Classical Music
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 7 & 9 (Hallé)
VW will never catch on beyond Anglophiles — ask not the reason why
Last swipe at the Proms
Is it time to give a grudging nod of acknowledgement to the BBC Proms?
Erwin Schulhoff: Violin sonatas (Orfeo/FHR)
Virtuosity amidst violence
Hans Winterberg: orchestral works (Capriccio)
The lost sounds of a German Jewish composer
Wagner rides again
A return to enchanted tradition in Siegfried at Longborough Festival Opera
The eye of the storm
Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque, Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
Reynaldo Hahn: Poèmes & Valses (Hyperion)
This unfamiliar collection is the most enjoyable piano album of the year so far
The original, best and shortest English opera
John Blow, Venus and Adonis; Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas (HGO)
Some very healthy early music canaries
Helen Charlston & Toby Carr; Siglo de Oro (LFBM, St John’s, Smith Sq)
Henryk Mikolai Gorecki: Piano pieces (Accord)
A furious, unfiltered revelation of the experimental heart of a familiar composer
Office politics
There’s the joker, the slacker, and the bloke who just got fired
Afrocentrism with a Labour twist
Dawn Butler’s Black History Month video was disturbing as well as weird
Fleeing Sally Rooney’s god
Why have critics been ignoring one of the novelist’s most important themes?
Was Houellebecq right?
Reassessing the French novelist vilified for forecasting the Islamicisation of France
Enthralling eclecticism
Roberto Gerhard: Don Quixote, &c. (Chandos)
The personal has become far too political
Something has gone very wrong when we are acutely aware of politics
The authorities are inept sheriffs of social media
Politicians, the police and the judiciary should stop trying to control a landscape they do not understand
International Society for Libdem Consciousness
It’s a cult, but at least it’s one of the cheerful ones
St. Vincent
The acclaim is excessive but the talent undeniable
Donald Trump should not heed the call of foreign policy hawks
The world is not split neatly between good guys and bad guys
Three decades of broken promises on immigration
Time and time again, Labour and the Conservatives have failed to deliver on their pledges
