BBC Get Singing launches throughout the UK
The initiative will provide teachers with resources to encourage collective singing among 11 to 14 year-olds throughout the UK
Review: Schreker • Korngold • Krenek
Schreker•Korngold•Krenek A journey through the Vienna of the ‘joyful apocalypse’ Orchestra National des Pays de la Loire/Sascha Goetzel BIS BIS-2722 This superb album brings together three Austrian composers who would go on to fall foul of the Nazi regime. From the mid-1910s, Korngold’s Sinfonietta – written at just 15 – and Schreker’s Overture to Die Gezeichneten are lushly, boldly Romantic, while Krenek’s Potpourri of 1927 chucks elements such as European dance and jazz into the melting pot that its title suggests. Superb playing is matched by first-rate sound.
2026 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards shortlists announced
The RPS Awards winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony in London on 12 March 2026
Good vibrations: the impact of music on the road to recovery
Inside the creative journey of an artist and musician after a cancer diagnosis
Buried alive under an avalanche: music's 11 most bizarre and tragic deaths
Some of the most well-known composers met their ends in highly unusual ways...
These 15 music icons left us far too young
From Robert Johnson to Nick Drake: 15 brilliant musicians gone too soon – tragic losses that left us wondering what could have been
New Cliburn International Competition for Conductors announced
The inaugural competition will take place in June 2028 in Houston, Texas with Marin Alsop as jury chair
These 11 musical masterpieces were hated by their first audiences
Eleven classical masterpieces that were first unleashed upon an angry, unimpressed or simply confused world
Beethoven! His 21 essential masterpieces, ranked
Michael Tanner selects and explores Beethoven's top 21 must-hear masterpieces, choosing from the very best of the great composer's extensive output
Review: Debussy • Szymanowski Quartets (Belcea Quartet)
Michael Jameson is entranced by the Belcea Quartet’s brilliant pairing of French and Polish composers
Meet the most fascinating figures from classical music
We ranked the 21 greatest pianists of all time
Who was the best pianist of all time? We asked 100 leading pianists to name the performers who have brought the most magic to the keyboard
Boos, hisses and rotten vegetables: opera’s worst behaved audiences
From boos to vegetables, opera stars have had to put up with all sorts being aimed in their direction over the centuries, as Alexandra Wilson explores
'How a traumatic memory lapse changed the way I play the piano' – Leif Ove Andsnes
The great composers
Explore the lives and works of classical music's finest composers
Ospedale della Pietà: the orphanage where Vivaldi turned abandoned girls into world-beating musicians
Harriet Constable, author of The Instrumentalist, explores Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, the girls’ orphanage where Vivaldi taught and composed
Composer Alex Ho and the Chinese diaspora in Britain
Composer Alex Ho is part of a growing community of musicians combining their British and Chinese heritage in fascinating ways, writes Richard Morgan
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
Greatest Recordings
Our recommendations of essential additions to your listening library
Essential Christmas albums: 10 timeless recordings to get you in the Christmas spirit
What is the perfect music to get oneself into the festive spirit? We ask ten of our writers to name the albums they couldn’t imagine Yuletide without
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
Albums of the week
A selection of the best reviewed albums from the latest issue of BBC Music Magazine
Review: Schubert 4 Hands (Chamayou / Andsnes)
Leif Ove Andsnes and Bertrand Chamayou play Schubert with exquisite sensitivity, says Misha Donat
Review: Walton: Cello Concerto etc (Jonathan Aasgard, cello)
John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London is virtuosic and eloquent in vital orchestral works, writes Jo Talbot
Review: Mahler: Songs of Fate (Anna Lucia Richter)
Anna Lucia Richter brings striking depth
and expressive insight to the composer’s
song-settings, writes Malcolm Hayes
Rock music
Explore rock music
Rollercoaster bands: 9 iconic groups who spun from success to failure
From creative disagreements to musical missteps, these legendary rock bands rode dramatic waves of success and failure
These 15 legendary rock bands were misunderstood for decades
From ignored rejects to cultural icons, these are the artists who failed in their own time... only to emerge into the light years later
1991 was rock's post-80s new dawn. We rank its 17 greatest albums
The best albums of 1991 – the year grunge, hip-hop, electronic, and alternative crashed in, forever altering rock's landscape
Audio equipment reviews and advice
A selection of the best reviewed albums from the latest issue of BBC Music Magazine
