Culture
Reynaldo Hahn: Poèmes & Valses (Hyperion)
This unfamiliar collection is the most enjoyable piano album of the year so far
Literary festivals: sheer hell in a tent
To make people laugh for an hour is good business sense — but it says nothing about writing, or creativity, or art
Evening Vespas and Gelato alla Gordon’s
When in Florence…
Cancelled at Cannes
Sidelining the creator of a national movement is pure, unashamed revisionism
Three act tragedy
The Wagatha Christie case reveals the addictive fun of gossip — but also its corrosive power
An unlikely man of the people
Kenneth Clark has been unfairly accused of elitism; he wanted to democratise the glories of Western art and make it available to all
Pipe down and play up
We need more silence in sport
Bring on the big beasts
Music needs heavyweight champions to stand up for truth and excellence
Gustav Mahler: 4th symphony (Pentatone)
A new recording of Mahler’s smallest symphony is “indispensable” to connoisseurs of his music
British piano concertos (Lyrita); British music for strings #3 (CPO)
A prawn cocktail of exceptionally competent music to enjoy on Easter Sunday
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The principles of peers
Supporters of assisted suicide are being sore losers
Crime thrillers 101
A new heist movie is basic and fun
Any foreigner can have a UK degree — for a fee
Every British university has been chasing the benefits of foreign income with frenzied excitement
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
The last true Kapellmeister
Chaotic in all things except music, where he demanded precision and gave his all
Food pairing is folly
A warning against trying to match wine to dish
Britain needs a moral core
The UK’s greatest vulnerability isn’t its weakened military but its lack of spiritual depth
Jolly boating weather
The Gondoliers, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire
A rare interview proved a delight
Eavesdropping on two intelligent people sharing a civilised conversation about interesting things
Eroticism and intrigue
Out of Vienna (Alpha-Classics)
Zackonomics is incoherent and outdated
Zack Polanski is a great political entrepreneur but he is terrible at economics