Features
News, articles and features from the world of classical music
Best operas for beginners: seven operas newbies will love
Want to try opera but don't know where to start? Freya Parr shares the best operas for beginners to the form
The pianist who's unearthed a lost Mendelssohn masterpiece... and five other magical musical discoveries
Tomer Lev, pianist and artistic director of The MultiPiano Ensemble, tells the story behind the group’s world premiere recording of a Mendelssohn secret - and selects five other discoveries that changed the music world.
The 50 best Christmas carols of all time
Here's a list of the best-ever Christmas carols for the festive season, as voted for by 50 top choral experts from across the UK and US. Do you agree with their choices?
Best stage musicals: 14 of the most beloved all-singing, all-dancing stage shows of all time
What are the cornerstones of musical theatre? Where should you begin? Here's 15 of the best musicals to get started!
'I detest him'... 'The most sublime music ever'... 11 of the best quotes about Beethoven
Famous quotes about the great composer from other great minds and creatives
What's new?
Best Italian composers: 11 of Italy's most legendary musical figures
From Palestrina to Einaudi, Italian composers have given us wonderful music, in opera and beyond. Here is our pick of the top ten best Italian composers of all time =
Jonny Greenwood: from Radiohead to some of cinema's most unsettling scores
Jonny Greenwood is perhaps best known as being the lead guitarist/keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead. For over 15 years, though, Greenwood has established himself as an inventive and award-winning film composer
Dinu Lipatti: an awesomely talented pianist we lost far too soon
When Dinu Lipatti died at just 33, the world lost a pianist at the height of his powers. Roger Nichols recalls the Romanian’s extraordinary musicianship
There are 15 types of conductor. Which of these have you spotted?
Studying great maestros past and present, Jeremy Pound gives a spotters’ guide to character types regularly seen on the podium
Fingers and nerves of steel: the 12 hardest pieces of music to play
Our guide to the 12 most difficult pieces of music to play ever - do you agree with our choices?
Artists
Best cellists: the 21 greatest cello players of all time, from Boccherini to Capuçon via Casals and du Pré
From Pablo Casals to Jacqueline du Pré, we celebrate some of the greatest cellists of the past 300 years
11 of the best contraltos of all time
Are these the best contraltos of all time? We pay our respects to the women from the lower reaches
Violinist Vilde Frang on squaring up to epic works and coping with imposter syndrome
The Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang is always drawn to a challenge – and, as she tells Ariane Todes, making difficult choices has helped her to grow as a musician
Composers
Stephen Sondheim: one of our greatest composers, in any genre
Stephen Sondheim transformed musical theatre through his groundbreaking works – yet he never appreciated his true impact, writes James Inverne
‘What a giftless bastard!': 15 juiciest composer insults
Sparks fly and verbal venom is spat, as John Evans explores the great names who simply loved to take potshots at each other
Karl Jenkins: from prog rock to the world's most performed classical composer
Welsh composer Karl Jenkins speaks to Amanda Holloway about creating an emotional connection with his many millions of fans across the globe
Instruments
The percussion family: meet 5 important instruments played by hitting, scraping or shaking
The marimba: all you need to know about the 'flutey' sounding percussion instrument
Our guide to the marimba, the atmospheric percussion instrument that has been gaining a foothold in the repertoire over the last 50 years
This is the instrument New York doesn't want you to hear
Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs laments the absence of a pipe organ from America's biggest city
Jazz
The 25 best jazz saxophonists of all time, ranked - and the albums you need to add to your library now
Who is the best jazz saxophonist of all time? From John Coltrane to John Dankworth, we've had a go at ranking the top 25 - and we've recommended an essential album from each
From jazz to classical: five surprising classical albums from jazz greats
Six of the Best Jazz Film Cameos
Whether it’s breaking the tension of a thriller or adding sparkle to a musical, jazz musicians have a history of making scene-stealing cameos on the silver screen. Neil McKim explores six of the greatest
Musical terms
Musical keys: what they are and how they are used in classical music
Composers have, over the ages, chosen keys to ‘flavour’ their music in a particular way. So which are the most characterful, and who has used them to their greatest effect? Ivan Hewett delves into his scores to find out
What are microtones? The tiny building blocks of all music...
Though we may not always realise it, microtones – intervals of smaller than a semitone – are all around us when we listen to music, explains Tom Service
Tempo: a guide to one of music's most essential elements
Do you know your Adagio from your Allegro? Here’s a quick explanation of the musical term 'tempo' and a whistle-stop tour of the various tempi, with some famous examples for each
Recordings
Gaspard de la nuit: inside Ravel’s famously haunting piano cycle
Rebecca Franks explores the twilight world of Ravel’s haunting and nightmarish cycle, Gaspard de la nuit, and finds the best recording of this virtuosic work
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante: lively, sorrowful, utterly beautiful. A guide to this extraordinary work and its best recordings
A guide to Mozart's lively, sorrowful and beautiful work for violin, viola and orchestra, and some of the best recorded versions available
Best Beethoven recordings of all time: 20 great moments in Beethoven recording history
We name the best albums and recordings every Beethoven lover needs to add to their collection
Science of Music
Music for studying: 15 great works for mental focus and concentration
What is the best music to aid a little learning? These are the best pieces of music for studying and keeping you on task and concentrating when the going gets tough and you're feeling easily distracted
Calmness, flexibility and time to relax... How to maintain a healthy work-life balance
Violinist Chloe Chua shares how she maintains a healthy work-life balance...
Impostor syndrome: why even the greatest performers share our feelings of inadequacy
Even the most elevated artists sometimes suffer from impostor syndrome – but that vulnerability makes them even better musicians, explains Tom Service
TV and Film music
The ancient and unusual musical sounds at the heart of Gladiator II
Gladiator II features an epic score by British composer Harry Gregson-Williams and it features a host of fascinating instruments and an international cast of players…
Best Bond themes: which is the greatest theme from the James Bond franchise?
007 fan? Michael Beek counts down all the James Bond film theme tunes, from worst to best
Return to Wolf Hall: Creating the music for the Tudor TV epic...
With Tudor epic 'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light' about to hit TV screens, composer Debbie Wiseman and director Peter Kosminsky talk to Michael Beek
Works
Best love songs: 11 enduringly popular odes to love and romance
Our round up of the most popular, most enduring and famous love songs ever...
You know his Cello Concerto. But here's why the Elgar Violin Concerto should be better known
Best piano concertos of all time: 12 incredible works for piano and orchestra
These are some of the greatest piano concertos - the finest works ever written for piano with orchestra