Music
Nonsense squared: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground reviewed
Gerald Barry loved playing organ for Protestants as they allowed him a lie in. Then they found out he wasn’t…
The muddy, bloody origins of a treasured Christmas Eve ritual
Alexandra Coghlan reveals the muddy, bloody origins of a treasured Christmas Eve ritual
A surprising number of great composers were fond of the bottle – but can you hear it?
‘Brahms and Liszt’ is a lovely bit of rhyming slang, but it doesn’t have the ring of authenticity. Can you…
Scholar, entertainer, poet, hoarder: the many faces of my father Johnny Cash
John Carter Cash reflects on the many faces of Johnny Cash: scholar, entertainer, poet, hoarder
Elvis would have loved it: Elvis in Concert at the O2
Elvis Aron Presley departed this world on 16 August, 1977. Even if you delight in conspiracy theories and believe the…
Zurich’s hidden rock’n’roll side
On the green edge of Zurich, where this neat and tidy city melts into neat and tidy countryside, an icon…
I always thought the North and classical music didn’t mix
Years ago, when I met a famous concert pianist, I was surprised when he greeted me in a northern accent.…
The beauty of the Star-Spangled Banner
There was something unexpectedly moving about hearing not just one but several renditions of the somewhat naive and rose-tinted but…
Zadie Smith’s latest dance to the music of time
Zadie Smith explores themes of identity, freedom, rhythm and time with much skill and grace, says Ruth Scurr
Like a kids’ entertainer on crack: Amadeus reviewed
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer is haunted by its own antecedents. Viewers are apt to feel that a new production lacks…
Is radio better without the talking?
There’s nothing new about Radio 3 tearing up the schedules, temporarily abandoning regular favourites such as Private Passions, The Early…
Life’s too short for ‘well-crafted’ pieces by musical mediocrities – and Handel
There’s a folder in my computer’s external hard drive in which you’ll find 24 complete recordings of the Bach Cello…
Performing the Goldberg Variations on the piano involves too many compromises
The churning, rheumatic mechanism of a harpsichord — notes needling your ears like drops of acid rain — doesn’t necessarily…
A great retro shop with a dreary message: V&A’s You Say You Want a Revolution? reviewed
Back in the high optimism of the 2008 presidential campaign, one of Barack Obama’s more extravagant hopes was that ‘the…
Meat and morality: the case for eating whale
Toftir, Faroe Islands Almost twenty years ago I founded a heavy metal band called Týr. Our songs, with titles such…
Iraq's national youth orchestra: an improbable story on a heroic scale
Now that even candidates for President of the United States can rise up from the undead dregs of reality television,…
What could resist the Red Guards? Music and storytelling
Madeleine Thien’s third novel, recently long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, begins in Vancouver with Marie, who, like the author,…
Electronic Dance Music is not for rebels – it’s for tyrants and drones
Electronic Dance Music is dying. You may not have noticed. It may not affect you directly. But it’s a really…
Was 1966 really as grim as this BBC4 documentary suggests?
In the song ‘All the Young Dudes’, David Bowie gamely tried to reassure the youth of the Seventies that, despite…
Ted Heath: still a surly man of mystery
Ted ‘Grocer’ Heath, as he will always be for me, was chosen by his fellow MPs to be their leader…
James Kelman plays Memphis
When James Kelman won the Man Booker prize for How Late it Was, How Late, one judge stormed out, calling…
The Britten-Pears relationship: no longer an (open) secret
‘You are the most adorable man and artist, intelligent, gifted, simple, loving and noble… I am really very, very lucky…
No, the crowds at Glastonbury were not bumming out about the EU Referendum
‘How do we feel about leaving the EU today? Who doesn’t give a fook?’ yelled Oli Sykes of Sheffield’s Bring…
A Gypsy documentary that alternated between the eye-opening and the hair-raising
In his latest documentary for the This World series, the Romanian film-maker Liviu Tipurita could have been forgiven for treading…
We want them not to give us what we want: Radiohead at the Roundhouse reviewed
Radiohead have been at the top of the musical tree for so long now that it’s easy to forget what…
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