Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Organic rebirth
A monumental masterpiece, miraculously brought to life
Encompassing a life
RIP Kaija Saariaho
A lopsided performance
Brahms: Double concerto (Sony)
New work, sounding old
A disappointing new collection
Sonatas after slaughter
1919 Coda: Janacek, Boulanger, Debussy, Elgar (Delphian)
Pain, poise and passion
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String quartets 1-3 (Naxos)
Glenn Gould’s musical laboratory
Glenn Gould: String quartet, opus 1 (CPO)
Music of the here and now
Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs (DG)
A major talent
Missy Mazzoli: Dark with excessive bright (BIS)
Captivating concertos
Beethoven/Ravel: Concertos (Avanticlassic)
The blessings on our doorsteps
It is all too easy to forget the astonishing cultural wealth that lies close to hand in our medieval parish churches
Just the tonic
Rediscover the forgotten treasure of Australia: fortified wines
Resist Labour’s managerial revolution
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are grimly committed to expanding the state and entrenching bureaucracy
Megalomania
Megalopolis is a gaudy, self-indulgent mess
Land of fire and blood
The detours, if at times distracting, are worth the price of this historical journey
A macabre sense of humour
Ligeti, Bartok: String quartets (BIS)
War crimes and Western double standards
How can politicians cheer the ICC pursuing Putin but not Netanyahu?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the forgetting of feminist principles
Single-sex toilets are essential if we are going to respect women’s personal space
Why Ukraine almost certainly cannot win
And why the war is likely to continue anyway
Have we been barking up the wrong tree?
Mark Rowlands believes that humans have a lot to learn from dogs
“Bold vision”
An action or choice can perfectly well be bold without being good
