Beatlemania: a case study in how cults develop
June 26, 2020
One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time By Craig Brown Fourth Estate, 656pp, £20 The Beatles generated something close to a religion of...
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Why opera can’t get enough of nuns
March 12, 2020
In the world of opera, nuns are frequent visitors and fair game. They’re exotic, not infrequently neurotic, blistering with fervour and not difficult to...
Was Shostakovich a dissident or a lackey?
November 14, 2019
Shostakovich: Critical Lives By Pauline Fairclough Reaktion Books, 240pp, £11.99/$19 There’s a popular image of Shostakovich – encouraged by books such as Julian Barnes’s...
If you don’t like Mozart, go and watch a football match
October 10, 2019
Rough Ideas By Stephen Hough Faber, 464pp, £18.99/$21.46 Stephen Hough is famous for a lot of things, mostly to do with playing the piano....
Is Christianity better sung than said?
September 19, 2019
Music and Faith By Jonathan Arnold Boydell, 288pp, £30/$40 Few readers of this magazine would, I imagine, challenge the idea that music is a...
The world’s oldest music festival continues to fascinate
August 15, 2019
Christmas came early to Gloucester last week where, on a sultry August day before an audience in summer shirts and sandals, the cathedral gave...
Tippett was silly and pretentious, but his works are masterpieces
July 18, 2019
Michael Tippett: The Biography By Oliver Soden Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 768pp, £25/$34.95 It’s virtually a law of nature that composers fall from fashion when...
Schoenberg: The founding father of ‘heroic modernism’
June 20, 2019
Arnold Schoenberg By Mark Berry Reaktion Books, 224pp, £12/$19 Arnold Schoenberg was a composer much given to statements of sweeping portent which, even in...
For music lovers, Versailles is the place to spend Holy Week
April 25, 2019
Catholics will, one hopes, have spent the Easter Triduum on their knees with open hearts. But those who also managed open ears might have...
Surviving Nazism with help from Bach
April 25, 2019
One Hundred Miracles By Zuzana Růžičková (with Wendy Holden) Bloomsbury, 368pp, £18.99/$25 Holocaust survivor stories follow a regrettably (in every sense) familiar pattern, so...
‘People are fascinated by the baffling aspects of Christian belief’: an interview with Sir James MacMillan
April 11, 2019
In a few days’ time, as has become its custom, the concert venue of St John’s Smith Square in London will revert to something...
Competitions expose musicians to the brutal truths of concert life
March 14, 2019
Competitions are the Marmite of the music world, applauded by the public for their bloodsports element but loathed by plenty of musicians for exactly...
Beatlemania: a case study in how cults develop
June 26, 2020
One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time By Craig Brown Fourth Estate, 656pp, £20 The Beatles generated something close to a religion of...
Why opera can’t get enough of nuns
March 12, 2020
In the world of opera, nuns are frequent visitors and fair game. They’re exotic, not infrequently neurotic, blistering with fervour and not difficult to...
Was Shostakovich a dissident or a lackey?
November 14, 2019
Shostakovich: Critical Lives By Pauline Fairclough Reaktion Books, 240pp, £11.99/$19 There’s a popular image of Shostakovich – encouraged by books such as Julian Barnes’s...
If you don’t like Mozart, go and watch a football match
October 10, 2019
Rough Ideas By Stephen Hough Faber, 464pp, £18.99/$21.46 Stephen Hough is famous for a lot of things, mostly to do with playing the piano....
Is Christianity better sung than said?
September 19, 2019
Music and Faith By Jonathan Arnold Boydell, 288pp, £30/$40 Few readers of this magazine would, I imagine, challenge the idea that music is a...
The world’s oldest music festival continues to fascinate
August 15, 2019
Christmas came early to Gloucester last week where, on a sultry August day before an audience in summer shirts and sandals, the cathedral gave...
Tippett was silly and pretentious, but his works are masterpieces
July 18, 2019
Michael Tippett: The Biography By Oliver Soden Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 768pp, £25/$34.95 It’s virtually a law of nature that composers fall from fashion when...
Schoenberg: The founding father of ‘heroic modernism’
June 20, 2019
Arnold Schoenberg By Mark Berry Reaktion Books, 224pp, £12/$19 Arnold Schoenberg was a composer much given to statements of sweeping portent which, even in...
For music lovers, Versailles is the place to spend Holy Week
April 25, 2019
Catholics will, one hopes, have spent the Easter Triduum on their knees with open hearts. But those who also managed open ears might have...
Surviving Nazism with help from Bach
April 25, 2019
One Hundred Miracles By Zuzana Růžičková (with Wendy Holden) Bloomsbury, 368pp, £18.99/$25 Holocaust survivor stories follow a regrettably (in every sense) familiar pattern, so...
‘People are fascinated by the baffling aspects of Christian belief’: an interview with Sir James MacMillan
April 11, 2019
In a few days’ time, as has become its custom, the concert venue of St John’s Smith Square in London will revert to something...
Competitions expose musicians to the brutal truths of concert life
March 14, 2019
Competitions are the Marmite of the music world, applauded by the public for their bloodsports element but loathed by plenty of musicians for exactly...
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