The Heckler
Radio 3 presenters
Anyone who has listened regularly to Radio 3 over the decades — not to mention the Third Programme, which Radio…
I don’t get why people worship Bach
I don’t get Johann Sebastian Bach. I mean, I get that he was good — no Mozart, sure, but definitely…
The Bilbao effect
Twenty years ago I wrote of the otherwise slaveringly praised Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao: I’m in a minority of, apparently,…
Gustav Mahler
When I began listening to music seriously, in about 1950, I had read about Mahler but wasn’t able to hear…
Paul McCartney
It’s slightly galling, after years of sticking up for Paul McCartney, to read a new biography of the bloke and…
The Heckler: those who doubt the brilliance of Phil Collins are snobs
Three boos for those rotten spoilsports who started an online petition against Phil Collins coming out of retirement (there’s already…
Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Heatherwick is the most famous designer in the United Kingdom today and has an unquestionable flair for attention-grabbing creations.…
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without…
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
For anyone who has been interested in classical vocal music since the middle of the last century, whether choral, operatic…
Shakespeare’s duds
I love Shakespeare. But when he pulls on his wellies and hikes into the forest I yearn for the exit.…
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is talented almost beyond measure. His Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and stupidly named Orchestre Révolutionnaire…
Curators
As a purveyor of lairy souvenirs Venice outdoes even Lourdes. The scores of shops and booths that peddle this lagoonal…
The actor-commentariat
I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…
Stephen Sondheim
I came out in a rash when I heard that Emma Thompson was to star in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd…
Tate Britain
Things have not been happy at Tate Britain for some time. Last year Waldemar Januszczak wrote an article culminating with…
