An essential record
Norman Lebrecht reviews Shostakovich: Violin concertos 1&2, performed by Alina Ibragimova and the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia
The sadder side of summer
Tragedy struck Gustav Mahler, the archetypal summer composer, in 1907
Philharmonia – fact is richer than this fiction
Channel 4’s new series set in a Paris orchestra hits multiple wrong notes
The welcome sound of silence
For three days I listened to nothing but birdsong, marvelling at the variety and the volume
Lifetimes of self-isolation
Composing in seclusion
Murdoch must buy the Jewish Chronicle
An open letter from Norman Lebrecht to Rupert Murdoch
Britain needs the Jewish Chronicle
The JC is halfway between a shul and a shvitz
Welcome to the unfrozen North
How Canada reinvented its musical prowess
Unleash this heavenly voice
The role of music in Jewish worship has acquired a sudden topicality with the involvement of two major record labels
Tapping into history
As soon as you enter Idagio.com you can kiss your working day goodbye
Most Read
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
A chaplain’s vindication
The case of Dr Bernard Randall has exposed the rot in our institutions
Amnesty irrational
Gender identity ideologues cannot get away with baseless smears any more
The myth of banned books
If transgression is fun and easy, it is probably not transgressive
The case against recognising Somaliland
The Somaliland lobby is being dangerously naive about the realities of the region
Patchett is as good as she needs to be
Whistler by Ann Patchett; The Smiths: A Novella by Michael
Bracewell; Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai
The artist formerly known as Nero
The life and death of Rome’s last Julio-Claudian emperor revealed every Roman fear about the dangers of one-man rule
Love on manoeuvres
La fille du régiment, Covent Garden
Israel does not run U.S. foreign policy
There is nothing wrong with questioning foreign influence — but that influence has been overstated
Like a homecoming
A haunted house
The case for coal
We need more energy, quickly, and where else to get it from?
Let’s give parents back control
We need a more pluralistic childcare sector
Operatic satire is a Shaw thing
The old Art has an armoury of skunk-like defence mechanisms to keep the unwashed at bay
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The meaning of Zack Polanski
The icon of geriatric millennials is one of life’s drifters
The government must defuse a legal time bomb
Countries of the “Global South” could sue the UK over greenhouse gas emissions