Music
Why Daniel Barenboim should be the next head of the Berlin Phil
Daniel Barenboim is back in town: the South Bank is mounting a ‘Barenboim Project 2015’ in which he’s playing the…
Plumber, taxi driver, mystic, musician — the many facets of Philip Glass
Philip Hensher infinitely prefers the words to the music of the maverick ‘minimalist’ composer
The golden age of pop has been replaced by the golden age of pop obituaries
The golden age of pop music may be long gone, but the golden age of pop musicians’ obituaries is definitely…
Even a perfect opera such as Don Giovanni improves with a good red
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
A censored hymn to motorway misery
Service record The government is to form a design panel to improve motorway services stations. These have not always charmed…
James Blunt’s sense of entitlement is so palpable you could wear it as a hat
Only a fool would mess with James Blunt. As his Twitter followers know, he has a sharp wit, and, as…
Maybe it’s a problem when all artists are like James Blunt. But it’s worse when Labour MPs are like Chris Bryant
What should we do with James Blunt? This is what I have been asking myself. And I am not looking…
The curious language of Christmas carols
I could never understand as a little girl why we sang: ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.’…
Composer, conductor, author, pianist, lecturer — was there anything Leonard Bernstein couldn’t do?
On 17 May 1969 Leonard Bernstein ended his 12-year run as musical director of the New York Philharmonic with a…
Songs for the road: through his music and his classic car collection Neil Young hopes to escape his childhood traumas
Why do people talk about ‘experimenting’ with drugs when mostly they just mean that they’re doing them? Perhaps, as I…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my future son-in-law saying ‘must of’
Q. My future son-in-law has been successfully house-trained in the use of upper-middle-class English over the years that he has…
Peter Phillips is mugged by a gang of Praetorius-loving six-year-old girls in China
We have read about the remarkable opening up of China in recent years: how many people live there and how…
If the idea of disturbing kraut-punk sung by a troll appeals, you'll love The Fall
I had a fair idea of what I was in for when I went to see The Fall at Brixton’s…
How independence will impoverish Scottish culture
Daniel Jackson foresees an impoverished cultural landscape for an independentScotland, with artists forced to do Salmond’s bidding
My desert island poet
If I had to be marooned on a desert island with a stranger, that stranger would be John Burnside. Not…
The wit, wisdom and womanising of Constant Lambert
Philip Hensher on the tragically short life of the ebullient and multi-talented musician, Constant Lambert
Tim Rice’s diary: From Eternity to here
Last October, in these very pages, I wrote with what is now annoying prescience, ‘Like almost everyone else in the…
The church of self-worship
Sunday morning among the atheists
A girl, a train and a miniature pistol: how I met the Everly Brothers
I had five decades of delight with the Everly Brothers – and it all began on the Flying Scotsman
Shostakovich, Leningrad, and the greatest story ever played
The horrors of the Leningrad siege — the 900 Days of Harrison Salisbury’s classic — have been pretty well picked…
The food of love
The Albek Duo are two astonishingly beautiful and talented Venetian musicians, Fiona and Ambra, who are identical twins. Hearing the…
Did Leonard Bernstein do too much to be a great artist?
Nigel Simeone’s title for his edition of Leonard Bernstein’s correspondence rings compellingly, novellistically, through the force of the definite article,…
'If I can barely speak, then I shall surely sing'
A few weeks ago, I was wandering with a friend around West London when our conversation turned to the reliable…
Roger Scruton’s diary: Finding Scrutopia in the Czech Republic
Hay-making was easy this year, and over in good time for a holiday. I am opposed to holidays, having worked…
