Peers but not equals
Ferdinand Ries: Symphonies 1&2 (Ondine); Franz Clement: Solo violin works (Naxos)
Sensitivity of a high order
Sibelius and Prokofiev: Violin concertos (Decca)
Finnish on a high note
Now, how the Helsinki has this happened?
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
Are we being watched?
Secretive Covid-era “spy” agency repurposed to monitor social media during riots
Why so few men take up the pen
With publishing now such a female-dominated industry, it’s no surprise that there are so few men writing fiction
The Critic guide to glass ceilings
On the self-made men (and women!) of the Labour Party
Is cricket growing up and leaving home?
In many ways the sport is thriving, but there is danger ahead
Conservatism needs environmentalism
What could be more conservative than conserving our natural heritage?
Terence Rattigan
The subtly subversive chronicler of Englishness still makes grown men cry
In defence of the incredulous stare
To argue is to indulge in a practice, with all that this entails
Cleaning up the town
As cities grew, so did the need for reform and sanitation
Two-tier justice in Northern Ireland
Why do only some killings deserve investigation?
We are missing the important point on procurement
Systemic dysfunction is far more important than individual failures
Is Britain’s future still being determined in Europe?
The European Court of Human Rights continues to shape policy here in the UK
