Twisting the Knife

This week has been wearyingly typical in the world of arts coverage. Classical music is dead. Or not. Yes, we've heard it before, but in...

Threats to Cardiff Culture

Cardiff City Council has to find an extra £50m worth of savings in its budget this year. All eyes have inevitably turned to its cultural exp...

The Power of its Art

In today's Independent on Sunday , you can read my article about Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, featuring an interview with Semyon...

An Obvious Schemer

Here's Joseph Marx in 1963, a year before he died, in his apartment on Traungasse in Vienna. One visitor to the blog this week said of ...

Favouring the Brave

Fortune favours the brave. Although many musical radicals found it hard to make ends meet and often had to face the opprobrium of a cautious...