Felix mendelssohn symphony no. 4 ‘italian’

Jan Smaczny is enthralled by Isabelle Faust’s unique approach to the demanding material of Bach’s little-known violin works JS Bach Sonatas for Violin and Continuo Isabelle Faust (violin); Kristin von

Had Tchaikovsky had his way, his The Tempest might not actually have had a tempest in it at all. As he first pondered his Shakespearean fantasy-overture in early 1873, the Russian composer considered

Music cannot work a magic spell. It can, however, do wonderful things. In recent issues of BBC Music Magazine, we have explored the benefits to mental health of listening and playing music, not least

Sir Donald Runnicles studied at the University of Edinburgh and St John’s College, Cambridge, before beginning his career as a singers’ coach and assistant conductor in Mannheim, Germany. He has been

In her 2001 book about the city, travel writer Jan Morris famously described Trieste as ‘the meaning of nowhere’ – a place left behind by history and by its political geography. A quarter of a century

What Italian opera signified to the Habsburg court