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How to watch concerts from home: the concerts and operas available to stream online during the coronavirus pandemic

The best classical music to discover during self-isolation

Oliver Condy, Editor

When not at my desk, the music I reach for most is by Mendelssohn – in recent weeks I’ve been rediscovering his string quartets which for me are the most perfect balance of poise, sophistication and indulgence.

Only the other day, I returned to a recording of No. 4 in E minor by the Elias String Quartet, the winner of the 2010 BBC Music Magazine Newcomer award. The Ebène Quartet’s recording of Nos 2 and 6 are well worth discovering too. Now – back to my spare room for some editing!

• Five of the best lesser-known Mendelssohn works to discover

Michael Beek, Reviews Editor

Call of the Champions (titled An American Journey in the US) came out in 2002 and is an album I return to often. Topping out the programme of celebratory and commemorative works by John Williams is his epic Call of the Champions – the official anthem of that year’s winter games in Salt Lake City – and it never fails to thrill.

Williams uses the Latin words for ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ (the Olympic motto), sung by Salt Lake City’s world-famous choir. The rest of the programme gathers together some of the composers of other great works for American celebrations, each of which never fail to surprise me each time I listen. 

Williams’s gift for melody and orchestral detail shines through in works such as the Hymn to New England, Celebrate Discovery and the brilliant American Journey – a six-part suite written to accompany Steven Spielberg’s visual love letter to America at the millennium. Spirit-lifting music!

• Four of the best John Williams recordings

Jeremy Pound, Deputy Editor

With 2020 rapidly turning into the year of gloom, my thoughts naturally turn back to happier times. Such as, say, the summer of 1997. My first year in full-time employment as editorial assistant on Classic CD magazine, this was a time of making new friends, exploring my new home city of Bath (and its many pubs) and, of course, immersing myself in the magical world of classical music. 

Part of my soundtrack to that summer was In a Nutshell, the CBSO and Simon Rattle’s glorious disc of orchestral works by Percy Grainger. It’s a wonderfully intoxicating listen, in which the Australian beguiles you with his exotic soundworld both in his own music and in his extravagantly orchestrated arrangements of piano works by Ravel and Debussy. There’s plenty of jollity in there too, mind. I loved it then and, as I sit here with a cheering glass of Sancerre, I love it just as much today.

• The best classical music for meditation

Freya Parr, Editorial Assistant

When I’m feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world, which, at the moment, is most of the time, there are certain albums I always find myself reaching for. Víkingur Ólafsson’s 2018 recording of Bach keyboard works - which went on to win BBC Music Magazine's Recording of the Year in 2019 - is one such album.

It’s almost slightly hackneyed to talk about Bach as the great ‘de-stresser’, but it’s true. His music is a soothing balm in times of great worry, and always brings you back to neutral when your mind has been straying to stressful places, like, for example, the 5 o’clock news briefing. Ólafsson brings such depth and power to his music – he gives it some serious welly and doesn’t pussyfoot around it.

If you’re feeling slightly paralysed by anxiety, I’d recommend switching on track five: the Andante from Bach’s Organ Sonata No. 4. From a place of utter serenity, it slowly bubbles its way through various expansions of the theme, until it finally reaches a place of absolute strength and power. It’s the perfect journey of a piece to give you the get-up-and-go spirit we all need at the moment.  

• The best classical music for running

Five of the best recordings of Beethoven's sonata cycles

Artur Schnabel

Warner Classics 9029597507

Recorded between 1932 and 1938, this first-ever recording of the complete sonatas has remained a classic account.

• The greatest piano concertos of all time

Wilhelm Kempff

DG 477 7958

The German pianist recorded the cycle several times; DG’s remastered stereo version was released in 2008. 

• A guide to Beethoven

Friedrich Gulda

Orfeo C808109L

The Austrian pianist made three recordings of beethoven’s sonatas. This is the first, recorded for Austrian radio.

• A guide to Haydn's piano sonatas

Ronald Brautigam

BIS BIS2000

Dutch keyboardist Ronald Brautigam’s fortepiano recordings of the Beethoven sonatas for BIS made between 2004 and 2010 are now gathered together in one box. Brautigam plays on Paul McNulty’s replicas of original instruments dating from 1788 to 1819.

• Beethoven: what did the 19th century think?

Stephen Kovacevich

Warner 9029586922

Kovacevich gets to the heart of Beethoven’s sonatas with playing that teeters on the edge of sanity, roars with ferocious power and frequently moves the listener to tears. The finest to date.

BBC announces classical music programme for Culture in Quarantine

As part of its Culture in Quarantine initiative, BBC Arts has announced a series of classical music broadcasts across its radio, TV and online platforms. 

Max Richter’s Sleep – an eight-hour orchestral work designed to be listened to as you sleep – will be broadcast through the night on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 11 April, from 11pm to 7am the next morning. 

Also on Radio 3, artists will host performances from their homes. Artists include harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, guitarist Craig Ogden and pianist and cellist Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason.

• BBC Arts launches Culture in Quarantine

Joining them, composers will be contributing by the writing short musical ‘postcards’ for Radio 3.

The Afternoon Concert series will showcase musicians from the BBC orchestras, who will perform short works of their choice at home. Radio 3 in Concert, usually held in the evenings, will now be broadcasting repeats of earlier broadcasts, as chosen by the ensembles who were set to be featured on the programme in the coming months. 

• How to watch concerts from home: the concerts and operas available to stream online during the coronavirus pandemic

Over on BBC TV, all 19 of the choir members from Tenebrae are coming together online for a virtual choir performance on BBC Four. The singers will come together via video link, under the direction of Nigel Short, to perform an Easter Sunday concert.  

BBC Young Musician is also set to return in May with the category finals, hosted – for the first time – by organist Anna Lapwood. Highlights programmes will be broadcast on BBC Four, with full episodes available on BBC iPlayer. The finals have been postponed to autumn. 

As part of Beethoven Unleashed, the BBC’s yearlong celebration of the 250^th anniversary of Beethoven, the Royal Opera’s recent performance of Fidelio – the great composer’s only opera – will be broadcast on BBC Four. 

Radio 3 is also launching the Classical Companion Collection online: a set of articles, quizzes, symphony guides and podcasts based on materials from the BBC archives. 

• The best classical music for meditation

A message from the editor of BBC Music Magazine

Dear reader,

In just a few short weeks, Coronavirus has delivered a blow to all aspects of our lives. Schools closed, hospitals overwhelmed, lockdowns imposed and, at the time of writing, cases on the rise. Our hearts go out to anyone affected by this terrible disease. 

In the arts world, concert series, festivals and all manner of live music-making have been halted… The arts world is reeling from thousands of cancelled events and many are struggling to come to terms with life off the road.

Musicians, however, are responding with good spirit, many of them performing programmes to vast online audiences via the wonders of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Armed with little more than a smartphone, tripod, broadband connection and a little imagination, many have brought heart-warming concerts direct to our houses.

You can read about some of these in the May issue of BBC Music Magazine, sent to press on 26 March and on sale from 16 April – the first issue in our 30-year history to have been produced entirely remotely.

Many of you will have trouble getting hold of your magazine from the shops – which is why we’ve set up a no-strings way for you to guarantee you get the next few issues. With a small one-off payment, we can send you next three issues to your house – and delivery will be on us. You'll still make a saving on the shop price, and you won't have to set up a Direct Debit, so this is absolutely risk-free. If you order by 29 March, you'll get our May issue, so you won't miss out.

If you live in the UK and are happy to set up a Direct Debit, however, we can offer you even greater saving on your first six issues.

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