BBC Music July 2024

Elsewhere this issue, Ariane Todes examines how musicians tackle the issue of ageing - and finds that, while its physical effects may dramatically impact a career built on physical facility and robustness, age also brings with it experience, knowledge and wisdom.

Something we hope has aged well, next: prog rock. Fifty years after its heyday, Meurig Bowen takes a long hard look at classical music's unruly cousin, with all its excesses - long hair, long guitar solos, and more. Genesis, Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer are among the prog rock behemoths to come under Meurig's close scrutiny.

Andrew Green unfolds his deckchair as he investigates the erstwhile phenomenon of the British seaside orchestra, while Tom Stewart travels a little further afield: to Västra Karup, Sweden, home of the legendary soprano Birgot Nilsson - and, it turns out, some deliciously buttery potatoes.