Welcome to the December issue of BBC Music Magazine!
Our cover star this month is the German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott. With an exciting array of collaborations and residencies, Ott is riding high. But she is also going back to basics with a new piano teacher and exercise regime, she tells Jessica Duchen.
The great work we dive into for this month's Building a Library feature is Mozart's turbulent, transcendent Requiem. The composer’s dying musical thoughts have inspired some highly dubious tales, says Jeremy Pound, but also many first-rate recordings.
And we've got an interview with the famously charismatic, mercurial British violinist Nigel Kennedy. Nigel Kennedy may be heading towards 70 but, as Andrew Green discovers, the star violinist remains as passionate and outspoken as ever.
For December's travel feature we're off to Warsaw, where Jessica Duchen is enchanted by the attractive Polish capital’s enthusiastic desire to celebrate its native son, Frédéric Chopin.
Two 20th-century composing giants come under the microscope this issue. Half a century after Benjamin Britten’s death, Michael White explores the legacy of a great composer whose music is still vividly alive today. And, for Composer of the Month, Stephen Johnson examines the huge and enduring effect of Shostakovich’s music. The Russian composer's output may reflect his Soviet circumstances, says Johnson, but his overall message is much more universal.
On this month's cover CD
This month's cover CD features a delightfdul selection of Viennese waltzes and waltz-inspired works by Amy Beach, Franz Lehár, Johann Strauss II and others, performed with verve and vivacity by the BBC Concert Orchestra with conductor Anna-Maria Helsing and soprano Erin Morley.
Click here or on the image below to see the track details for this month's cover CD.
