Out of the Fire
Was Jean Sibelius's newly discovered Eighth Symphony destroyed in one of the composer's notorious drunken rages?
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Finally Finished
The new Finlandia Hall in Helsinki has been transformed by a Japanese mystic with an ear for acoustics
The Red Roots of Folk Music
Folk music has long been influenced by ultra-Left politics. Yet as the example of composer Cornelius Cardew has shown, even those with Communist sympathies have things to teach us about community music
Object Lesson
The recently deceased music-loving Sony boss Norio Ohga cared more about the art than the money
The Music Of Love
A working-class Scottish upbringing taught James Macmillan about music and fatherhood. If only more artists would take up the mantle
Wanted: A Keynesian Vision for the Arts
The Arts Council started with a tiny budget and a mandate to lift the postwar gloom. Now this meddlesome quango has lost its way and its chair, Liz Forgan, must go
The Maestro Of His Own Fate
A fine new tribute explains why Mahler matters more than ever
Damned If They Do
Music is the perfect medium to deal with Goethe's Faust because of its focus on the human condition
Vocal Heroes
Tenor: History of a Voice by John Potter
Park City, Utah: Movie that Pulls Aside the Veil
A new documentary made in Afghanistan has won two awards at the the Sundance Film Festival. Afghan Star could help the cause of feminism there and encourage a desperately-needed sense of national
Annie v. Elvis
When celebrities get involved in politics, they should look to Elvis rather than Annie Lennox In January, Annie Lennox released a statement on the Gaza conflict, saying that as a mother and
More Popular than Jesus: The Hubris of the Music Industry
The tenor Ian Bostridge and the historian Tim Blanning discuss popular and classical music with Standpoint editor Daniel Johnson