Music
Can Russia hit the high notes again?
Russian music faces an uncertain future
The sweet sounds of catastrophe
Shostakovich/Britten: Cello works (Decca)
Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet
A pop song can be transformed by use, or it can split the world open
An Easter surprise
Songs from Japan and Europe (TYXart)
A much-misunderstood composer
The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim (CPO)
Musical morphine
Radio 3 has given up its time-honoured mission to inform, educate and entertain
Album of the year?
György Kurtág: Játékok (Pentatone)
The curious rebirth of Gregorian chant
Is Gregorian Chant this generation’s cool music?
Pure pleasure
Maurice Ravel: Complete solo piano music (Chandos), Complete songs (Signum)
Kneecap are the establishment’s idea of rebellion
The hip hop trio are more pathetic than iconoclastic
Most Read
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
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Right-wingers must rediscover their principles
Internalising the logic of liberalism has made defeat inevitable
Dignified design for the people
A book that asks all the right questions but hasn’t thought through all the answers
The hidden bureaucracy shaping Britain’s university curriculum
Putting an end to ideological capture must start with the Quality Assurance Agency
Beef and Brexit prosperity
High beef prices are a symptom of a deeper problem—Britain has left the EU, but not its economic mindset.
These violent delights
Pagliacci made the murder the true apex of the show
Fence-sitting in a time of peril
Daniel Johnson condemns the Prime
Minister’s impotent handwringing when
America called for help in the Iran war
Britain must maintain its cultural inheritance
We should not allow our masterpieces to disappear overseas
Britain’s AI gamble reeks of desperation
The government is betting it all on AI — it could lose our trousers
Sing for victory
The days when recording a novelty single was a pre-tour duty are long gone
It’s high time we banned dogs
The tide is turning against these slobbering beasts
Information rage
Jacob Siegel’s new book The Information State is profound and troubling