Welcome to our June 2025 issue! This month we reveal the winners of the 2025 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Yes, we unveil the finest new discs to emerge in 2024 across 11 categories from Chamber to Concerto, Opera to Orchestral. And there are, as ever, two special awards: Personality of the Year and an overall Recording of the Year.
We've got interviews with winners in all 11 categories. And we begin with this month's cover star, the South Korean piano phenomenon Yunchan Lim. That's because this year, for the first time in 20 years of our Awards, a single album (Lim's debut studio album of the complete Chopin Études) won in two categories – then proceeded to walk away with our coveted Recording of the Year accolade as well. And that the artist at the centre of these three prestigious prizes should just have celebrated his 21st birthday is simply astonishing.
But Lim is no ordinary artist. From his dazzling winning performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of just 18, it was clear that his was an incredibly special talent. AFor Lim’s own take on these exceptional Chopin performances, turn to page 24 – and to discover the other 2025 Award winners, head to page 26 for interviews with every successful artist.
Elsewhere in the issue, we celebrate two very different anniversaries – the 20th of British vocal ensemble VOCES8, this month's CD stars; and the 50th of John Williams’s soundtrack to Jaws. Both have been groundbreaking in their own way, and highlight the wonderful diversity within our classical world.
Claire Jackson explores how music has been shown to bring a sense of calm; plus, our ten works to de-stress to. As the mighty organ of Notre-Dame sounds again after the fire of 2019, John Allison enjoys a Parisian visit. And, is there really a link between mental illness and creative genius? Rebecca Franks delves into matters of the mind.
Here's a look at our cover CD this month, featuring choral music from across the ages from Byrd to Roxanna Panufnik via Mendelssohn and Dvořák, performed by the great VOCES8. Click here or on the image to see the track details for this month's cover CD.
