Comrades in arms
There were times during last Friday’s First Night of the Proms when it felt as if we’d been transported back…
Art attack
Has the Vatican abandoned beauty?
Pope opera
The search for the next pontiff is turning ugly
Alsatian string-breaker
One of the most intriguing piano concertos of the late 19th century is unknown to the public – and no…
A feast for the ears
Sir Hubert Parry was upgraded from knight bachelor to baronet by King Edward VII in 1902, and my goodness he…
Imperial march
If being asked to write music for the coronation of a king is an honour, then doing it for an…
Devil’s advocates
The rise of America’s Satanists
A cut above
The fine art of snubbing
Max factor
The German composer Max Reger, born 150 years ago next week, is mostly remembered today for countless elephantine fugues and…
The lady on the No. 26
I was sceptical when the lady on the bus to Reading town centre told me that her father knew Liszt.…
Cardinal Pell’s righteous fury at the Vatican’s theological direction
Cardinal Pell, a former head of Vatican finances, does not criticise Pope Francis directly in the piece he’s written for…
Cardinal Zen’s conviction shows that no one is safe in Hong Kong
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the 90-year-old retired bishop of Hong Kong, has been convicted of failing to register a humanitarian…
At His Majesty’s pleasure
Damian Thompson on King Charles III’s love of classical music
Vatican II has always been seriously misunderstood
People no longer moan about most of the things that bothered them during my childhood. You don’t hear old folk…
Papal bull
The shame of the Vatican’s ‘respectful dialogue’ with the CCP
Why Queen Elizabeth was a Presbyterian when she died
When the Queen died, she was actually a Presbyterian. That’s because she was in residence at Balmoral, and all British…
A dose of sanity
Listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 over the past week has been like meeting an old friend who, after…
Why the Tories should gamble on Kemi Badenoch
There’s only one candidate for prime minister with the guts to dismantle the self-loathing culture of identity politics that is…
Mourning glory
On Tuesday night I was at the world première of a motet by Sir James MacMillan and I don’t think…
Pope Francis has betrayed Cardinal Zen
When Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested by Chinese authorities on Wednesday and charged…
Ever decreasing circles
The decline of male friendship
Turbulent priest
The Patriarch in league with Putin
The truth behind the Pope Benedict inquiry
How are we to interpret the revelation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI misled a sex abuse inquiry? That might seem an…
Djokovic is a conspiracy super spreader
When the world’s number one tennis player Novak Djokovic found himself locked in a Melbourne hotel because he’d entered Australia…
