Our Choices

The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Charlotte Smith Editor

A holiday to the Brecon Beacons was the ideal time to revisit Ravel’s String Quartet in F major – a gorgeous accompaniment to green hillsides, babbling streams and narrow bridges through ancient, grey-stoned villages. Two different, but superb interpretations came from Quartetto Italiano, recorded in 1965, and the Alban Berg Quartet, from 1984. For me, the Alban Berg just has the edge – with slightly snappier pacing and a second movement that beautifully captures the ethereal charm.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

Until I delved around on the web before a family holiday to Dubrovnik, my knowledge of Croatian composers began and ended with Ivo Josipović, who also used to be the country’s president. Just how had the wonderful Dora Pejačević (1885-1923; left) escaped my attention? Both her Symphony in F sharp minor and her Piano Concerto, recorded last year by Peter Donohoe and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, are glorious, late-romantic affairs, awash with memorable tunes.

Michael Beek Reviews editor

An immersive performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony at Bristol Cathedral gave me a close encounter with Aurora Orchestra. Organised by Bristol Beacon, it was laid on for local care home residents. The players stood among us and changed positions for each movement. ‘If you don’t want a trumpet in your ear, just shoo them away,’ conductor Nicholas Collon told us. I wouldn’t have dared; what a great experience.

Steve Wright Content producer

I’m revisiting Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert’s Haydn Sturm und Drang symphonies. These may be my favourite Haydn symphonies – they have a restless, nervy quality, coupled with sudden, captivating changes of mood or key. Sturm und Drang has always fascinated me, and these symphonies – constantly absorbing, pulsating with life – strike me as its fullest expression.

Alice Pearson Cover CD editor

A photo of waves buffeting a Cornish beach during Storm Noa, along with receiving my Proms guide for 2023, brought to mind conductor Malcolm Sargent’s short composition An Impression on a Windy Day. Sargent quipped that Mendelssohn ‘cribbed’ him, acknowledging the influence of the German’s Hebrides Overture. Nevertheless, it is a very pleasant companion to that iconic work, and can be heard in a recording by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Gavin Sutherland.