
Music is helping prisoners turn away from crime. Here's how
Organisations providing musical opportunities in prisons do much to preserve dignity and encourage rehabilitation, discovers Abigail Frymann Rouch

What can musicians do to help tackle climate change?
Delia Stevens from percussion and harmonica/melodeon duo Stevens & Pound writes about her relationship with music and the climate

Greatest symphonies: the 21 best orchestral masterpieces, ranked
Which is the best-ever symphony? 151 of the world's leading conductors voted for what they thought to be the greatest symphonies ever written

Celebrate the future of music with the Festival Academy Budapest
FAB celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2025 with honoured guests and young talent

When is the right time for musicians to retire?
Put bluntly, age and experience used to be venerated much more than they are now, writes Richard Morrison

'The famous bit': 15 popular classical music moments… But can you identify them?
We take a look at the arias, movements, songs and dances whose fame has outshone the larger works in which they first appeared

Review: Strauss: 'Ein Heldenleben' (Philharmonia / Rouvali)
Sarah Urwin Jones is captivated by Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s take on Strauss

7 neglected piano concertos that we all should know better
Pianist Clare Hammond selects unfairly overlooked piano concertos that deserve to be performed more often

Review: Harry Partch – The Wayward (Partch Ensemble)
Kate Wakeling is captivated by the Partch Ensemble’s compelling realisation of a truly original body of works

Murder, brawling and threesomes: music's 15 worst-behaved composers, ranked
From Mozart to Peter Warlock, here are 15 composers who stepped out of line - socially, sexually, or just with too much motorbike-based nudity

Meet the most fascinating figures from classical music

Shock impact and religious zeal: how historically informed performance revolutionised classical music

From the Middle Ages to Miles Davis, these are the 10 best trumpeters of all time
Leading trumpeter Matilda Lloyd traces the history of her instrument through ten influential players, from the Tudor era to the present day

15 bands whose lyrics we just don't understand (and we love it that way)
Some of rock’s most beloved bands sing in riddles, nonsense, or invented languages — and we love them all the more for it
The great composers
Explore the lives and works of classical music's finest composers

Meet Hildur Guðnadóttir – the star composer of Joker and Chernobyl
Cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir has forged a career spanning classical, film and electronics – but she’s always been drawn to unsettling themes, as she tells Claire Jackson

Sex mad: music's 11 most bed-hopping composers, ranked
Jeremy Pound lifts the covers off those notorious notesmiths who found the thrill of playing away simply too hard to resist

Autism? Tourette's? Top psychiatrists assess Mozart's bizarre, brilliant mind
Using today’s psychoanalytic methods, what can we learn, asks Rebecca Franks, about the mind of Mozart, perhaps the greatest musical genius of all?

This composer's personal life was an enigma. His music is a thing of wonder
We explore the life and work of Maurice Ravel, master craftsman of French music
Greatest Recordings
Our recommendations of essential additions to your listening library

Prog rock 1975: ranking the 17 greatest prog albums turning 50 this year
1975 was a landmark year for progressive rock, delivering groundbreaking albums that pushed musical boundaries and redefined the genre’s scope. Here are the 15 best

Ranked: the 21 greatest country rock albums of all time
When rock met country, magic happened — steel guitars, road songs, and restless hearts. These 21 albums defined that bittersweet crossroads

These 15 stone-cold classic albums were a nightmare to make
From Fleetwood Mac to Tears for Fears: 15 classic rock albums that cost blood, sweat and tears to put together

Genesis: all 15 albums ranked from worst to best (the top 5 were SO tough)
We rank every Genesis studio album, from their early prog masterpieces to the stadium filling pop-rock of the 1980s
Albums of the week
A selection of the best reviewed albums from the latest issue of BBC Music Magazine

Review: Golden Age (Erin Morley, Lawrence Brownlee)
Morley and Brownlee are on sensational form in 19th-century arias and duets, writes George Hall

Review: John Jenkins works (Fretwork)
Ingrid Pearson is captivated by this stunning showcase of John Jenkins works for viol consort and organ

Review: Edge of the Storm (Telegraph Quartet)
Erik Levi is gripped by the Telegraph Quartet’s album uniting three 20th-century masterpieces from Bacewicz, Britten and Weinberg
Rock music
Explore rock music

These 13 bands got themselves banned from America
Banned for drugs, chaos, or politics: the 13 bands America wouldn't let in

These 12 Seventies rock gods struggled through the Eighties
The '70s more or less invented the rock gods. But the '80s found many of these icons struggling to adapt to the sounds of a new decade

Fusion! Jazz-rock's 15 greatest albums (one decade rules here)
From Miles Davis to Mahavishnu Orchestra, we run through the 15 greatest albums fusing jazz and rock into captivating new forms
Audio equipment reviews and advice
A selection of the best reviewed albums from the latest issue of BBC Music Magazine


