Mark Swed

The overdue creation of a Cabinet-level Secretary of Culture would give the country a lift we all crave. Here’s who I think would rise to the challenge.

The 25-part series in which great works of classical music tapped troubled times, in all its complexities, surprised even this critic about how great art endures.

With “Sun Rings,” Terry Riley used NASA recordings from space to tap into our universal hopes — and push the string quartet into new territory.

Messiaen’s divine “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus” (“Twenty Gazes Upon the Child Jesus”) carries the spirit we need now, more than ever.

This week our most essential composer, Ludwig van Beethoven — unless you care to call him Louis van Beethoven, as a new German biopic does — marks what would have been his 250th birthday.

Get ready for the musical equivalent of 250 candles and a year’s supply of cake. Beethoven 250 has brought a bevy of new music and books. Here are the best.

In the quest for better Black representation, orchestras and opera companies are improving diversity in superficial ways. Here’s how they could do better.

Brahms vs. Wagner has long been framed as conservative vs. progressive. Let’s ditch the labels and listen to the music, starting with this Piano Quintet.

This year’s list is devoted to pandemic doers: Dudamel, Salonen, Sharon. Gehry, Borda, Kopatchinskaja, Sorey, Gupta, Grazinyte-Tyla and Edmunds.

Lou Harrison’s delectable Suite for Violin With American Gamelan fuses Indonesian percussion, Renaissance Italian dances and 1970s hippie spirit.