Some composers are rightly obscure
There is a place for marginal composers — it’s on the margins
Witnessing the birth of a star
Sergei Rachmaninoff: 3rd piano concerto (Decca)
Just Biber (Outhere Music)
A slinky, fun-loving playing style
Why does this record exist?
Wilhelm Furtwängler: 2nd symphony (Chandos)
Castanets in her socks
Martha Argerich Edition (Warner Classics, 46 CDs)
Can Russia hit the high notes again?
Russian music faces an uncertain future
The sweet sounds of catastrophe
Shostakovich/Britten: Cello works (Decca)
An Easter surprise
Songs from Japan and Europe (TYXart)
A much-misunderstood composer
The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim (CPO)
Album of the year?
György Kurtág: Játékok (Pentatone)
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There is nothing weird or dishonest about having a dual existence
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
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Herodotus and the birth of enquiry
Before there were historians, there was Herodotus — a wandering Greek determined to discover why civilisations rise and fall
Bring back borstals
Antisocial teenagers need structure and discipline before it is too late
Eulogy for rural life
A growing sense of gloom pervades Starmer’s Britain
How the “Burnham bind” will rewrite British politics
If Andy Burnham wins in Makerfield, Labour has a bigger opportunity than people think
The art of statesmanship
An exhibition at the Wallace Collection shows how Britain’s greatest wartime leader found solace and satisfaction in painting
The flawed thinking behind state suicide
Kathleen Stock demonstrates the value of a philosopher’s analytical mind in a sharp critique of assisted suicide
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The quintessential Tory grandee who
was the last of his kind: a politician
motivated by service to his country
Manic and messianic
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Royal Shakespeare Company
Britain must call its exiles home
The nation cannot continue to lose its top talent
Exile and exaltation
Bohuslav Martinu: The Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
To defeat populism, don’t start here
Views that would be charming in their naivety, were they not so contradictory or facile