Classical Music
Requiem for London’s music
How London has lost its place as a classical music capital.
Unenticing overtures
Rautavaara: 3rd piano concerto (Bis); Overtures from Finland (Chandos)
Contemplating infinity
Franz Liszt: Transcendental Etudes (Steinway)
Inconsistent glory
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonies 2 and 3
We are indebted to Otto Klemperer
On the extraordinary talent of a troubled composer
Brahms: sublime genius on a major scale
Forget the sneering of Benjamin Britten, for whom Brahms’s music was “ugly and foul”, the German composer and pianist was a virtuoso talent whose best works burn with volcanic passion and seriousness of purpose
Two essays in excellence
The BBC at its best on Shakespeare, and remembering Barry Humphries.
Stravinsky’s reputation is in freefall
Norman Lebrecht re-examines the life and legacy of Stravinsky.
The apple of my ear
Limitless choice and a rattle of regret
Scarlet Blake is a man
Indulging the fantasies of violent criminals is endangering women
Seeing through Judith Butler
Very little substance lurks within the obscure prose
Out with the old and in with the new
People are asking why the classic art market has declined — and will it recover?
Keystones of Britain’s history
Far too many young people are woefully ignorant of the splendour and meaning of our rich ecclesiastical architecture
All roads lead to WPATH
How the strange, dark history of the gender movement built our strange, dark modern world
How did Conservative modernisation go?
David Cameron’s “A-List” has turned out to be second-rate
It’s time to transition babies
Even in the womb, many foetuses can sense their own trans identity
Pseudoscience exacerbates the burden of disease
Victims of ME deserve better than dopey Dragons and ear seeds
War destroys everything
Alex Garland’s Civil War is filled with terror and horror
The enigma of Englishness
The English have debated their national nature for centuries
Britain will not be a “Christian country” without Christians
Traditions die if there is no one to cherish them
