Surprise and tension
Czech Songs: Magdalena Kozena (Pentatone)
Well-behaved Beethoven
Beethoven: Triple concerto and British folksongs (Decca)
Polish strings
Grazyna Bacewicz: Symphonies 3 &4; Concerto for string orchestra (both on Chandos)
Music for a disintegrating world
Valentin Silvestrov: Widmung, Postludium (Naxos)
Making art of the Holocaust
As dramatic opera, The Passenger inhabits a grey zone of guard–prisoner relations
Music for a warm bath
Bloch, Bruch, Dohnanyi (Claves)
The glorious Ninth
Relive the moments when music changed forever
Elgar’s excellence
Elgar: Symphonies (Halle/Oehms)
In praise of the viola
Cantabile: Anthems for viola (Delphian)
An array of civilised music
Walter Kaufmann: 3rd piano concerto, 3rd symphony &c. (CPO)
Labour are playing with fire on abortion
There is no case for decriminalising late-term abortion
Are private schools worth it?
Parental background has a bigger impact than education
Here comes trouble
Farage is going to cause huge headaches for the Tories, and may be here to stay
The way forward for conservatives
We must have bold politicians who really believe in the things they promise
Turn down that bloody music
Historic occasions shouldn’t be ruined by narcissistic prats
Being economical with the truth
The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came to Control Your Life). By George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison
Death by red tape
“Soft cancellation” is the preferred tool of institutionalised censoriousness
At least somebody’s having fun
Ed Davey grows more cheerful the sadder Rishi Sunak gets
A neglected radical
Guillaume Guillon-Lethière was an artistic and social pioneer
Gove away
Sentimental tributes to the outgoing Tory overstate his political virtues
Can we balance re-enchantment and reality?
We should not throw out the civilisational baby with the consumerist bathwater
