The Critics

Norman Lebrecht on how Marion von Weber was both interesting and important to Mahler’s emergence

Director Betrand Tavernier was able to admire both blacklisted directors and those who named names

The appointment of a chief conductor little affects the general performance of an orchestra

Bertolt Brecht’s didacticism puts off a lot of people who are sympathetic to a marxist world view

Robert Thicknesse on Rossini’s extraordinary de-cluttering of the musical atmosphere

Despite the fact East Germany has disappeared, it continues to live on in this outstanding trilogy

Digital art: the millennial trend

Robert Thicknesse on how the idea that foreign poetry was better than local soon became established dogma

Britpop has a bad reputation for stolid, white-boy basicness now, but it’s not a reputation Parklife deserves

If plum roles started being handed out on the random basis of “artistic merit”, anarchy would surely reign…