – at all hours of the...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Also in this issue…

How Stalin’s opera walk-out left Shostakovich terrified The composers who thumbed their noses at authority Why do top boffins love the sound of classical music?

Jonas Kaufmann

When I forgot to appear on stage…

Welcome

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Modest Mussorgsky composed his most famous work. Pictures at an Exhibition, a piano suite in ten movements, was based on an instantly captivating idea: through music, Mussorgsky would take his listeners on a tour of...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

C Schumann • R Schumann R Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 94; Fantasiestücke, Op. 73; Three Pieces from ‘Fünf Stücke im Volkston’, Op. 102; Liederkreis – Mondnact, Op. 39 No. 5; Three Duos; Adagio und Allegro, Op. 70; C Schumann: Three Romances, Op....

Welcome

What’s the difference between Puccini’s Tosca and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel? Less than you might think, according to conductor John Wilson, who two-stepped away with the Opera prize for his recording of Oklahoma! at this year’s BBC Music...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

Gabriela Ortiz Revolución Diamantina**; Altar de cuerda*; Kauyumari *María Dueñas (violin); **Los Angeles Master Chorale; Los Angeles Philharmonic/ Gustavo Dudamel Platoon LAPHIL02 80:46 mins For Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, composing requires...

100 reviews by the world’s finest critics

String Quintet No. 1 in F major; String Quintet No. 2 in G major Lilli Maijala (viola), Gringolts Quartet BIS BIS-2727 61:29 mins Brahms’s two string quintets seem occasionally to lose out to the sheer popularity of his two early sextets. Both the...