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
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past