By Freya Parr

Published: Friday, 18 February 2022 at 12:00 am

In our March issue, Richard Morrison meets the inimitable tenor Nicky Spence, who has spent the last couple of years administering vaccines while singing Schubert, compèring outdoor concerts and playing lead roles at the Royal Opera House. Jeremy Pound takes a few friends to follow in the footsteps of Gustav Holst in Gloucestershire, while Clare Stevens reflects on the ways music helped her generation cope with the ever-present threat of the Troubles in 1970s Belfast. Julia Winterson looks back on the dawn of the railway and the many composers who have been inspired by the possibilities of train travel. As Lidarti’s reconstructed oratorio Esther is about to receive its UK premiere in the language of the Old Testament, Michael White maps its history.

We meet Lin-Manuel Miranda, the visionary musical theatre composer, actor and director behind Hamilton and In the Heights, who picks out the orchestral works and musical scores that have changed his life. In this month’s BBC Music Magazine Interview clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe sits down with Kate Wakeling to discuss the influence of yoga on her music-making. Elsewhere in the issue, Amanda Holloway chooses the best recordings of Poulenc’s hymn to freedom, Figure humaine, and Richard Strauss is our Composer of the Month.

Click here for the inlay of this month’s cover CD.

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