Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Christmas, irresistibly
Lise Davidsen: Christmas from Norway (Decca)/Miracle of Miracles (Cedille)
A giant dipper of delights
BBC Legends Volume 4 (ICA Classics)
A celebration of redemption
Handel: Israel in Egypt (Avie)
Flickering with fire and ice
Beethoven: 1st piano concerto, &c (DG)
The world’s last measured moments
Joseph Haydn: Symphonies 93-95
A chronicle of gratitude and ambivalence
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: 12th symphony/Dawn (Chandos)
The ultimate collaborator
Sergio Tiempo: Hommage (Avanti)
Too light by half
Bernard Herrmann: Wuthering Heights (Chandos)
The end of the Emersons
Infinite Voyage: Emerson Quartet (Alpha Classics)
Immense energies
Grazyna Bacewicz: Piano concertos &c (Ondine)
Making a difference
Over the past five years we’ve been keeping things civilised
How the Tories can win again
The new leader of the Conservatives must reach an important, ignored sector
The expensive problem with the minimum wage
Higher wages for some, perhaps, but joblessness for others
The decline of industry
English towns faced unique new challenges following deindustrialisation
Leo Varadkar is still stirring division
The former Taoiseach should have more humility
The shell shock of the arts
How will the art world respond to its narrative shock?
People of Colour television
How to unpick the progressive contradictions of colour-blind casting
Bants means bans
Scarcely any football chants will be allowed under Labour’s new “equality” rules
Sectarianism contra socialism
How did “left-wing” MPs end up voting for the VAT exemption for private schools?
A life of indulgence
Jacob Rees-Mogg has a major persona and a minor career
Prom-lematic
Landlords, Lammy, “Land of Hope and Glory” and other questionable phenomena
