Michael Beek
Reviews Editor, BBC Music Magazine
Michael is the Reviews Editor of BBC Music Magazine. He looks after the 26 pages of recording and book reviews in the magazine each month, deciding what will be reviewed – no easy task with so much being sent in for consideration! Michael joined the team in 2018, following ten years as a freelance film music journalist and fifteen years at St George's Bristol.
Film and television music is his favourite thing, and when he’s not listening to things to be reviewed in the mag, Michael loves nothing more than to listen to the music of John Williams and James Horner – his favourite film composers. He was the Editor of MusicfromtheMovies.com and has written for the BBC Proms, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, Hollywood in Vienna and Silva Screen Records. His favourite writing gigs so far have been programmes for each of the Doctor Who Proms, soundtrack album notes for Doctor Who – Series 4 and Torchwood – Children of Earth, plus programmes and features for live concert screenings of Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
While he never got the chance to interview the late James Horner, Michael was delighted to spend an hour on the phone with John Williams for the 2020 Christmas issue of BBC Music Magazine.
Also a presenter, Michael has hosted concerts and live events for Bristol Film Festival and St George's Bristol, plus Debbie Wiseman's ‘Music and Words from Wolf Hall’ shows at venues across the UK.
Michael has worked regularly with Debbie Wiseman over the years, writing concert programmes and scripts (for Terry Wogan and Simon Bates) and producing her 2011 album Piano Stories.
Recent articles by Michael Beek
Maestro: how Bradley Cooper became Leonard Bernstein for the Netflix biopic
Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jamie Bernstein discuss how Bradley Cooper embodied the late great conductor Leonard Bernstein in appearance, movement and, of course, conducting...
Best Star Wars music: all nine Star Wars music scores ranked worst to best
How do all nine Star Wars scores stack up? Here's our ranking of the best and worst Star Wars music
Bernard Herrmann: the iconic film composer who formed a dream team with Alfred Hitchcock
Complex and irascible, Bernard Herrmann was plagued by career frustrations, but remains one of cinema’s most iconic musical voices
Russell Watson: the tenor chooses the music that shaped him
The much-loved British tenor tells BBC Music Magazine about the music that has had the profoundest impact on him
Concerto vs symphony: what's the difference?
Need to know how a concerto differs from a symphony? What do they have in common, and what separates them? Michael Beek explains
Christmas musicals: ten of the best
As if Christmas wasn’t bright and cheery enough without having a song and dance about it as well… Here's our rundown of the very best Christmas musicals on stage and screen.
Franck: Piano Works (Ingmar Lazar)
Ingmar Lazar (piano) (Hänssler Classic)
Who was Bernard Haitink, the revered Dutch conductor?
The celebrated Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink stood before some of the world's great orchestras, and was renowned for his Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich in particular
Mozart: Piano Concertos, K107 & 175 etc (Levin/AAM)
Robert Levin (harpsichord, organ); Academy of Ancient Music/Laurence Cummings; Bojan Čičić (violin (AAM)
Angelus
Sarah Fox (soprano), Rupert Gough (organ), Cecily Beer (harp) (Ad Fontes)
Stuart MacRae: Earth, thy cold is keen
Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano); Sequoia (Delphian)
Herrmann: Wuthering Heights (Suite) etc
Keri Fuge (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone); Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Mario Venzago, Joshua Tan (Chandos)
Patientia (Sara Övinge)
Sara Övinge (violin); Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Lawo Classics)
Butterfly Lovers (Joshua Bell)
Joshua Bell (violin); Singapore Chinese Orchestra/Tsung Yeh (Sony Classical)
Takemitsu: Spectral Canticle etc
Juliana Koch (oboe d’amore), Jacob Kellermann (guitar), Viviane Hagner (violin); BBC Philharmonic/Christian Karlsen (BIS)
The Blue Album (Pablo Sáinz-Villegas)
Pablos Sáinz-Villegas (guitar) (Sony Classical)
The Indiana Jones film scores ranked worst to best
John Williams has written five scores for Hollywood’s most loveable archaeologist Indiana Jones, but which is the very best? Here’s our ranking…
A guide to the music of John Williams’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny music
Everyone’s favourite archaeologist is back in the saddle, and so is composer John Williams, but what’s the score like for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Here’s everything you need to know.
Who is Andris Nelsons? A guide to the Latvian conductor and his best recordings
Meet the acclaimed Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons... and some of his best recordings to date
Who is Benjamin Grosvenor? All you need to know about the British pianist, including his best recordings
An introduction to the British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, and some of his best recordings
Composer Kaija Saariaho has died, aged 70
It was with great sadness that we learned the news over the weekend of the death of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
15 of the best stage musicals of all time
What are the cornerstones of musical theatre? Where should you begin? Here's 15 of the best musicals to get started... with more to come!
The best recordings of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5
What are the best recordings of Shostakovich's mighty Fifth?
Lauridsen, Morten
Meet Morten Lauridsen, California-based Danish composer of O Magnum Mysterium, Lux Aeterna, and other choral staples