It is now an archive for my newspaper and magazine pieces. My blog can now be read at: www.spectator.co.uk/stephenpollard
Politics, economics and culture from the master. Unmissable.
Melanie Phillips home page
Melanie Phillips' peerless blog. Read, and learn.
Daniel Finkelstein's Times Comment Central
A daily must-read.
Tim Worstall
Lots of interesting nibbles - and a ruthless swatter of economic gibberish.
Harry's Place
Must-read left of centre blog from writers who understand the threat to the West.
Clive Davis
Always interesting selection of culture and politics, from an Anglo-American bent.
Samizdata
Libertarian blog, packed every day.
Norm's blog
The thoroughly sensible thoughts of renowned left-wing academic Norman Geras, Professor of Government at Manchester. And cricket, too.
Public Interest
Peter Briffa's inimitable take on The Yazzmonster and other assorted demons.
Reform
The public sector reform group; their website is an invaluable source of data and ideas.
Centre for the New Europe
The leading European public policy think tank.
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| November | 04 |
| 2006 |
Wow. The Guardian is releasing the tapes of Andras Schiff's recent lectures on the Beethoven Piano Sonatas. You can hear the first here, and they'll be uploading the rest over the next few weeks.
I was at most of them and cannot recommend them - or indeed his recordings of the sonatas - too highly.
(via Jessica Duchen)
UPDATE: Blimey, I had a spelling howler here earlier...I wrote 'here' rather than 'hear'. Ouch.
MessageSpace
Here hear!
Stephen U cood pass a US military spell'n test.
We are lucky to have András Schiff with us. His parents survived by a miracle (a miracle that gives the lie to the notion that taking out the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz wouldn't have saved any Jews).
Schiff talks about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and other matters to Eszter Rádai:
'Not so long ago I heard that Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy promised Imre Kertész that at last "we are going to take a square look at this": that has yet to happen, even so many decades after the event. Dreadful things happened here, and still, whoever one speaks to about those times, everyone trots out a story about his or her dad or grandad hiding this person or rescuing that one. Well, if everyone was saving Jews, who on earth committed those horrific things that my grandmother told me about? Mother did not tell me anything, because she believed so strongly in assimilation, and still does to this day, even though there is no reason to believe in it. My own family then lived in Debrecen, and the deportations started earlier there. The entire family was loaded up onto a horse-drawn cart and delivered to the ghetto. All the Debrecen neighbours came out to gather in front of the house and jeer, making gestures that "throats were going to be slit", and they had already started running into the house to carry off stuff, candelabra and anything else.'
http://tinyurl.com/yb3fd5
His Schubert Piano Sonatas are exceedingly fine. Unfortunately, the box set appears to have been deleted:
http://tinyurl.com/y7rhgc
I will of course provide copies on request to any fellow members of the Worldwide Conspiracy to Take Over the Liberal Democrats.
Not being much of a Beethoven fan, I only own this version of the Beethoven Sonatas. Not A at his best:
http://tinyurl.com/yxn996
I once read a paper on the mis-spelling of homonyms. Apparently, there is a very good scientific reason why we all do it. What is that reason? I have completely forgotten.
I was reading happily along and then "I was at most of them and cannot recommend them (pause)". It took a minute before I had recovered and finished the rest of the sentence