What are the lyrics to 'South Australia', the traditional sea shanty?

Once greeted with hostility, the saxophone has become an integral part of the music scene. Mervyn Cooke explores the early days following its invention in 1840.

COMPOSERS: Scharwenka/Sauer LABELS: Hyperion WORKS: Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor; Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor PERFORMER: Stephen Hough (piano)CBSO/Lawrence Foster CATALOGUE NO: CDA 66790 DDD ...

Celebrating the best new classical music recordings, this year’s edition of the BBC Music Magazine Awards sees dazzling debuts competing against bold new reframings of classics ...

Michael Church has spent much of his career in newspapers as a literary and arts editor, and was one of the founding editors of the Independent on Sunday. He is a former television critic of The Times ...

So dominant in other areas, Beethoven composed just one opera. And, although its first audience left scratching their heads, 'Fidelio' is something of a gem ...

The 'devil in music': the musical trick once thought so dangerous that it was banned outright ...

Affordable noise-cancelling headphones: the best on the market in 2025 ...

Which classical musicians should be the stars of Hollywood blockbusters?

Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 3 performed by Khatia Buniatishvili ...

Stephen Johnson is a critic and writer for BBC Music Magazine, with work also published in The Independent, The Guardian and Gramophone. He is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 3, 4 and the World ...

Michael Tanner is a critic for BBC Music Magazine and the opera critic of The Spectator. He is now a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having lectured in the Philosophy faculty at the ...