Richard Wagner
Hitler’s admiration has severely damaged Wagner’s reputation
Wagner gripped the communal mind for decades after his death. Philip Hensher examines his enduring influence
Nietzsche’s intense friendship with Wagner forms the core of Sue Prideaux’s excellent new biography
In 1945, with the second world war won bar the shouting, Bertrand Russell polished off his brief examination of Friedrich…
As a writer, Richard Wagner was both sublime – and unreadable
No one any longer denies the immense significance of Wagner’s musical-dramatic achievement, even if they find it repellent. But his…
The old-fashioned greatness of Christian Thielemann
Philip Hensher admires an old-fashioned conductor who unashamedly favours the great German composers — and Wagner in particular
The mean, bullying maestro is extinct – or should be
W.H.Auden once wrote: ‘Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has…
