BBC Music Magazine has reached its 400th issue! To celebrate, we look back over eight milestone issues since the very first in 1992
You think you’ve got issues? Well, we’ve got 400 of them. Since September 1992, each month (plus, more recently, Christmas too) has been marked by the arrival of a new installment of BBC Music Magazine, with news, reviews, interviews, a cover CD of complete works… and much more. Staff and writers come and go, and BBC MM HQ has shunted from London to Bristol to various lockdown homes, but the essence of the magazine remains the same. If you have been with us from the outset, thank you! By way of a reminder – or, if you have joined us more recently, as an introduction – here is a look back at our journey so far, presented in eight installments…
Issue 1 September 1992
On the cover: Anne-Sophie Mutter Cover CD: Tchaikovsky ‘Pathétique’ Symphony No. 6; Britten Sinfonia da Requiem Review special: Glenn Gould Edition: Beethoven Complete Piano Concertos; JS Bach Keyboard Concertos, Goldberg Variations
‘Welcome to BBC Music Magazine, the first magazine to cover all areas of classical music,’ wrote editor Fiona Maddocks in our very first issue, before setting out the magazine’s intention to appeal to musical beginners and experts alike with a welcoming and unpretentious tone: ‘As one who has loved and studied music all my life, played chamber music and listened avidly to Radio 3, I am all too aware that there is ever more to learn – the expert in one area is a beginner in another. So, I hope this magazine will appeal both to the absolute newcomer and to those with years of musical experience behind them.’
True to her word, Maddocks’s September 1992 issue was a lively melting pot, including a cover interview with 29-year-old ‘veteran’ of the stage violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, plus illuminating articles on the Vienna Philharmonic’s 150th anniversary and on wealthy ‘Modern Medicis’ dedicated to supporting worthy musical causes. Already, several magazine stalwarts were present: Jerrold Northrop Moore picked Julian Lloyd Webber and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin as his favourite Elgar Cello Concerto recording in our first Building a Library, and the back page Music That Changed Me slot featured conductor Mark Elder (see p32). Yet to make an appearance was Recording of the Month ��
