Album Review
Maybe not Yes
With only two remaining members from the classic 70s lineup, a lot is riding on the band’s new album The Quest
Piazzolla Cien Anos (Century Records)
Astor Piazzolla is so intimately identified with Buenos Aires that his wider relevance is often missed
Solem Quartet: The Four Quarters (Orchid)
The Solem Quartet are my frontrunners for the best new talent in 2021
Paderewski & Stojowski: Violin Sonatas (CPO)
I would happily subscribe to an emergent series of forgotten Polish treasures if the quality remained this high
Nikolai Kapustin: 4th piano concerto (Capriccio)
Listening to Kapustin in 2021 is an act of nostalgia, a gesture of defiance to the dictates of fashion
Erno von Dohnanyi: My auntie (Capriccio)
Dohnanyi is as multicultural as they come — he must be due a comeback
Alice Sara Ott: Echoes of Life (DG)
Alice Sara Ott gives Frederic Chopin’s preludes a “dazzling” contemporary twist
Shostakovich: Piano concertos 1&2; piano trio 2 (Linn)
This is a recording that encapsulates the other, older side of Europe
Randall Goosby: Roots (Decca)
Goosby has all the technique anyone could need — but he still has a lot to learn about taste and selection
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Violin sonatas (Naxos)
Ten minutes of Villa-Lobos and you’re ready for carnival
No golden years
A tragedy in four words: Baby Boomer, still working
More than just noise
Berg, Schoenberg, Webern: Piano works (Warner)
The Critic
No they haven’t put the mag on the silver screen just yet, but its still worth watching
Imagine there’s no Gove
Who’s in the room matters, and there were some which would have been better off without Michael Gove
Keir’s woetanical garden
Labour still don’t understand the scale of the reforms that are needed
For Heaven’s sake, not Robert Jenrick
He’s the ideal candidate if you want the Conservatives to lose
Eyes on a miserly prize
It’s not just owners who are being fleeced
Do the arts need policy?
Decoupling creativity from policy might give art ambition again
A real plan for growth
A series of simple economic blunders has led to self-defeating policies that strangle any chance of prosperity for all
Party in the U.S.S.R.
Shortages, queues and giant slogan-laden banners were the order of the day as the party faithful gathered
The problem with petty scandals
They distract us from state failure and institutional decay
