Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Beethoven, Birtwistle: A bag of bagatelles (Wergo)
Those who listen to music with an open mind are going to have a ball with this
Piazzolla Cien Anos (Century Records)
Astor Piazzolla is so intimately identified with Buenos Aires that his wider relevance is often missed
Solem Quartet: The Four Quarters (Orchid)
The Solem Quartet are my frontrunners for the best new talent in 2021
Paderewski & Stojowski: Violin Sonatas (CPO)
I would happily subscribe to an emergent series of forgotten Polish treasures if the quality remained this high
Nikolai Kapustin: 4th piano concerto (Capriccio)
Listening to Kapustin in 2021 is an act of nostalgia, a gesture of defiance to the dictates of fashion
Erno von Dohnanyi: My auntie (Capriccio)
Dohnanyi is as multicultural as they come — he must be due a comeback
Alice Sara Ott: Echoes of Life (DG)
Alice Sara Ott gives Frederic Chopin’s preludes a “dazzling” contemporary twist
Shostakovich: Piano concertos 1&2; piano trio 2 (Linn)
This is a recording that encapsulates the other, older side of Europe
Randall Goosby: Roots (Decca)
Goosby has all the technique anyone could need — but he still has a lot to learn about taste and selection
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Violin sonatas (Naxos)
Ten minutes of Villa-Lobos and you’re ready for carnival
Take trade experts and their models with a bucket of salt
The negative impact of Brexit on trade, and the economy at large, is still being overstated
The Church of England is practicing a secular religion
Equality, diversity and inclusion can be prioritised over religious faith
Joe Biden needs a Reagan moment
It is time not just for strong words but for serious demands
Our illiberal Terrorism Act
People should be censured for their actions and not for their beliefs
Scratches in the stonework of history
A new history of graffiti and rebellion is less light and bawdy than one may have expected
Alan Bates Britain
The case for dramatising every national scandal
The passage from India
The failings of Bazball, like the failings of Britain, are becoming more apparent
The love that dare not speak its name
Classical music has been tarnished with the dread word “elitism”
Chasing votes on foreign soil
Viktor Orbán has created a pipeline of support for his Fidesz political project by granting full citizenship to thousands of ethnic Hungarians in Romania
A Good Read should be better
Some weeks there are comedians and groovy journalists — others it’s groovy journalists and comedians
A Freudian slip
Was Golden Age Vienna the birthplace of the modern mind?
