Music
The light and the insubstantial
Poulenc and others: Chamber music (Calliope/DG)
Saltburn and the significance of sound
Why has Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” caught the world’s attention again?
Stravinsky’s aching quality
Stravinsky, Bartok, Martinu: Works for violin and orchestra (BIS)
Superficial pleasures
A te, Puccini (Signum)
The music of the Bard
A great tradition of Shakespearean songs have been all but forgotten
Don’t stop the music
Closures at Oxford Brookes are a sad reflection on the state of the academic music sector
In search of Graceland
Paul Simon’s journey to a gentle spirituality
Ban this vile “Hate” Parade
Puberty is a form of far-right terrorism
Why do we persist with Opera?
Dependent on state subsidies, artistically ossified and only a few go to see it
Against pop culture populism
The phoney courage of disdaining classical music
Plagiarism: a racist weapon
It has been genuinely disturbing to see Claudine Gay ousted simply for being an empowered black woman
When the populist meets the Pope
Javier Milei and Pope Francis represent very different and often hostile elements of Argentinian cultural life
How big a problem is problem gambling?
Jolyon Maugham should not roll the dice on opposing GambleAware
Against the relegation of Record Review
Why is Radio 3 mistreating one of its greatest assets?
Irish politicians have lost touch with the people
The failed “modernisation” of the Constitution may not be a one-off failure for Irish liberals
Alcohol and Islam
An English novelist travels the Muslim world in search of a drink
Good cops and bad spies
Intelligence services as portrayed on-screen are pretty ghastly places to work
Beethoven: Nine symphonies+ (Decca)
This Beethoven gift set is not for Christmas. It is for life
How the Greens blackened their name
The leadership of the Greens allowed gender fundamentalism to undermine the party
Davie, Davie, give us some answers do
Why the BBC keeps obscuring the truth of sex and gender
Those WhatsApp groups in full
Thirteen reasons to ban politicians from smartphones
