BBC Music September 2024

And yes, they may be sung in the vernacular - often with wonderfully astute lyrics - but musicals' best composers almost invariably hail from a classical background. For our main feature, James Inverne investigates the relationships between so-called 'high art' operas and 'low-art' musicals.

15 of the best stage musicals of all time
For something of a contrast, we dive deep into the life and music of one of classical music's most divisive composers, Anton Bruckner. To mark the composer's 200th anniversary this year, Stephen Johnson makes a case for this obsessive, troubled and endlessly polarising composer.

Love or hate the Bruckner symphonies? Stephen has lived with them, and taken great comfort from them, for years - and he makes a compelling case for their deeply spiritual appeal and sometimes overwhelming emotional power.

The Bruckner symphonies, ranked
Elsewhere this issue, Misha Donat reveals how in his later years, amid deafness and deteriorating health, Beethoven somehow scaled unprecedented heights of creativity. And for Building a Library, Mikel Toms seeks out the best recordings of Má vlast, Smetana's captivating, evocative portrait of his Bohemian homelands.
Conductor JoAnn Falletta talks to Clive Paget about her 25 years leading the way at the Buffalo Philharmonic, while Jessica Duchen assesses whether female composers are enjoying anything close to equality in the concert hall. And composer Adrian Sutton tells Michael Beek why a terminal illness diagnoses has proved a major creative spur.

Author, musician and screenwriter Daniel Handler, who under the nom de plume Lemony Snicket has created the acclaimed children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events, chooses the five pieces of music that have had the most lasting impact on him, from Bizet via Morton Feldman to Prince. We've also got our indispensable new season guide, with details of the 2024/25 season's best concerts and opera right across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, and the wider world.