Dmitri Shostakovich
Poor conduct
Shostakovich: Symphonies 4-6 (Decca)
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
On the Cusk of austerity
A cerebral critic pleaser, a dramatic crowd pleaser, and a perennial favourite
Towards a shared Englishness
There is a third way between civic nationalism and ethno-nationalism
Newspeak
Language, landscapes and level crossings — is there nothing we can’t diversify, if we only dare to try?
The fading fumes of the New Right
None of the Tory candidates offer the chance of an ideological makeover
Not everyone should be in therapy
Over-medicalisation hurts the healthy and the suffering alike
A nuclear nothing?
Is Russia’s new nuclear doctrine hot air, or an explosive new factor in world affairs?
The nurseryfication of culture
Alienation has encouraged the normalisation of childishness
War returns to Kursk
Could the famous WW2 era battlefield be yet another military turning point?
The riots and the social media blame game
Politicians blaming social media for the riots are hiding from state failings
Britain isn’t the Balkans
The UK is not, despite heated rhetoric, on the brink of sectarian violence. But it is heading in the wrong direction
Trojan horse separatism
Spanish unity is being bartered away in a game of political greed as a Catalan coup-leader is allowed to stroll back into the country
