Music
Impressive yet unmoving
Franz Schmidt: 4 symphonies (Naxos)
Worthy instrument
York Bowen, Willam Walton: Viola concertos (SWR Music)
Landfill indie remembered
A Golden Age? It was barely a Plastic Age
Hi-energy nutrients
Schoenfield, Vivier, Bartok &c (Accentus Music)
Poor conduct
Shostakovich: Symphonies 4-6 (Decca)
More than just noise
Berg, Schoenberg, Webern: Piano works (Warner)
Their generation
How young rockers became venerable sages
Enthralling eclecticism
Roberto Gerhard: Don Quixote, &c. (Chandos)
Butchering La bohème
Opera is “relatable” already
Swiftism’s role in saving the V&A Museum
The unconventional Englishness of the Taylor Swift phenomenon
Violence is a feature of porn, not a bug
Aggression towards women permeates the most popular pornography
The triumph of Irish populism
The three major parties went with what is popular, rather than what is right
Defending life and liberty
Abortion buffer zones hurt, rather than help women and babies
Stick ‘em up
Has the culture war been won?
The enemy of the Civil Service is my friend
Conservatives should hope that Keir Starmer can weaken its grip on British policy
What we don’t talk about when we talk about mental illness
We talk about mental health differently – but is it an improvement?
The esoterica trap
We should not pollute good causes with unreliable information
What’s wrong with the Human Rights Act?
It makes judges the arbiter of moral and political as well as legal decisions
A matter of life and death
It is not the job of judges to tell someone that they are wrong for believing in life
A wealth of glorious objects and images
A new book about the discovery of classical sculptures and frescoes is itself a real treasure
Just the tonic
Rediscover the forgotten treasure of Australia: fortified wines
