Composers
A great conductor leaves the stage
No conductor from China or Japan ever commanded world orchestras before Seiji Ozawa, and none has since matched his impact
Great Lives — great, The Essay — awful
Radio 3 maintains its course towards self-destruction
The light and the insubstantial
Poulenc and others: Chamber music (Calliope/DG)
What’s missing in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro
The film should not have ignored the political and musical context to Bernstein’s life
Over-simplified and underpowered
Shostakovich symphonies 2, 3, 12, 13 (DG)
Not having a gay old time
On BBC radio’s preoccupation with Americans and identity politics.
In the family
A rare contrast of composers
Inconsistent glory
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonies 2 and 3
We are indebted to Otto Klemperer
On the extraordinary talent of a troubled composer
Encompassing a life
RIP Kaija Saariaho
What are our cathedrals for?
Changes to the management of cathedrals have obscured the very point of their existence
Scary cute
CUTE, a new exhibition at Somerset House is a deliciously unsettling stroll down the uncanny valley
Behind the sofa government
Current Tory strategy consists in hiding and hoping the voters don’t notice the mess
A dentist’s appointment for Liam
Rishi discovers he is more appealing to the voters when he’s not there
TransForming London
You deserve to be inclusioned in London’s progressive future
Don’t take the vapes!
Will there be no end to the government’s embrace of prohibitionism?
Why the OBR is wrong about Brexit
The OBR’s Brexit analysis is based on flawed comparisons and unreasonable predictions
Representation gets raunchy
We have to stop the patronising pandering to communities in the name of “representation”
The problem with “extremism”
Violence and intimidation are deplorable, but can there be a clear definition of a concept as subjective as “extremism”?
The enigma of Englishness
The English have debated their national nature for centuries
Recasting the Crown for modern Britain
This progressive historian’s real charge against the monarchic institution is one of “complacency”
