Works
Every musical needs a showstopper song. Here are the 14 best of all
Great show tunes stick in the memory like nothing else, becoming household favourites. Here are 10 of our favourite songs from musical theatre on Broadway and the West End – with many more to come...
Birds in classical music: how the joys of birdsong have inspired our greatest composers
From the warble of a nightingale to the chatter of a chaffinch, here are some of the best examples of birdsong in classical music
Music can help us understand complex scientific ideas of the future. Here's how...
Music can help us understand the future of science, writes Dr Susan Lim. Her new Rhapsody, written in collaboration with composer Manu Martin, asks can we save our planet, or must we look beyond Earth?
The Righteous: the provocative US opera exploring AIDS, religion and infidelity
As their second opera takes to the stage, composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K Smith talk to Charlotte Smith about their special partnership
Think opera's not for you? Try these seven beginner-friendly masterpieces
Want to try opera but don't know where to start? Freya Parr shares the best operas for beginners to the form
Best of Bach: 11 gateway works into classical music's greatest composer
Joyous concertos, emotive solo piano works, sublimely uplifting choral music... Bach's output is as dazzling as it is varied. Here is the best of Bach in 11 great works
Soundtrack your spring with these nine joyous portraits of nature's rebirth
Classical music has delivered some blissful and exciting evocations of the joys of spring. From Vivaldi to Copland, here are nine of the best
The viola gets a bad press. Not fair, as these 12 gorgeous works prove
We reflect on some of our favourite pieces for this most beautiful – though historically unfairly dismissed – stringed instrument
Breakup songs: 11 of the most gut-wrenching tracks about heartbreak and lost love
Our roundup of the ten best break-up songs
Happy St David's Day! Here are 7 glorious Welsh folk melodies you can't help singing along to
Our guide to some of the best folk and traditional songs to come out of Wales, a land famed for its rich musical heritage
The tragic mystery behind Tchaikovsky's final masterpiece
The composition of Tchaikovsky's final symphony was an exhausting process - but its completion was a moment of pure happiness
'Brilliant, punchy, upbeat, concise': why Vivaldi's Four Seasons are still so popular today
Three hundred years ago, Antonio Vivaldi published The Four Seasons. But despite the work’s spectacular popularity today, it was not until the 20th century that it really discovered its true audience, writes Nicholas Kenyon
'Like nothing else in music': 20 Beethoven masterpieces you must hear
Michael Tanner selects and explores Beethoven's top 20 must-hear masterpieces, choosing from the very best of the great composer's extensive output
Feeling angry? Channel your frustration through these 7 furious pieces of music
Conductor Domingo Hindoyan nominates the best musical depictions of anger and frustration
Un ballo in maschera: the violent Verdi opera that the censors tried to ban
Due to the 'maddening' changes made by scrupulous censors, Verdi'a violent opera might never have seen the light of day, writes Terry Blain
You don't know these 10 Mozart works - but you really should
So you think you know your Wolfgang? Misha Donat uncovers 10 works you might not have heard before...
Stravinsky Rite of Spring: the work that shattered classical music tradition
We explore Stravinsky's groundbreaking ballet The Rite of Spring and its seminal place in music history, before picking out some very best recordings
We celebrate musical theatre lyricists, so why don't we credit great opera librettists?
Romantic classical music: 15 perfect soundtracks for your romantic evening
Planning a Valentine's dinner with your loved one? Here are our favourite pieces of romantic classical music that will set the mood
Knights, swans, dwarves and valkyries: the 10 most famous Wagner operas. How many do you know?
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...
Wrong composer! The 'Baroque' masterpiece that's actually from the 1950s... and more infamous misattributions
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
Heavy metal and classical music: 11 seminal metal tracks with classical deep in their DNA
Despite first appearances, there's much to connect heavy metal and classical music, writes singer/songwriter and guitarist Joe Matera
Greatest symphonies of all time: 20 immortal orchestral masterpieces
Which is the best-ever symphony? 151 of the world's leading conductors voted for what they thought to be the greatest symphonies ever written
Tosca: the story behind Puccini's dramatic tale of sex, violence, politics and lies
Early audiences were perplexed by Tosca, Puccini's thrilling opera about lust, jealousy and corruption - but it's now an operatic staple