Our Choices

The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Oliver Condy Editor

While editing Sophy Roberts’s wonderful piece on Siberian pianos (see p44), I was reminded of the time some years back when I listened to Borodin’s evocative tone poem In the Steppes of Central Asia while travelling on the Transmongolian railway. In just eight minutes, Borodin paints a vivid picture of a lonely caravan winding its way across the Gobi Desert, accompanied by the plodding hooves of horses and camels.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

My search for music with which to mark the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine takes me all the way back to 1798, when Edward Jenner first came up with the notion of vaccines in general. Rather aptly, this was the year that saw the premieres of Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (‘Mass for troubled times’) and, more joyously, The Creation. I’ve long been a huge fan of conductor Christopher Hogwood’s recordings of both works, which burst with energy, drama and, in the latter, sheer exuberance.

Alice Pearson Cover CD editor

Passing by a tall tree covered in a flock of unusual and very vocal birds recently spurred me to have a long-overdue listen to Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques. Inspired by the songs and stunning plumage of the exotic feathered fauna of India, China, Malaysia and America, Messiaen creates a fascinating soundworld with piano and small orchestra – an absolute treat for synaesthetes!

Michael Beek Reviews editor

I’ve been spending more time on Youtube lately and I’m always amazed by what pops up. Most recently I came across George Crumb’s Cello Sonata performed by Yo-yo Ma (left) at the Us-china forum in 2011, which was fantastic. I also stumbled across a fascinating video about the Wanamaker Organ, which looms (very) large at Macy’s department store in Philadelphia.

Freya Parr Editorial assistant

The dramatic bubbling winds in Mark Simpson’s Geysir have finally been captured in a world premiere recording, paired with its companion piece, Mozart’s Gran Partita. The Mozart is buoyant, light and generally lovely, but it’s Simpson’s eruption of a piece I turn to when

I’m feeling despondent: eight joyful minutes of highly textured musical tension.