BBC Music Christmas 2017

Our Christmas cover star is JS Bach, who is the focus of a week-long festive celebration on BBC Radio 3. We guide you through this Spirit of Bach season, with complete listings and exclusive interviews, while Horatio Clare retraces Bach’s 250 mile walk from Arnstadt to Lübeck. Elsewhere in the issue, Clemency Burton-Hill interviews violinist André Rieu in his 15th-century castle in Maastricht, and Oz Clarke matches top tipples with music. Composer Toby Young introduces his beautiful carol The Owl, an exclusive commission written for you, the readers of BBC Music Magazine. Plus your free cover CD features a beautiful selection of contemporary festive choral music performed by The BBC Singers.