Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams: 5th symphony/Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (Hyperion)
Symphonies to give you hope and vision
Britten, Hindemith, RVW, Martinu (Claves)
The 1934 suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams demands a sympathy for the rolling contours of the English countryside
Ironic fascism
Taboo-breaking counterculture paved the way for the return of the very fascism it claimed to subvert
Saltburn and the significance of sound
Why has Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” caught the world’s attention again?
The creation of canals
Entering the golden age of canals
Silence speaks volumes
Lee Anderson speaks out — or, at least, gets someone else to do it for him
Don’t forget Nicola Sturgeon’s nodding dogs
The SNP have been enabled by uncritical British media
The curious case of the “Gaylor” affair
Whatever the framing, the sexuality is the story
With their pants down
The Conservatives are in a nightmare they cannot wake up from
NatCon lives on
The conference has gone ahead in Brussels despite protests and police action
J.K. Rowling and the very Freudian fandom
Many Harry Potter fans feel a strange compulsion to hate the thing they love
Beethoven: Nine symphonies+ (Decca)
This Beethoven gift set is not for Christmas. It is for life
The “conversion therapy” ban still makes for bad law
Recent amendments have failed to answer serious concerns about its implications
