Classical Music
British piano concertos (Lyrita); British music for strings #3 (CPO)
A prawn cocktail of exceptionally competent music to enjoy on Easter Sunday
Such sweet sorrow
Lent is an ideal time to take pleasure in a gentle, contemplative and very English strand of musical melancholia
Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No 1 / Moments Musicaux
A new release of Rachmaninov’s first piano sonata deserves more than five stars
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Cello Works and Piano Sonatas
If you want an entry point to Weinberg, this is it
Metamorphosen (Chandos)
John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London reinterpret Metamorphosen chillingly as elegy
Ligeti and Kodaly: Lux Aeterna (OUR Recordings)
The otherworldly and the down-to-earth
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber works (BIS)
The British composer — still writing at 87 years of age — is an acquired taste
Interview: Semyon Bychkov on Ukraine and nationhood
He discusses exile, the horrors of totalitarianism and why Russophobia is not the answer
Who is a Ukrainian musician?
Music and ethnicity are both more complex than nationalism allows
Too darn hot
Carmen still shocks and seduces
The election is still Trump’s to lose
His performance has been weak but his advantages are many
Death by a thousand cuts
The near-invisibility of the Proms on BBC TV is a symptom of the collapse of public service broadcasting in Britain
Was Houellebecq right?
Reassessing the French novelist vilified for forecasting the Islamicisation of France
Ultra processed arguments
Public health commentators cannot seem to decide what is safe to eat
Kemi Badenoch won’t save the Conservatives
Her radical credentials are based on pure PR
Which country?
Our rural landscape is much misunderstood
Donald Trump doesn’t know what a woman is, either
Believing that the sexes are different does not mean appreciating their humanity in full
When America ignored a slaughter
Whatever America’s flaws, its absence from the global stage leaves a space quickly filled by far more malevolent actors
What is behind the ECHR debate?
We should stop pretending that moral disagreements can be reduced to technical debates
People of Colour television
How to unpick the progressive contradictions of colour-blind casting
Tense present
Our demand for immediacy makes it difficult to appreciate the past, the present or the future
