Gramophone has been the world’s leading authority on classical music since 1923. With 13 issues a year every edition will enrich your classical music knowledge with in-depth interviews and features about composers past and present, plus established and new artists from across the globe. Each issue includes over 100 reviews of the latest CDs, downloads, DVDs and books all written by our globally acclaimed panel of expert critics. Gramophone is the magazine for the classical collector, as well for the enthusiast starting a voyage of discovery. 

The trial issue features an in-depth retrospective on Schubert’s Winterreise, with input from some of the leading performers of the song cycle, including Jonas Kauffman, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley and Brigitte Fassbaender. 

It also includes an interview with the San Francisco Symphony’s conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas; the New York Philharmonic’s Music Director, Alan Gilbert, discusses Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony; plus we look back at the remarkable career of American soprano Leontyne Price. 

Also featured in the trial issue: we analyse the breakthrough works of John Adams, we reconsider Sir Thomas Beecham’s classic recording of Puccini’s La bohème, and we recommend the very best recordings of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2.

Please note: This is the North American edition of Gramophone. It includes all the pages of the UK edition and also a specialised 16 page supplement each issue, “Sounds of America”. This details the most exciting musical developments across North America as well as reviewing the most interesting specialist American releases.

This month’s cover feature marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, given at the Lucerne Festival when she was 13. After recording core repertoire for Deutsche Grammophon, Mutter has commissioned many composers to write new works, and Alpha Classics are releasing four albums that feature some of these, by composers from Thomas Adès to Unsuk Chin, and Jörg Widmann to André Previn. Lindsay Kemp meets her.

A long-lost student opera by Umberto Giordano, the Italian composer best known for Andrea Chénier, has recently been rediscovered. Marina – a story of love, loyalty and fatal consequence set against the backdrop of conflict between Montenegro and Serbia, received its first performance for almost 140 years and is now released on Decca Classics, with Eleonora Buratto and Freddie De Tommaso taking the main roles. Flora Willson takes up the story.

Drawing on personal experience, Jack Pepper discusses the varied criteria of composing music for royalty, and talks to composers including James MacMillan, Errollyn Wallen and Paul Mealor about fulfilling highly specific commissions for state occasions.

Our annual Orchestra of the Year Award returns as we reveal this year's shortlist of outstanding ensembles whose recorded achievements have earned them a place in contention – and invite readers to cast their votes for the eventual winner.

Among our regular features, Musician and the Score sees conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste delve into his interpretation of Sibelius's Fourth Symphony, while Icons celebrates the artistry of legendary horn player Barry Tuckwell. Our series on Contemporary Composers turns its attention to Joe Hisaishi, examining the wider concert music of the composer best known for his unforgettable Studio Ghibli film scores. 

As ever, the reviews section offers comprehensive coverage of the latest releases. Recording of the Month is awarded to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for their compelling account of Dvořák's New World Symphony, while the issue also features reviews of new recordings ranging from JS Bach concertos with Mahan Esfahani and late Haydn symphonies conducted by Ádám Fischer to Mahler under Vasily Petrenko, Edward Gardner's Alpensinfonie, chamber music by Steve Reich and Brahms, major opera recordings, reissues, jazz, world music and the latest box-sets.

The magazine also includes Classics Reconsidered, in which Jeremy Nicholas and Jed Distler revisit Georges Cziffra's electrifying 1950s recordings of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies; Collection, where Fabrice Fitch traces the recording history of Josquin's Missa Pange lingua; reviews of new books on Elgar and Smetana; and High Fidelity, featuring Denon's new all-in-one audio system alongside a guide to today's wireless speaker solutions.