Welcome to BBC Music Magazine's March 2025 issue! This month, we're celebrating the extraordinary genius that was Maurice Ravel. Multi-faceted, meticulous and utterly original, the great French composer is celebrated by Paul Riley.
Elsewhere, it's time to name the very best movie scores of all time: we've asked over 60 leading composers to have their say, and the results are in.
Continuing on the cinematic theme, Lord of the Rings composer Howard Shore shares his memories of Middle-earth and more with our reviews editor and resident film nut Michael Beek. Elsewhere, we examine Korngold’s fraught Symphony No. 1. Despite the composer's own emphatic denials, there is much to suggest that this taut, anguished symphony is a depiction of the darkest days of Nazism, as Jessica Duchen reveals.
Elsewhere, Rebecca Franks listens out for echoes in classical music, from Monteverdi to Philip Glass via Vaughan Williams. And Andrew Green celebrates the wit and wisdom of the legendary caricaturist, tuba player and radio personality Gerard Hoffnung.
For this month's travel feature, our editor Charlotte Smith enjoys the sounds of Istanbul, Turkey. Our Composer of the Month is the late, great and ever-adventurous Pierre Boulez: Tom Stewart explores the French composer and conductor's bold, revolutionary world. And the subject of this month's Building a Library is Louis Vierne’s rousing First Symphony for Organ. Terry Blain sifts through the recordings, and names the one that delivers.
Here's a look at our cover CD this month, featuring Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, alongside works by other French composers including Ernest Chausson and Camille Saint-Saëns. Click here or on the image to see the track details for this month's cover CD.
