Lebrecht’s Album of the Week
Music of the here and now
Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs (DG)
A major talent
Missy Mazzoli: Dark with excessive bright (BIS)
Captivating concertos
Beethoven/Ravel: Concertos (Avanticlassic)
Honky-tonking around
Yuja Wang: The American Album (DG)
A welter of emotions
Rachmaninov: 2nd symphony (Chandos/Vox)
Unveiled enigmas
Shostakovich: Works unveiled (BIS)
Beethoven’s piano maker
Album of the Week: Nannette Streicher’s Fortepiano (Gramola)
Instruments of shock and awe
Jean Sibelius/Arne Nordheim; The Tempest (Naxos/LAWO)
Englishness with an aftertaste
The pleasures of cowpats
An enemy of the best
Nothing routine, showy or ill-considered
Subscribe to save the BBC
A radical new solution to the problem of the BBC’s outmoded licence fee that could ensure more high-quality programming
Borientalism
Madama Butterfly, Opera Ballet Flanders, Antwerp
Farewell to Larry Siedentop
The great political philosopher, Oxford don, and sage defender of Western liberalism
Hi-energy nutrients
Schoenfield, Vivier, Bartok &c (Accentus Music)
Red lines
Fighting Ulster’s flag downgrade
A nuclear nothing?
Is Russia’s new nuclear doctrine hot air, or an explosive new factor in world affairs?
In defence of hereditary peers
Starmer’s spiteful plan for the Lords breaks an important intergenerational contract
The Tory beauty contest
The good, the bad, the ugly and the downright embarrassing
Bitter progress
How English towns developed post-war — not always for the better
Over the line
No one should discipline children for asking honest questions or telling the truth
Doublespeak about assisted suicide
The campaign for assisted suicide is distinctly Orwellian
