Dmitri Shostakovich
Over-simplified and underpowered
Shostakovich symphonies 2, 3, 12, 13 (DG)
Play it both ways, Dmitry
This new biography has set my feet pounding, for once in admiration rather than indignation
Jane Austen versus virtue signalling
What Mansfield Park can tell us about contemporary politics
Riffs or rigour?
Arts practice has gained the upper hand over scholarship
Foxy old Labour
Going after private schools would be an act of pointless institutional vandalism
The ghosts of Tory past
The Conservatives are haunted by the spirits of the last two decades
A guide to British electoral vocabulary
From “adviser” to “woman”, here is what it really means
Anatomy of a populist cynic
As Spain’s national-conservatives get outflanked by “Alvise”, Europe’s “new right” would do well to watch the fringes, too
The Conservatives deserve credit on sex and gender
They were slow to respond to institutional capture — but they did respond
Messing with the master’s work
Beethoven: Emperor Concerto; Brett Dean: A Winter’s Journey (Orchid)
Making art of the Holocaust
As dramatic opera, The Passenger inhabits a grey zone of guard–prisoner relations
Walking a tightrope
It is not easy for Jeremy Hunt to toe the government line without falling off