After all, what’s the difference between Puccini<\/a><\/strong>‘s Tosca<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel<\/em>? Actually, not as much as you might think. As conductor John Wilson<\/a><\/strong> explains this issue, 20th-century stage musicals – from Leonard Bernstein<\/a><\/strong>‘s West Side Story<\/a><\/strong><\/em> to Loewe’s My Fair Lady<\/em> – are as musically sophisticated as any popular opera of the previous century. <\/p> And yes, they may be sung in the vernacular – often with wonderfully astute lyrics – but musicals’ best composers almost invariably hail from a classical background. For our main feature, James Inverne investigates the relationships between so-called ‘high art’ operas and ‘low-art’ musicals.<\/p> For something of a contrast, we dive deep into the life and music of one of classical music’s most divisive composers, Anton Bruckner<\/a><\/strong>. To mark the composer’s 200th anniversary this year, Stephen Johnson<\/a><\/em><\/strong> makes a case for this obsessive, troubled and endlessly polarising composer. <\/p> Love or hate the Bruckner symphonies? Stephen has lived with them, and taken great comfort from them, for years – and he makes a compelling case for their deeply spiritual appeal and sometimes overwhelming emotional power.<\/p> Elsewhere this issue, Misha Donat<\/a><\/em><\/strong> reveals how in his later years, amid deafness and deteriorating health, Beethoven<\/a><\/strong> somehow scaled unprecedented heights of creativity. And for Building a Library, Mikel Toms seeks out the best recordings of M\u00e1 vlast<\/em>, Smetana<\/a><\/strong>‘s captivating, evocative portrait of his Bohemian homelands. <\/p> Conductor JoAnn Falletta talks to Clive Paget about her 25 years leading the way at the Buffalo Philharmonic, while Jessica Duchen<\/a><\/em><\/strong> assesses whether female composers are enjoying anything close to equality in the concert hall. And composer Adrian Sutton tells Michael Beek<\/a><\/em><\/strong> why a terminal illness diagnoses has proved a major creative spur. <\/p> Author, musician and screenwriter Daniel Handler, who under the nom de plume Lemony Snicket has created the acclaimed children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events<\/em>, chooses the five pieces of music that have had the most lasting impact on him, from Bizet<\/a><\/strong> via Morton Feldman<\/a><\/strong> to Prince. We’ve also got our indispensable new season guide, with details of the 2024\/25 season’s best concerts and opera right across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, and the wider world. <\/p>
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