Wagner: the long and short of it
Creativity consists in destruction, in turning the composer inside-out, in making fun of him.
Brahms: sublime genius on a major scale
Forget the sneering of Benjamin Britten, for whom Brahms’s music was “ugly and foul”, the German composer and pianist was a virtuoso talent whose best works burn with volcanic passion and seriousness of purpose
The sound of love
Robert Schumann expresses the intense passion and despair of true love better than any other composer
Stick ‘em up
Has the culture war been won?
All gone to look for America
The show is a mishmash, in need of some pruning and a sharper edge
Landscapes of allusion and illusion
On the architecture of recreation
The Lost Gardens of London
The war between city and greenery is eternal; the concrete and asphalt seeks open land to engulf
Ireland must accept the Cass Review
The Republic is ignoring the disturbing evidence about youth transition
The big picture
A story of modern Britain, a moral tale, of venality, hubris and fraud
Graduation blues
On the sad decline of the British university
Is this just fantasy?
Sir Brian May is wrong: farmers do care
Subscribe to save the BBC
A radical new solution to the problem of the BBC’s outmoded licence fee that could ensure more high-quality programming
Nigel’s knees-up
Can Reform become a serious contender for power?
Out of Africa
You can say what you like about European empires, but they improved African cooking
