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Beyond Wham! and Elton, Guardian writers from across the generations select the songs that conjure the personal magic and memories of the season

On the evening of May 5, I took my seat in London’s Barbican Centre to experience a programme of interplanetary music. The concert began with the world premiere of Lim Cosmic Rhapsody, a piece by composer Manu Martin, and ended with Gustav Holst’s The Planets (completed in 1916 and first…

It's time to embrace the Yuletide season and sharpen up your legato skills and melodic development with a jazz-blues arrangement of this classic Christmas song

Spellbinding Jamie Barton and company excel in Adele Thomas’s clear-sighted take on volatile Verdi; to the final frontier via Peckham; and kazoos at the ready for a Beano Concerto

From Portuguese Fado to the Rite of Spring played from memory, a Horrible Histories opera and a tribute to a Bollywood legend, there’s something for everyone

Unique performance with help of children is intended to get people thinking about the work afresh

In 1906, a new carol appeared in “The English Hymnal,” an influential collection of British church music. With words by British poet Christina Rossetti, set to a tune by composer Gustav Holst, it became one of Britain’s most beloved Christmas songs. Now known as “In the Bleak Midwinter,” it was…

He has long been the nation’s favourite composer, but there’s more to him than The Lark. As he turns 150, it’s time to listen afresh to this radical traditionalist

The former Hear’Say singer grew up on Kylie and Gustav Holst, and can belt out the Clash, but whose songs will she always avoid at karaoke?