This month's cover artist is the conductor Joana Mallwitz, someone who has already attracted a lot of attention as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and who tells us about her first album for DG, the two symphonies by Kurt Weill.

We also celebrate the 150th anniversary of the American composer Charles Ives, and recommend a range of works to investigate.

As the conductor Leonard Slatkin turns 80, we talk to him about his past achievements and future plans. Elsewhere in the issue, in Icons, we profile the English clarinettist Thea King, who was renowned for championing the 19th-century repertoire of her instrument.

In Classics Reconsidered, we reassess Charles Mackerras’s 1966 recording of Handel’s Messiah, a pioneering account.

Our Collection this month traces the history on record of the most lyrically sublime of Beethoven’s late piano sonatas, Op 110, and recommends some essential listening.

The Contemporary Composer focus introduces the wide-ranging work of the British composer Robert Saxton and suggest entry points for exploring his music, while in Musician & the Score Manfred Honeck talks about his approach to conducting Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony.

Finally, in My Music, we meet classicist Dame Mary Beard to find out about the place of classical music in her life.

Plus, as always, our world-leading critics review the latest classical music releases – with the best being crowned ‘Editor’s Choice’.

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