Biography
Crooked timber
A fine survey of the life and work of Isiah Berlin
We are indebted to Otto Klemperer
On the extraordinary talent of a troubled composer
The making of a modern prophet
Taylor’s impressive second biography of Orwell is more than justified
Stravinsky’s reputation is in freefall
Norman Lebrecht re-examines the life and legacy of Stravinsky.
Unpacking an economic titan
Hayek was not, and always insisted that he was not, a laissez-faire economist
England’s polymath of the piano
Greatness does not always declare itself in torrents of Slavic emotion or Germanic intellectualism
Lifting the mask of a mercurial master
Soden shares the spoils of untrammelled access: vivid evidence of the man not seen
Dark obsessions of the Demon Dog
Love Me Fierce in Danger reads as a book for fans, inured to the World of Ellroy
A genius who could say “no”
The things Beethoven never did
Time doesn’t fly in Bianchini’s company
Heilbron writes with authority and – what is more unusual – genuine passion
Preaching to a dwindling choir
Once the default denomination of tycoons and the WASP elite, America’s Episcopal Church is struggling
Parklife people
This book has a brilliant premise but, frustratingly, it doesn’t quite work
Seeing through Judith Butler
Very little substance lurks within the obscure prose
The dangerous excesses of breaking boundaries
There is a double standard on trans people and violence
The sacred and the profane
Allowing a “Rave in the Nave” in Canterbury Cathedral was a regrettable error of judgement
Talking to young man about Andrew Tate
You cannot educate the urge to transgress out of young men
Against rights radicalism
A noble cause has mutated into an obstructive and anti-democratic force
The callousness of the virtue signallers
The response to a young singer’s death exposed the cruelty of the self-consciously virtuous
AI has not killed the author
Advanced technology can enhance rather than replacing the pleasure of a good book
Crocodile Keir
For all of Sunak’s shoddy timing, Starmer’s opportunism was pathetic
