Features
News, articles and features from the world of classical music
The 12 best uses of classical music in film
What are the best ever uses of classical music masterpieces in film? From heartbreaking love stories to apocalyptic visions, we select our top 12
Ranked: the 11 best cello concertos of all time
Here is our selection of the greatest pieces ever written for cello and orchestra. Do you agree?
'She pulled her by the hair, slapping and biting' – why two famous opera divas came to blows on stage
The 7 best symphonies by Joseph Haydn
Haydn wrote 104 symphonies. Oboist and conductor François Leleux selects the seven you must hear
Ranked: the 11 most heartbreaking pieces in all of classical music
Classical music is one of the richest art forms for conveying emotion. And sadness and melancholy is right in its wheelhouse. Here is some of the most overwhelmingly sorrowful music in the classical repertoire
What's new?
Bowie at breaking point: Berlin, Eno, and the birth of 'Low'
Haunted by addiction and exile, Bowie found rebirth in Berlin. All hail Low: an unsettling masterpiece born from breaking point
Emotion in every note: Tchaikovsky’s 17 greatest masterpieces, ranked
Romeo and Juliet, the Nutcracker, the Pathétique... Tchaikovsky's repertoire is stuffed full of melodic and emotional masterpieces. Here are 11 of the greatest
All 13 of Wagner's operas, ranked from worst to best
Over a life of exile and debt, scandalous affairs and high-level adulation, Wagner wrote operas that not only remain unmatched for drama, controversy and spectacle but also utterly transformed the art form itself...
These 7 bands were iconic. But you'll struggle to hear their influence today
They defined eras and left timeless songs—yet these seven iconic bands were a musical full stop, their sound still strangely unclaimed today
Schumann: the composer who walked a tightrope between genius and madness
Meet Robert Schumann, tortured genius of music's Romantic age - and creator of some of the 19th century's most exhilarating music
Artists
These are the 21 most awesome cellists of all time
From Pablo Casals to Jacqueline du Pré, we celebrate some of the greatest cellists of the past 300 years
Shapeshifters: rock's 17 most radical reinventions, ranked
From Dylan’s electric shock to Bowie’s endless reinventions, these 15 acts didn’t just evolve — they transformed so radically they became almost unrecognisable
BBC Symphony Orchestra: all you need to know about the BBC Proms' busiest orchestra
Discover the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC’s principal broadcasting orchestra at the heart of British cultural life since 1930
Composers
Ranked: the 20 greatest opera composers of all time
Here are the best opera composers of all time, from the 16th century to the modern day
Ravi Shankar: the visionary musician George Harrison called 'the Godfather of World Music'
Ravi Shankar's biographer Oliver Craske introduces us to the fascinating musical life of the great sitar virtuoso, composer, father of Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar, teacher of Philip Glass and friend of Yehudi Menuhin
American composers: the US's 20 greatest composers, ranked
From jazz-fuelled symphonies to Hollywood blockbusters, America’s composers reshaped music with fearless invention. Here are 20 trailblazing voices who made the world stop, listen, and marvel
Instruments
Is this music's eeriest instrument?
We explain the workings of the unusual instrument, the Ondes Martenot, that takes centre stage in Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony
This is the most expensive piano in the world. Here's why
A guide to the most expensive piano ever sold at auction, and its unique place in cultural history
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
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
Tritone: the 'devil in music' 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
Elegy for a vanished world: the timeless mystery of Elgar's Cello Concerto
Written in the shadow of war and decline, Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a haunting farewell to an England that had vanished forever
Outliers: 15 albums that sound like nothing else their bands ever made
Some albums defy expectations. From Beatles to Neil Young, these outliers reveal bands daring to experiment — and sometimes bewildering their fans
The strange tale of The Beach Boys' 'Smile': paranoia, breakdowns, and a haunting lost masterpiece
Brian Wilson’s doomed Smile was meant to outshine Pet Sounds. Instead, it collapsed into paranoia, fragments, and myth — becoming rock’s greatest unfinished masterpiece
Science of Music
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?
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
TV and Film music
Star Wars music: ranking the nine film scores from worst to best
How do all nine Star Wars scores stack up? Here's our ranking of the best and worst Star Wars 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...
Works
Hauntings, gambling, tragic death: the strange tale of Tchaikovsky's favourite work
Based on a dark short story, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades is an operatic thriller about a soldier's obsession with a Countess's secret cards
These famous pieces of music are not by who you think
So, who wrote Albinoni's beautiful Adagio? And what about Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor? The answers are not that obvious, says Roderick Swanston, as not all music was written by who we think it was
Best of Mozart: 11 essential works - and the recordings you need
From glittering operas to sublime symphonies and intimate chamber pieces, here are 11 of Mozart’s greatest works—timeless masterpieces that reveal his genius in every form
