Classical Recommendations
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BBC Music Magazine - August 2026 Choices
17th Jul 2026
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by 'a debut of striking insight and assurance' from the Amsterdam Piano Trio in Tchaikovsky and Schoenberg.
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BBC Music Magazine - July 2026 Choices
24th Jun 2026
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by a 'thrillingly original' musical journey from Venice to Buenos Aires in the company of Andrés Gabetta and his eponymous consort on Pentatone.
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BBC Music Magazine - June 2026 Choices
26th May 2026
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by a portrait of 'a composer and choir in complete harmony' - namely The Tallis Scholars' album of works written for them by Nico Muhly on Linn.
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BBC Music Magazine - May 2026 Choices
29th Apr 2026
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by a 'brilliantly subtle and irresistibly seductive' debut album on Sony from the young Moscow-born pianist Alexander Malofeev.
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BBC Music Magazine - April 2026 Choices
9th Apr 2026
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by an 'utterly compelling' album of music by Hungarian composer Márton Illés from Patricia Kopatchinskaja and friends on Alpha Classics.
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BBC Music Magazine - March 2026 Choices
9th Mar 2026
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by 'valedictory' accounts of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas from Imogen Cooper on Chandos.
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BBC Music Magazine - February 2026 Choices
4th Feb 2026
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a recording from Víkingur Ólafsson which 'continues his progress as one of the great individual pianists of our time'.
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BBC Music Magazine - January 2026 Choices
5th Jan 2026
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a 'compelling pairing' of works by Shostakovich and Henriëtte Bosmans from South Korean violinist Hyeyoon Park, the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Gergely Madaras on Linn.
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BBC Music Magazine - Christmas 2025 Choices
9th Dec 2025
Chris introduces this issue's selection, headed by a 'mesmerising and disturbing' Mahler recital from mezzo Anna Lucia Richter with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln under Jordan de Souza on Myrios.
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BBC Music Magazine - December 2025 Choices
4th Nov 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a Beethoven recording which 'radiates infectious joy' from Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavakos on Sony.
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BBC Music Magazine - November 2025 Choices
6th Oct 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by 'thoughtful and on occasion provocative' Bach from Isabelle Faust with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Kristin von der Goltz on Harmonia Mundi.
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BBC Music Magazine - October 2025 Choices
10th Sep 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a display of 'masterful virtuosity' from Alexander Melnikov and Julia Lezhneva in an all-Rachmaninoff programme which was recorded on the composer's own piano at Villa Senar in Switzerland.
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BBC Music Magazine - September 2025 Choices
18th Aug 2025
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by Rachel Podger's 'spontaneous and sensitive' accounts of six Biber violin sonatas with Brecon Baroque on Channel Classics.
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BBC Music Magazine - August 2025 Choices
29th Jul 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by accounts of six cello sonatas which are 'in a class of their own' from Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and her husband Martin Helmchen on Alpha Classics.
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BBC Music Magazine - July 2025 Choices
18th Jun 2025
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard's recording of his long-term friend György Kurtág's Játékok on Pentatone.
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BBC Music Magazine - June 2025 Choices
27th May 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a 'distinctive, individual' solo recital from viola-player Timothy Ridout on Harmonia Mundi, featuring music by Telemann, JS Bach, Britten and Shaw.
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BBC Music Magazine - May 2025 Choices
28th Apr 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a Shostakovich recital from the Jerusalem Quartet which 'combines amazing technical finesse with overwhelming musical insight'.
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BBC Music Magazine - April 2025 Choices
20th Mar 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a 'powerful, inventive and irresistibly enjoyable' album melding Baroque and Bantu music from trailblazing South African cellist Abel Selaocoe on Warner Classics.
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BBC Music Magazine - March 2025 Choices
26th Feb 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern's Exile (featuring music by Panufnik, Ysaÿe, Schubert, Wyschnegradsky and Schnittke) on Alpha Classics.
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BBC Music Magazine - February 2025 Choices
5th Feb 2025
Chris introduces this issue's choices, headed by 'pliant, expressive, wild and virtuosic' Vivaldi from French violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and Le Consort on Harmonia Mundi.
