The greatest symphony that no one’s heard of
I’ve been listening to a symphony that I would describe as an almost perfect masterpiece by a composer of towering…
Is there any route back for the Society of St Pius X?
As any Catholic master of ceremonies will tell you, it takes only the tiniest sartorial mishap to lend a Python-esque…
The unique charisma of Pope Francis
The anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s election last month generated lots of thoughtful but inconclusive analysis from mainstream Catholic commentators…
Weight-loss drugs killed my appetite for life
Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, which launched ChatGPT, is not overweight. Gay tech billionaires rarely are. Even so, as…
What Pope Leo fears about AI
Pope Leo XIV has just passed the first great test of his pontificate. He has published a thoughtful encyclical on…
The magic ears of Hyperion
How do we evaluate Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, which over a period of 35 years recorded more than 200…
Trump has underestimated the Pope
Donald Trump’s latest clash with the Catholic Church stunned even the most hardened veterans of culture-war Twitter. According to the…
What’s really behind Trump’s clash with the Pope?
Donald Trump’s latest clash with the Catholic Church stunned even the most hardened veterans of culture-war X. According to the…
The US hasn’t threatened to bomb the Vatican
The first American pope does not like the President of the United States. One of the few things we knew…
How Pope Leo XIV is quietly reshaping the Vatican
On the afternoon of Easter Sunday last year, Pope Francis was driven through St Peter’s Square in an open-topped Popemobile.…
I hate many pianists – but am I any better?
From time to time, I’ve given some famous pianists a bit of a kicking in the arts pages of this…
The problem with the new Shakers biopic
Ann Lee was a sharp-tongued woman from the back streets of 18th–century Manchester, celebrated for put-downs worthy of Coronation Street’s…
The Neapolitan Horowitz
‘You play Bach your way, and I’ll play it his way.’ That remark by the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska is…
There’s no one more obsessive than Sherlock Holmes fans. And I should know
There is no better time to read a Sherlock Holmes story than a winter evening. As the rain lashes against…
My unofficial music teacher
In the early 1970s my father moved offices and I was plucked out of my cosy prep school in Surrey…
How the occult captured the modern mind
The British science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, proposed a ‘law of science’ in 1968:…
The mind-bendingly creative works of Louis Couperin
The French lutenist Charles Fleury, Sieur de Blancrocher, is one of those unfortunate historical figures who are chiefly remembered because…
The Antichrist is back
The monster known as the Antichrist has been stalking Christians for nearly 2,000 years. Mostly it has fed the nightmares…
The unsettling rise of DeathTok
For teenage girls on TikTok, the makeup routine is an almost sacred ritual. Manicured fingertips dart around at virtuosic speed,…
Alfred Brendel was peerless – but he wasn’t universally loved
In middle age Alfred Brendel looked disconcertingly like Eric Morecambe – but, unlike the comedian in his legendary encounter with…
Astonishing ‘lost tapes’ from a piano great
These days the heart sinks when Deutsche Grammophon announces its new releases. I still shudder at the memory of Lang…
Can Pope Leo end the liturgy wars?
Last weekend, under windswept banners depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, nearly 20,000 young pilgrims marched…
Leo XIV’s papacy is off to a surprisingly promising start
Rome In the days before the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, traditionalist Catholics were so worried about interference from…
The knives are out for the conclave front-runner Parolin
The 133 cardinal electors who will process into the Sistine Chapel tomorrow are feeling battered and confused by the prospect…
