Features
News, articles and features from the world of classical music
The strange tale of the rock-star composer held at gunpoint by an infatuated student
Why did a disenchanted student threaten one of the Romantic era's greatest composers at gunpoint? Terry Blain reveals the shocking story
Herbert Blomstedt (1927-2026): obituary
The Swedish-American maestro, known for his interpretations of Mahler, Brahms and Bruckner, continued to conduct into his late nineties
Lust, murder, madness… music’s most dramatic Greek mythological heroines
For centuries, Greek myths have inspired great composers – but, asks Rebecca Franks, how
do female characters fare in these heroic tales?
Why Mahler's Ninth Symphony is the greatest farewell in music
Beethoven! His 21 greatest works, ranked
From symphonies to string quartets, we select and explore the 21 greatest works from Beethoven's frankly awesome output
What's new?
'No deflowering took place': the desperately sad tale of Tchaikovsky's sham marriage
Tchaikovsky's marriage to Antonina Milyukova was a disaster, with the composer repressing his homosexuality and finding his wife to be 'absolutely repulsive'
The seven best modern works by Scandinavian composers
Conductor-cellist Tabita Berglund selects the best modern works by Scandinavian composers
Darkest nursery rhymes: the eerie truths hidden in our favourite childhood songs
From Jack and Jill to Three Blind Mice, many of our best-loved nursery rhymes have some sinister meanings behind their cheerful lyrics. Read on for our guide to the darkest nursery rhymes of all time
Sol Gabetta: after 20 years at the top, the sensational cellist remains as curious and inventive as ever
The Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta tells Charlotte Smith why, even after 20 years as one of the world’s leading string players, she’s always ready to learn more
The 21 greatest piano pieces of all time – ranked
From Bach’s sacred architecture to Debussy’s shimmering dreamscapes, these 21 masterpieces trace the piano’s evolution: a story of intellect, emotion, and invention that spans three centuries and every shade of the human soul
Artists
So, we ranked the 21 greatest violinists of all time. The top two are almost impossible to separate
Who are the finest violinists ever to have been recorded on disc? We ask 100 of today’s leading players to name their inspirations…
Yuja Wang: a guide to the celebrated pianist and her best recordings
Meet the world-famous Chinese pianist Yuja Wang, and discover some of her best recordings
Virtuosos: seven incredible musicians we wish we'd seen play live
The BBC Music Magazine team chooses the virtuosos from history they would love to have seen perform
Composers
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: the brilliant wartime composer who found himself torn between Germany and Italy
George Hall explores a greatly underrated composer who united Italian and German influences in a range of colourful operas
From chemical experiments to engine design, these are the most inventive composers
Rebecca Franks explores how some composers moved beyond music to apply their creativity to all sorts of scientific and practical inventions
We ranked the 25 greatest British composers of all time
We asked 167 top international musicians to vote for the best British composers of all time. Here are the results… Do you agree - and who was voted number one?
Instruments
Why the 18th-century fortepiano is far more versatile than the concert grand
Play Mozart or CPE Bach on a modern grand piano if you like, says Tom Service, but to hear the music as they wanted it, it’s time to bring on the fortepiano!
Ouch! Five terrible treatments of the piano
Surprisingly, this is the most expensive piano in the world. Here's the story
This is the most expensive piano ever sold at auction. It's less about the piano itself than its unique place in cultural history....
Jazz
So you want to get into jazz? Start with these 13 essential albums
From Miles Davis to Herbie Hancock, these 13 albums reveal the many faces of jazz – soulful, swinging, romantic, strange and endlessly rewarding
Jazz pianists ranked: these are jazz's 15 greatest magicians of the piano
Who are the best jazz pianists of all time? Here, in alphabetical order, are 15 of the greatest ivory tinkers in the history of jazz
From jazz piano in cocktail bars to starring in Wicked: Jeff Goldblum's musical memories
Musical terms
Minimalism was much more than a return to basics... it was a revolution
Meet the dangerous musical sound known as the 'devil in music'
For centuries, the tritone - a musical interval spanning three whole tones - has added tension, drama and mystery to music by everyone from Bach to Bernstein
What is a symphony? | Inside the symphony: everything you need to know about one of music's quintessential building blocks
Haydn wrote more than 100. Brahms wrote four, all amazing. Mahler put the whole world into his. All you need to know about the symphony
Recordings
'All-conquering': inside Bach's mighty B minor Mass – and its greatest recording
The sheer variety and craftsmanship of JS Bach’s final choral masterpiece, Mass in B minor, enthral Paul Riley as he chooses the finest recordings
Nathan Henninger: orchestral music in an age of streaming and cinema
Outliers: these 21 albums sound like nothing else their bands ever made
Some albums defy expectations. From Beatles to Neil Young, these outliers reveal bands daring to experiment... and sometimes bewildering their fans
Science of Music
Here's why lullabies are so good at sending your baby to sleep
Why are lullabies so effective at encouraging babies to sleep? Musicologist and new mother Madeline Castrey investigates
What makes music feel ‘alive’?
We explore the hidden frequencies in music that trigger an emotional response
Scientists have been studying why male humpback whales sing together. And something special is going on
Over a million years, male humpback whales have developed a repertoire of songs whose purpose scientists are now keen to establish, says Tom Service
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TV and Film music
How different is composing an opera from writing film and television music?
After 20 years composing for film and television, David Buckley reflects on the shift to opera and the unexpected ways his experience of writing for the screen shaped his approach to composing for the stage
The life of a Hollywood session musician is often stressful and rarely credited… but never dull
Violinist Thomas Bowes, veteran of countless movie scores, reveals the secrets of recording a Hollywood soundtrack
We ranked the 18 greatest rock soundtrack moments of the 1990s
The perfect song can make a great movie scene unforgettable, as these classic tracks prove
Works
'Childish': 11 works that their composers came to regret
Even great composers have their regrets. These 11 works were dismissed, disowned, suppressed or simply left their creators wishing they had never written them
9 pieces that catch our greatest composers on, frankly, a bad day
Genius doesn’t guarantee you will create a winner every time, writes Richard Morrison
The bizarre music piece where one player sits in the other's lap
Step forward Ligeti, Stockhausen and, er, Mozart: here are classical music's strangest, craziest and weirdest compositions
