This month's cover story explores the legacy of Sir Thomas Beecham; to mark 50 years since the great conductor’s death, Rob Cowan goes in search of the secrets that lay behind the brilliance of the man who did so much to shape Britain's music scene. Log on the Gramophone Player to listen to Beecham conduct Delius’s In a Summer Garden, courtesy of the Somm label.

In advance of a Barbican retrospective, the minimalist revolutionary composer Steve Reich talks to Gramophone’s Philip Clark about his work, and you can hear to tracks from Reich and the Nonesuch label on the Gramophone Player.

Elsewhere in the issue, we report from the latest Cardinall's Musick recording session, of music by Robert Parsons. And in The Gramophone Collection, Jeremy Nicholas chooses his favourite recordings of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf – you can listen to excerpts from his leading choices on the Gramophone Player.

As with every month, you can read reviews of the latest releases written by the world’s leading critics, and find out which ten recordings earned the Editor’s Choice accolade. Plus all the latest classical music news, developments in audio, our pick of concerts from around the world – and reports from some we’ve attended – our regular columnists’ reflections, and the latest from the world of web music in James Jolly’s Tune Surfing.

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