Privileged Outsider
The cult of Benjamin Britten lives on in Paul Kildea's new biography, painting the composer as a perennial victim
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
England’s Forgotten Symphonist
A long time blacklisted by the snobbish BBC, George Lloyd is the greatest English symphonist you've never heard of
The Artistic Legacy of the Great War
The global impact of World War I changed the arts forever. Its effects are still felt a century later
Lennie Has the Last Laugh
Sylvie Simmons's biography of Leonard Cohen uncovers the importance of his Jewish identity in understanding the troubadour's great output
What’s the Score?
Far from being a diluted form of the orchestral work, piano transcriptions often reveal hidden depths to old favourites
Last Burst of Creative Genius
Mozart's wide-ranging genius and phrenetic final phase are the focus of two excellent new studies on classical music
Reach For the Sky
While woeful arts coverage on ITV and the BBC looks beyond saving, the two Sky Arts channels offer brave, and often unpredictable, film-making
Festival of Britain
For too long the Proms showcased foreign music. Now, under Roger Wright, it is well and truly a Great British festival
Homage to Bach
Bach came as close to sainthood as Luther could allow. We should all be grateful to a composer never surpassed.
The Wagner Family Soap Opera Rolls On
'The Wagner family has never let Bayreuth and the festival out if its grip — today it is still run by two of Richard's great-granddaughters'
Finns’ Baton Charge
Now Sakari Oramo is cheif conductor at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, many fear a Scandinavian supremacy in British music. It was a morose morning-after at the maestros’ bar. “What do the Finns have
A Voice of Pure Gold
Kathleen Ferrier's wonderful career was cut short by her death at 41 in 1953. Thankfully plenty of the contralto's songs were committed to vinyl