Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Music for a disintegrating world
Valentin Silvestrov: Widmung, Postludium (Naxos)
Music for a warm bath
Bloch, Bruch, Dohnanyi (Claves)
In praise of the viola
Cantabile: Anthems for viola (Delphian)
An array of civilised music
Walter Kaufmann: 3rd piano concerto, 3rd symphony &c. (CPO)
Musical no man’s lands
Two violin concertos fail to inspire
A masterpiece in miniature
Taneyev, Schumann: Piano quintets (Signum)
Playfulness and tedium
Stravinsky, Petrushka; Debussy, Jeux and Prelude (Decca)
Beethoven: Nine symphonies+ (Decca)
This Beethoven gift set is not for Christmas. It is for life
Whisperings of the cruel sea
Britten: Concertos (Orfeo)
A talented pianist and a battered piano
Bezhod Abduraimov: Shadows of my ancestors (Alpha-Classics)
We must resurrect the symphony
Or the orchestra will die with it
Gyles Brandreth’s bon mots
An obsession with linguistic and historical marginalia has infected British culture
Techno, bombs, and babushkas
A month travelling across Ukraine
Doom and bloom
Live woke and die
A Soviet revelation
David Oistrakh: The Warner Remastered Edition (58CDs, 3DVDs)
Brutalist beauties
These monstrosities were imposed on the population, not desired
The state Will Hutton is in
Dissecting a spiteful attack on British farmers
Look on our works, ye voters, and despair
Nothing beside remains except the colossal wreck of the Tory Party
What’s wrong with the Human Rights Act?
It makes judges the arbiter of moral and political as well as legal decisions
The childishness of republicanism
Lidia Thorpe’s outburst is no reflection of the Australian attitudes towards the King
Two cheers for pedestrianisation
Pedestrianisation cannot solve all of Oxford Street’s problems
