Features
News, articles and features from the world of classical music
The greatest blues singers: 15 giants of the genre, ranked
Paul McGuinness explores the best blues singers of all time, who helped shape and influence the genre
Dennis Brain: Britain’s horn hero who captivated the world
Dennis Brain inspired a generation of musicians and music fans alike. Andrew Green traces the meteoric rise and tragic end of the French horn virtuoso
Henriëtte Bosmans: the Dutch-Jewish composer who bravely confronted the Nazis in person
Amid the terrors of Nazi oppression, the Dutch-Jewish composer showed admirable fearlessness and passion, says Rebecca Franks
Herbert von Karajan: the high priest of classical music... with a Nazi past
If a conductor has a tainted personal history, should we still listen to their music? When that conductor is arguably the greatest of all, the dilemma becomes even more problematic...
Led Zeppelin albums ranked
From raw blues to epic rock grandeur, we rank every Led Zeppelin album—studio mastery, iconic riffs, and hidden gems included. Here's how the legends stack up
What's new?
Best of Chopin: 11 unmissable works by the Romantic icon
From the Minute Waltz to the Funeral March, we choose some of the very finest pieces by the great Polish composer and pianist
Music can teach us the secrets to a better life. Here’s how
It’s official: playing an instrument is good for your mind and body. But, asks Ariane Todes, what other life skills can musicians teach us?
50 years of 'A Night at the Opera': how Queen rewrote rock's rulebook
Exploding with invention, defiance, and flamboyant charm, Queen’s A Night at the Opera remains a dazzling milestone—where glam met grandeur and rock became theatre
Alma Mahler: narcissist, adulterer... and one of music's most colourful characters
Thwarted as a composer, was Gustav Mahler's wife, Alma Mahler, really a ‘boundless narcissist’? Perhaps a troubled soul lurked beneath...
Mozart was facing charges of indecency. This was his solution
Mozart's marriage, hastily arranged, stops a visit from the Vienna police, writes Terry Blain
Artists
Fifteen astonishing musicians we lost far too soon
From Robert Johnson to Nick Drake: 15 brilliant musicians gone too soon—tragic losses that shaped music history and left us wondering what could have been
Roger Norrington: quiet radical and pioneer of historically informed performance
As a leading pioneer of the period performance movement, Roger Norrington transformed how we hear composers from Bach to Mahler. As he retired in 2022, he shared his memories with Julian Haylock
Secrets of the castrati: the eye-watering surgery that created opera's greatest stars
Italian opera castrati enjoyed cult status in the 17th and 18th centuries but, explains Jeremy Pound, the path to stardom was a notoriously dangerous one
Composers
John Cage: the composer whose most famous work didn't make a sound
Nick Shave explores the nuts and bolts of an avant gardist whose creative genius goes well
beyond his famous 4'33" of not-quite-silence
Here's a side to Mozart you probably didn't know
Undoubtedly Mozart joined the Freemasons to assist his career, but the young composer was also inspired by their egalitarian values
'Play it so that flies drop dead from boredom': Dmitri Shostakovich in 12 quotes
Shostakovich was a thoughtful, sometimes acerbic commentator on music and society. Others, such as Pierre Boulez, had their own views on him. Here are 11 memorable Shostakovich quotes
Instruments
Rock's most iconic bass guitar vanished in 1969 - and turned up in an attic half a century later
Million-dollar violins stolen from cafes - and more: our guide to some of the most famous stolen musical instruments in history
Why the world’s mightiest pipe organ resides in a Philadelphia department store
In 1911 John Wanamaker decided what his famous department store needed was a pipe organ - and not just any pipe organ, he wanted the biggest in the world
Out of the flames: the miracle organ that survived the Notre-Dame inferno
When flames engulfed Notre-Dame in 2019, the organ miraculously survived. Now cleaned and restored, it is sounding as good as ever, discovers John Allison
Jazz
Jazz pianists ranked: these are jazz's 15 greatest magicians of the piano
Who are the best jazz pianists of all time? Here, in alphabetical order, are 15 of the greatest ivory tinkers in the history of jazz
From jazz piano in cocktail bars to starring in Wicked: Jeff Goldblum's musical memories
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 Johnny Hodges to John Coltrane, we've had a go at ranking the top 15 - and we've recommended an essential album from each
Musical terms
The 'devil in music': the musical trick once thought so dangerous that it was banned outright
For centuries, the tritone - a musical interval spanning three whole tones - has added tension, drama and mystery to music by everyone from Bach to Bernstein
What is a symphony? | Inside the symphony: everything you need to know about one of music's quintessential building blocks
Haydn wrote more than 100. Brahms wrote four, all amazing. Mahler put the whole world into his. All you need to know about the symphony
Musical keys: what they are, and what each one means in music
Composers use musical keys to ‘flavour’ their music in a particular way. But how do keys work their peculiar magic? And what particular mood does each key evoke?
Recordings
Rush albums ranked: all 19 studio LPs, from worst to best
From hard rock roots to progressive masterpieces, Rush’s studio albums chart a thrilling journey of evolution and brilliance. We've ranked 'em all
The 1980s were bold, brash... and unforgettable. Here's the greatest album of every '80s year
From synth-pop to stadium rock, post-punk to art pop, here are the defining albums that shaped each unforgettable year of the 1980s
Greatest spiritual jazz albums: 15 transcendent masterpieces, ranked
Journey beyond genre with these transcendent, soul-stirring albums that define the cosmic, meditative heart of spiritual jazz.
Science of Music
Hospitals are using music to ease pain and depression in patients. Here's how
It is widely accepted that music can boost mood and wellbeing, but it can also be used in medical settings to ease depression and pain, writes Peter Somerford
How brain cells grown in a lab are allowing a composer to write music... after his death
Tom Service’s mind boggles as he explains how science has enabled an American composer to continue writing music… some four years after his death
Music can help in the battle against multiple sclerosis. Here's the science
Music’s ability to reduce stress, stimulate nerves and ‘rewire’ the brain can help to manage the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, writes Rebecca Franks
TV and Film music
We asked today's best screen composers for the greatest movie score of all time. Here's how they voted
We asked over 60 of today's very best film and television composers to tell us which scores would be in their top five of all time, and they didn't disappoint.
Best movie scores of all time: 20 scores that changed the way we feel movies
Grab the popcorn, dim the lights and settle in for a run through our ranking of the greatest film scores of all time...
Jaws at 50: how John Williams' groundbreaking soundtrack saved Spielberg's cinematic masterpiece from disaster
As Steven Spielberg’s Jaws celebrates its 50th birthday, Charlotte Smith explores the vital role played by John Williams’s famously unsettling soundtrack
Works
Best Mahler symphony: ranking the nine completed symphonies from music's epic emotional storyteller
We've ranked all nine Mahler masterpieces from our least favourite to the absolute best
Best of Brahms: 15 essential works by the genius who mixed Romantic fire with classical soul
Here are 15 pieces that brilliantly demonstrate the genius of Johannes Brahms, who straddled Classical and Romantic, order and emotion, like no one else
Are musicals the new opera?
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…