Welcome to the February 2026 issue of BBC Music Magazine.
Our big interview this month is the venerable Steve Reich. As he approaches 90, the great US composer shares his thoughts exclusively with Tom Service, including his pride in playing an important part in bringing tonality and pulse back to music.
Elsewhere this issue, we are full of questions. Such as: what goes on in a pianist’s brain as they play?Pianist Nicolas Namoradze is allowing audiences to peek into the depths of his brain as he performs; Claire Jackson looks at the fascinating findings that have emerged.
Another question: did legendary crime novelist Agatha Christie once harbour ambitions to become an opera singer? Andrew Green follows the clues.
Among other Febraury highlights, Michael Beek looks at how writing for television is attracting some of today’s top film composers. And visit to Heidelberg, the home of Germany’s oldest university and a sparkling spring music festival, gives Jeremy Pound plenty of food for thought.
Our Composer of the Month is Grace Williams (1906-77). For long neglected outside her own nation, the Welsh composer is starting to enjoy her time in the sun again, explains Geraint Lewis. And legendary US conductor Leonard Slatkin is in conversation with Amanda Holloway, sharing the music that has shaped his life and career.
This month's cover CD features two seminal works from two great 20th-century Jewish composers. Being uprooted from their homeland did not diminish the genius of either Kurt Weill or Ernest Bloch: and we have scintillating performances of Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins and Bloch's Suite Symphonique, from the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Click here or on the image to see the track details for this month's cover CD.
