Classical Music
Fanfares for the common man
Communist composers tried to create ideologically pure works for the workers — but without any great degree of success
A giant dipper of delights
BBC Legends Volume 4 (ICA Classics)
Over-simplified and underpowered
Shostakovich symphonies 2, 3, 12, 13 (DG)
Flickering with fire and ice
Beethoven: 1st piano concerto, &c (DG)
Why do we persist with Opera?
Dependent on state subsidies, artistically ossified and only a few go to see it
Against pop culture populism
The phoney courage of disdaining classical music
The end of the Emersons
Infinite Voyage: Emerson Quartet (Alpha Classics)
Immense energies
Grazyna Bacewicz: Piano concertos &c (Ondine)
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)
Countdown to energy apocalypse
What will happen when the wind doesn’t blow?
Action Tom
Can Tom Tugendhat MP resolve his vibes problem?
On the King’s Road to ruin
The decline of commerce on Chelsea’s celebrated street is a worrying sign for London
The hollowness of postliberalism
Its vagueness and sentimentality encourage political opportunism
Getting the creeps
How should we cope with the unsettling in everyday life?
Ireland must accept the Cass Review
The Republic is ignoring the disturbing evidence about youth transition
Rime of the ancient Tory mariner
The lesson of the Conservative conference? Keep your kids away from politics
Britain should get serious about organised crime
We underestimate how much crime is the work of small, nasty groups of people
An open letter on academic free speech
Calls for more intellectual openness are not a defence of Islamists and Holocaust deniers. A response to Mark Ferguson MP
A constructive opposition
The age of Badenoch is off to a suitably farcical start
If Donald Trump wins, it’s over
Three assassination attempts prove irrefutably that Trump is guilty of inciting violence
