Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Franz Schubert: String quintet/Quartettsatz (Chandos)
Intimations of life’s fragility
Jean Sibelius: Orchestral songs (LAWO)
The themes are cruel and cold
Alban Berg: Violin concerto &c. (Chandos)
A stunning marriage of the tragic and the erotic
Prokofiev, Tcherepnin: The Bark of Yearning (Avi-music)
This is prime Prokofiev
John Adams: Slonimsky’s Earbox (Alpha)
Among his best work
John Cage: Four Walls (Fuga Libera)
More than a little bit mad
Kurt Weill: 2nd symphony, violin concerto (Somm)
A beautiful recording of an esoteric item
Isabella Leonarda; A portrait (Brilliant Classics)
Passion and originality blossom behind the walls of the cloister
Nico Muhly: Stranger (AVIE)
This new album of three works offers quiet empathy more than overwhelming emotion
Four women seers in a time of strife
Eilenberger’s design is to present philosophy outside the lecture theatre in its life-transforming power
Jolyon’s little investigation
Questions have emerged about the founder of the Good Law Project’s approach to privacy
Ironic fascism
Taboo-breaking counterculture paved the way for the return of the very fascism it claimed to subvert
It’s the only one for me, nicotine
Once again, public health fanaticism is being prioritised over simple pleasures
Why the goal glut?
Football — never boring, even when Italy is defending a 1–0 lead — has only grown more exciting
How the Greens blackened their name
The leadership of the Greens allowed gender fundamentalism to undermine the party
Very public introspection
The content of “misery lit” is disturbing, but what purpose does it serve?
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
A substantial and growing minority of Americans hate both presidential candidates
Don’t ban the billboards
Campaigns against advertising are pure public health fanaticism
Jamie Tradescant: highbrow sports journalist
Jamie’s articles are not simply a riot of historical and philosophical allusions — no, they are all about style
All small talk
Dwarf uprisings, Daleks and disreputable handymen
