BBC Music December 2018

How have the 100 years since World War I been reflected in classical music? In our December issue, we name 20 works that chart the incredible history of the last 100 years. For this month’s BBC Music Magazine Interview, James Naughtie meets pianist Leslie Howard to talk about his remarkable journey recording Liszt’s complete piano works.

Michael Berkeley celebrates his 70th birthday by looking back at his 23 years of presenting Radio 3’s Private Passions. Steuart Bedford recalls growing up with Britten’s music and how at 32, he found himself conducting the ailing British composer’s last major work, the opera Death in Venice.


Elsewhere in the issue, Richard Morrison discusses the news that the New York Metropolitan Opera has commissioned operas by women for the first time; and Finland’s leading contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho is our Composer of the Month. On your cover CD is Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, performed by clarinettist Michael Collins, violinist Isabelle van Keulen, cellist Paul Watkins and pianist Lars Vogt.

Click the image below to download the inlay for this month's free cover CD.