Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Kurt Weill: 2nd symphony, violin concerto (Somm)
A beautiful recording of an esoteric item
Isabella Leonarda; A portrait (Brilliant Classics)
Passion and originality blossom behind the walls of the cloister
Nico Muhly: Stranger (AVIE)
This new album of three works offers quiet empathy more than overwhelming emotion
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the end of time (OUR)
Messiaen’s quartet, first performed in a freezing barracks in 1941, is a thing of great beauty
Ferdinand Ries: Piano Trio and Sextets (Hyperion)
Ludwig van Beethoven’s former secretary and pupil was no forgettable curiosity
Erwin Schulhoff: Violin sonatas (Orfeo/FHR)
Virtuosity amidst violence
Hans Winterberg: orchestral works (Capriccio)
The lost sounds of a German Jewish composer
Reynaldo Hahn: Poèmes & Valses (Hyperion)
This unfamiliar collection is the most enjoyable piano album of the year so far
Pärt, Poulenc, Stravinsky (BR Klassik)
This is a brilliant concert of three sacred works
Most Read
Tame Impala fails to impress
unconquered by a
taste of Crusader food
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
What is wrong now was wrong before
Julia Gillard should not pretend that the “unintended consequences” of the gender debate were unknowable
Ethnic minorities are abandoning Labour
It is not just Muslim voters who have been abandoning the Labour Party
Department heads must roll
Apologies for gender dissidents are not enough — there must be consequences too
Class war in the upper house
The end of the Lords’ ancient
right to resolve peerage disputes
is the latest casualty of Labour’s
constitutional vandalism
Leaving the ECHR would not make Britain like Russia
The case for opposing withdrawal is currently intellectually fatuous
The trains have to run
Populists have had success in persuading people that they can govern — but can they actually govern?
Cry sod Harry, England and St George
Why aren’t people proud to be English?
Welcome to the low-trust economy
The multi-billion pound cost of Britain’s shoplifting surge
The centre-left is out of ideas
The new journal Arguably barely makes an argument
The rise and fall of Nicola Sturgeon
The former SNP leader squandered her talents in a classic tale of hubris
Kemi always gets it right
Whatever the crisis, the Conservative leader invariably discovers that events have vindicated her.
Clarifying the fog of the gender wars
Michael Foran’s new book will undoubtedly be celebrated, but is it essential?
It is time to cut pensions
The economic burden on younger people is unsustainable