Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Music of hypnotic power
Thomas Larcher: The Living Mountain (ECM New Series)
A conviction singer who convinces
Folk Songs: Magdalena Kozena/Simon Rattle (Pentatone)
A world in transition
Valentin Bibik: Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Indésens)
A Wodehousian pick-me-up
Noel Coward and Friends: A Marvellous Party (Signum Classics)
Christmas, irresistibly
Lise Davidsen: Christmas from Norway (Decca)/Miracle of Miracles (Cedille)
Notes of promise
Bruce Liu: Waves (Deutsche Grammophon)
A giant dipper of delights
BBC Legends Volume 4 (ICA Classics)
A celebration of redemption
Handel: Israel in Egypt (Avie)
Over-simplified and underpowered
Shostakovich symphonies 2, 3, 12, 13 (DG)
The world’s last measured moments
Joseph Haydn: Symphonies 93-95
The menace of camouflage
There’s something dark about the spread of sartorial concealment to civilians
Labour has a conspiracy problem
Dawn Butler MP should reevaluate her eccentric ideas
Scruton and the roots of modern conservatism
Roger Scruton’s path from sophisticated soirées to a squalid Fleet Street pub
A full-blooded blow-out
Kurt Weill: Symphonies, Seven Deadly Sins (DG)
Plane English
On pyjamas and private jets
Democracy is being undermined in Northern Ireland
Brussels and London are both being reckless about Stormont
Ageing gracelessly?
A new book on care is filled with empirical insights but short on rhetorical power
Hi-energy nutrients
Schoenfield, Vivier, Bartok &c (Accentus Music)
Marianna in the trenches
She wants to dive into the murky depths of social media, but her microphone can only scratch the surface
Escaping the digital dark age
We cannot rely on digital media to preserve our art and knowledge
Is Keir Starmer coming for Twitter?
A campaign group with close ties to Labour Party reportedly hopes to “kill Musk’s Twitter”
