Works
Witches, ghosts and pumpkins: the best Halloween songs for children
Our round up of best Halloween songs for young children
Do you need a good cry? These pieces of classical music will reduce you to tears
BBC Music Magazine's critics name the pieces of classical music that will inexplicably bring them to tears every time they hear them
Smetana Má Vlast: a guide to the great, patriotic Czech work and its best recordings
Woods, fields and a rolling river beguile Mikel Toms as he names the best recordings of the Czech’s famous fond portrayal of his home patch
Best classical music for beginners: ten great works to inspire a love of classical
New to classical music? Here’s ten works we are sure will get you hooked... Daniel Jaffé counts down ten great classical music pieces for beginners
From Madame Butterfly to Mamma Mia! How operas gave birth to stage musicals
Were Rodgers & Hammerstein the Puccini of the mid-20th century? If so, where do operas end and musicals begin? James Inverne explores the classical origins of today’s musicals…
Sex, violence, racism, misogyny: just how offensive to modern tastes are the great operas ?
Opera is packed with sex, violence and risqué material, so do audiences need to be warned? Brian Wise explores the rise of movie-style ratings for productions
Best of Rachmaninov: Ten of the greatest works by the incomparable Russian Romantic
The Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninov was responsible for some of the most beautiful, emotionally charged music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We've scratched our head and come up with ten all-time great Rachmaninov works
Parsifal: a guide to Wagner's most grippingly transcendent experience
We tell the story of Wagner's last opera Parsifal, based on a 13th-century epic poem about an Arthurian knight on a quest for the Holy Grail
Leoš Janáček: five of his most sinister works
The great late Romantic composer Leoš Janáček had a fascination for the darker recesses of human experience. Here are five of his most sinister works
Best wedding music: the ultimate classical music choices for your wedding ceremony
Whether you're getting married in a church or a registry office, everyone needs music. Here are some of the best bridal choruses and pieces of music to be played on the organ or during your ceremony or service
Were Bach, Vivaldi and Rossini the real pioneers of disco?
Forget New York’s Studio 54 in the 1970s. For the heart of the disco revolution, head back to Bach, Handel and Rossini in the 18th and 19th centuries, says Tom Service
Best of Handel: six essential works by the Baroque master drama, exuberance and grandeur
We name the best pieces by Handel, the Baroque master of opera and oratorio
'Two hours of leaden dross': the biggest stage musical flops of all time
At best they're joyous, but when musicals fail, they fail spectacularly, writes Richard Morrison
Best of Brahms: 15 extraordinary works by the great German Romantic composer
What are the best pieces of music by the great, late Romantic composer Johannes Brahms?
All aboard! 32 magical works inspired by boats, lapping waves, sea storms and the irresistible allure of water
Jeremy Pound invites you on deck to discover how boats, from river barges to ocean liners, have inspired many composers across the ages
These are the seven greatest American violin pieces
Violinist Augustin Hadelich selects his favourite violin works by American composers
Famous opera songs: 15 of the best known and best loved arias from four centuries of opera
From Mozart to Gershwin via Puccini and Delibes, we run through 15 of the best loved arias from 400 years of opera
The towering 'Baroque' masterpiece that's actually from the 1950s... and seven more infamous misattributions
So, who wrote Albinoni's beautiful Adagio? And what about Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor? The answers are not that obvious, says Roderick Swanston, as not all music was written by who we think it was
Saddest classical music: eight perfect depictions of sorrow, from Purcell to John Williams
Classical music is one of the richest art forms for conveying emotion. And sadness and melancholy is right in its wheelhouse. Here is some of the most overwhelmingly sorrowful music in the classical repertoire
Imogen Holst Violin Concerto: your exclusive first listen to this newly rediscovered work
Violinist Midori Komachi performs an excerpt from the work she will premiere in November 2024
'To die for you!': The pieces composers penned to win back lost lovers
Sometimes the only way to respond to heartbreak is to channel the emotion into music...
Best classical music inspired by autumn: from Vivaldi to Tchaikovsky, nine works that beautifully capture the changing of the year
We present some of the best classical music inspired by the somewhat melancholy magic, misty mornings, and technicolour beauty of autumn
Classical music inspired by hate: six works dripping with scorn, mockery and bitterness
How hatred inspired some of our most famous composers and their music
Best Mahler symphony: ranking the nine completed symphonies of Gustav Mahler
We've ranked all nine Mahler masterpieces from our least favourite to the absolute best