from the British Music Society
News, reviews & features
English Music Festival returns to Dorchester Abbey
The 18th annual English Music Festival will feature the long-awaited World Première performance of the Symphony no.2 by the composer Stanley Bate…
US festival features Sir James MacMillan
The Sir James MacMillan Festival will take place from 31 March to 7 April in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota…
Tickets go on sale for Elgar Festival 2025
Themed ‘Celebrate with Elgar’, the 2025 Elgar Festival will take place from Saturday 24 May until Sunday 1 June…
Elgar’s musical sketches reunited at the British Library
A set of original sketches and drafts by Sir Edward Elgar for one of his best-known compositions, the Introduction and Allegro for strings, has been acquired by the British Library…
BMS AGM update
The BMS AGM took place online and in person on 22nd February 2025 at 5.30pm followed by a great performance by Ealing Symphony Orchestra…
HOLST: The Planets and Earth
Recent scholarship has delved deeper into Holst’s astonishing cosmos and revealed just how revolutionary this score was for its time. It is important that familiarity does not dull the bravura of his conception…
WILLIAM BOUGHTON: A celebration on record
This is a budget-priced four-disc set in celebration of the conductor’s distinguished career. The tracks were recorded in different venues over many years…
BAX: Spring Fire
This disc of Bax’s complete music for cello and piano takes its title from the thematic links between that orchestral work and his Cello Sonata. This is a big serious piece…
MALCOLM ARNOLD: Orchestral and Choral Works
It would be hard to overstate the pleasure that this revelatory disc has afforded, and unfamiliarity with the works in question should hinder no-one from obtaining a copy with alacrity…
The Lancashire Caruso
How many British opera singers get a Wetherspoons pub named after them? Not many – but here’s one I stumbled upon when cruising along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal…