• Back to the Future Tim Rutherford-Johnson

• Sessions, Rochberg, Schuman Arnold Whittall

• Boulez's Flute Sonatina: a new study Neil Boynton

• Richard Taruskin's ‘Russian Music’ and ‘The Danger of Music’ Rodney Lister

• Northcott and Scruton Tim Rutherford-Johnson

• Peter Schmelz's ‘Unofficial Soviet Music’ Alexander Ivashkin

• William Alwyn's ‘Composing in Words’ Paul Conway

• Manchester: Goehr's ‘Turmmusik’ Tim Mottershead

• London: Two Goehr premières Malcolm Miller

• Manchester: David Matthews Paul Conway

• London: Myaskovsky's Sixth Symphony Guy Rickards

• Manchester: more Mahler commissions Tim Mottershead

• Liverpool: Ensemble 10/10 Helen Thomas

• Further reports from London, Glasgow, Gateshead and Zagreb Martin Anderson, Brian Inglis, Jill Barlow, Paul Conway, Donata Premeru

This essay appeared as the introduction to the very fully documented booklet notes of the 2-CD set, LARGO 5130, issued in 1995 – for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II – by Largo Records (Cologne) as Testimonies of War (Kriegszeugnisse) 1914–45. The central composer of this collection is Boris Blacher, who is represented by his Alla Marcia, Dance Scenes, Chiarina, Partita for strings and 6 percussion, Sonatina No. 2 for piano, and Drei Psalmen for baritone and piano. The other composers are Harrington Shortall (Fanfare for Those who Will Not Return), Kurt Weill (Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen and Choral-Fantasie), Berthold Goldschmidt (Zwei Psalmen for tenor and strings), Darius Milhaud (Chorale for piano) and Vaughan Williams (Valiant-for-Truth).

• Bussotti's ‘Il catalogo è questo’ Colin Clarke

• Bolcom, Glass, Curran, Sessions Rodney Lister

• Peter Dickinson Malcolm Miller

• Ian Wilson works for string orchestra Tim Rutherford-Johnson

• Further reviews Colin Clarke, Paul Conway, Peter Palmer, Bret Johnson, Arnold Whittall, Bernard Hughes

• Experimental Music Tim Rutherford-Johnson

• Dane Rudhyar Edward Venn

• Erik Chisholm Stephanus Muller

• The Polignacs, Princess and Prince Anthony Gritten

When I heard the shocking news of David's death, I thought of favourite pieces of writing, the pick of which would be his Preface to the paperback edition of the first two books of Stravinsky's Conversations with Robert Craft. Plucking this cherished volume from the shelves and glancing at David's text, I was struck by the following line: ‘The true craftsman must at some point be a fanatic (and the fanatic who is a bad craftsman is an impostor or a lunatic)’. David may have been writing about Stravinsky, the ‘great Poet’ of the fable which tops and tails his Preface, but he could no less aptly have been referring to himself. To describe David's fanaticism and craftsmanship as complementary, or reciprocal, is hardly adequate: their relationship was symbiotic. Each spurred on the other and the coupling was extraordinarily fertile.

• Nicholas Maw's ‘Sophie's Choice’ Paul Conway

• Morton Feldman Colin Clarke

• Richard Ayres Peter Reynolds

• Elinor Remick Warren Bret Johnson

• Thomas Adès Paul Conway

• Further reviews Peter Palmer, Colin Clarke, Guy Rickards, Paul Conway, Calum MacDonald, Bret Johnson

This was David Drew's last published article. Completed in December 2008, it appeared in May 2009 as a contribution to “… dass alles auch hätte anders kommen können”. Beiträge zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts edited by Susanne Schaal-Gotthardt, Luitgard Schader and Heinz-Jürgen Winkler, published as Band XII of Frankfurter Studien, a publication of the Hindemith-Institut (Frankfurt am Main: Schott ED 20571, 2009).

David Drew had discussed with the present editor a projected followup article for Tempo, to deal specifically with Walter Leigh's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and the ideological and critical misunderstandings which he felt were beginning to envelop it as a result of its citation in Fred K. Prieberg's Musik im NS-Staat. This was presumably one of the ‘several research-projects’ ongoing to which he alludes in footnote 37. Sadly, little if any of that projected article was written down. But since the publication of ‘North Sea Crossings’ in an otherwise German-language source must inevitably have found it few English readers so far, it seemed a fitting tribute to its author to reprint it here, with profound thanks for co-operation to Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, to Sally Groves in particular, and the estate of David Drew.

• Günter Raphael's symphonies Calum MacDonald

• Aldo Finzi and Marcel Tyberg Martin Anderson

• Dallapiccola Tim Mottershead

• Glanert's ‘Caligula’ Guy Rickards

• Further reviews PeterPalmer, Edward Venn, Colin Clarke, Bret Johnson, Paul Conway, Calum MacDonald

This article offers an analysis of the Second Piano Sonata ‘being and non-being create each other’, op. 82 (1990–91) by Horatiu Radulescu (1942–2008), the first work in which Radulescu applied the spectral techniques he had developed in his music since the late 1960s to that most apparently unpromising of instrumental media for this type of approach: the solo, equal-tempered piano. And it has a quite specific aim: to analyse Radulescu's sonata in a descriptive language as close as possible to that used by the composer himself.

• Reports by Paul Conway, Martin Anderson, Helen Thomas, Geoffrey Alvarez, Peter Reynolds, Malcolm Miller, John Wheatley, Jill Barlow