New in VAN
Essay
Mozart as Snake Oil
How pseudoscience advocates exploit classical music in their campaigns against autism
What Remains Behind
After hearing loss, facing a changed relationship with the music that felt like everything
Most read last week
The Art of the Ideal
What classical institutions mean when they say that “music can change the world”
Welcome 2 Shorworld
With the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia and Max Richter all playing CMDI events, Shorworld is back—and even more ambitious
What Remains Behind
After hearing loss, facing a changed relationship with the music that felt like everything
I Know, But: Andrea Bocelli
In an opera world flailing for mass appeal, there are worse things than an enthusiastic if underqualified crooner
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Music used and misused
(Almost) Every Piece by Darius Milhaud, Ranked
345 works from absolute turkeys to profound statements of faith
Communist Dissonance
In the propaganda musical “The Wings of Songs,” the soundtrack betrays the real agenda.
“All That Matters Is How Good It Sounds”
An interview with former El Sistema violinist Luigi Mazzocchi
“A Call To Action, Disguised As A Symphony”
Through her “Alan” project, lyricist, philanthropist and controversial former surgeon Susan Lim puts forward her ideas about transhumanism. Does the UK’s classical music scene have the strength to push back?
Bartók and Janáček At the End of Liberal Society
Totalitarian thinking and its antidote in two works from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
On libretti
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New in VAN
A Matter of Perspective
The manuscripts of recently rediscovered works by Bach and Mozart have been around for decades. What changed?
Stand By Your Man
As emails seen by VAN show a high level of internal pushback regarding Norman Lebrecht’s rehiring by BBC Radio 3, why did the station’s controller sack him now—and why was he rehired in the first place?
Is Post-Piece Silence a Recession Indicator?
Silence is a precious and dangerous tool. Use it at your peril.
Inside the UK’s Amateur University Opera Societies
What scrappy, low-budget opera for students gets right that professional opera doesn’t
From five years ago…
I Know, But: “Boléro”
More than an artifact of classical music gone pop, Ravel’s most famous work is a masterclass in orchestration
An Old, New Song
What happens when the haunting imagery of “Winterreise” darkens into pathology?
From ten years ago…
Last But Not Least
