Music History
The Symphony’s Indian summer
Imagine hearing a symphony for the first time
Why we need orchestras
China has grasped that an orchestra is more than a payroll of musicians
A heavyweight companion for life
Music’s vast dismembered brocade enchants practitioners and listeners alike
Wagner saga just keeps on giving
Richard Wagner, it appears, had Nazism thrust upon him
The Merry Widow’s peak operetta
Who should we blame for art admired by monsters?
A fine bromance
We have long since lost any real perspective on The Beatles
Can Russia hit the high notes again?
Russian music faces an uncertain future
Bring back the song-and-dance men
The brilliance of an overlooked generation of 18th century English music makers
An influential Irishman
John Field: Complete Nocturnes (DG)
Russian roulette
Musicians lived in constant terror of putting a foot, or a note, wrong
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Damaged brains and troubled souls
Dana White, of all people, should not be so dismissive of the salience of mental suffering
AI, religion and AI religion
Pope Leo is right to push back against the prophets of AI supremacy and AI doom
Stop selling sexism
Banning strip clubs might sound unrealistic but it is the right thing to do
Operatic satire is a Shaw thing
The old Art has an armoury of skunk-like defence mechanisms to keep the unwashed at bay
How the “Burnham bind” will rewrite British politics
If Andy Burnham wins in Makerfield, Labour has a bigger opportunity than people think
Greene around the gills
A truly ghastly gastropub
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
Outside the box
why traditional topiary is
making a comeback
The masculinity crisis is a porn crisis
We have to do more to challenge the reshaping of culture by pornography
Failing to face the facts
The Tories’ rosy view of their recent election drubbing reveals a reluctance to have the tough intellectual debate needed to secure the party’s future
How to save your parish church
Be the Church you want to see in the world