Benjamin Britten
Musical Testosterone at the Proms
William Walton was inspired by sexual energy
Battling with Britten
The reputation of one of England’s finest composers has been indelibly stained by his refusal to fight in the Second World War
Privileged Outsider
The cult of Benjamin Britten lives on in Paul Kildea’s new biography, painting the composer as a perennial victim
Glorious Legacy Of A Crabby Loner
Benjamin Britten’s gifts to British music, both as practitioner and patron, far outweigh his faults
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
National Anthems
For too long British classical music has gone unheard. Thankfully, what was once deemed a “guilty pleasure” is now getting regular airtime
Turn of the Turn
It’s hard to imagine The Turn of the Screw more perfectly performed than in ENO’s staging by David McVicar, which opened at the Coliseum last night. Were I rating it I’d give it six stars out of five.
The Apostle of Aldeburgh
Benjamin Britten’s festival proves that in music small is beautiful
The West slumbers as its enemies run amok
Profound weaknesses leave us open to political warfare from Russia and China—weaknesses which they are ruthlessly exploiting
Routed by liberalism
How usury killed Christendom
Offences and defences
‘Standpoint is, as it has always been, a magazine for small-c conservatives and small-l liberals. But it is also for small-s socialists and small-g greens, and for those who resist pigeonholing on principle’