theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
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We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the…
Kieron Tyler |
“Jazz,” exclaims an audience member just after Plantoid launch into “Ultivatum Cultivation,” tonight’s second song – also the second song on the band’s recent second LP Flare.He’s…
Thomas H. Green |
It’s the first date of Manchester rockers Witch Fever’s European tour and things are off to an iffy start. Drummer Annabelle Joyce has food poisoning. It was touch’n’go whether…
David Nice |
The master pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus impressed upon Elisabeth Leonskaja the maxim "don't look for yourself in the music, but find the music in you", something she…
James Saynor |
Do we really care what Hitler liked to eat? Well, here’s a film that does, so I can reveal an answer. Typical meals might have included chick pea salad with marinated courgette,…
Guy Oddy |
After a career of constant line-up churn, the video for recent single “Profane Prophecy” would suggest that the Black Crowes are now down to brothers Chris and Rich Robinson and…
Helen Hawkins
The Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason follows up Godland with an equally striking film, this one about a moribund marriage. It’s a living album of impressions and memories, small…
Sarah Kent
My walk through Hyde Park was an absolute joy. Spring is in the air, the weeping willow is in leaf (pictured below right: photo by S.K), the narcissi are in bloom and the sun was…
Adam Sweeting
Fans of Call the Midwife (which is currently “taking a break” after the conclusion of Series 15) will no doubt recall, with a nostalgic tear, Ella Bruccoleri’s performance as…
Joe Muggs
For anyone to create a whole, new, recognisable – and kick-ass – musical style in this day and age is no small achievement. To do so as you enter your 70s is pretty mind boggling…
Boyd Tonkin
My last St John Passion arrived during the Proms in the vast hanger of the Royal Albert Hall, where the impeccable, discreet musicianship of Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium…
Rachel Halliburton
To watch Martin Hayes play the Irish fiddle is like watching a man possessed by his music. As his bow flickers across the strings the infectious energy of it spills into the air,…
aleks.sierz
The Middle East is on fire – again. So Ryan Craig’s brilliantly provocative play, The Holy Rosenbergs, is more relevant than ever. Near the start, a rabbi says, “Everyone feels…
Guy Oddy
In recent years, noisy Canadian experimentalists, New Age Doom have shown themselves to be unafraid to engage with musical genius from all parts of the sonic pallet and have…
Jenny Gilbert
Search “black ballerinas” online and you will be offered shoes, which doesn’t say much for the racial diversity of classical dance in today’s Britain. Black male dancers, even at…
Sarah Kent
American photographer Catherine Opie took her first self-portrait at the age of nine with a Kodak instamatic she’d been given for her birthday. There she stands in the garden, a…
Adam Sweeting
Berlin always makes a flavourful setting for labyrinthine stories of betrayal and deception (see Le Carre and Len Deighton for further details), and it doesn’t disappoint in this…
Jonathan Geddes
When David Byrne made a mention of heroes and superheroes, one audience member could not resist. "Like you" they yelled out, and while the former Talking Heads singer might not be…
David Nice
Most concerts of operatic excerpts serve up an after dinner mint. This one offered - to follow up Menotti's image of light versus serious in art - the very bread of life, albeit…
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Bringing Janice Hadlow's alternative-Austen novel to the small screen
Spies, lies and surprises in gripping German thriller
Big beasts and big bucks battle for supremacy
film
A curious, cautious tale about sampling the Führer’s grub
Hlynur Pálmason creates an entrancing, novel form of film-as-memory
Director Rebecca Ziotowski gives Jodie Foster a free rein in French
new music
Sell-out show suggests embracing difficult music won’t impede an upwards trajectory
Heavy riffin', punk rock, food poisoning, snark and moshpit mayhem
The brothers Robinson pay tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Rolling Stones again
classical
The great pianist takes us on a Shakespearean journey, from Ariel and Prospero to Lear
The great Gospel tragedy rendered bright, swift and fierce
Irish fiddler sets ego aside and completely surrenders to the music
opera
World-class Irish artists celebrate International Women's Day with poise and passion
First-rate singing, playing and conducting, and the portable production has some impact
Biopic opera of the great Japanese artist Hokusai slightly misses its mark
theatre
Excellent revival of Ryan Craig’s 2011 play about an British-Jewish family in crisis
Timely revival of Arthur Miller’s 1994 study of anti-Semitism, marriage and psychology
Five playwrights conjure the Ukrainian experience, from 2014 to today
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
After 25 years and counting, Cassa Pancho's fine company remains essential
The kindly Skoog made history as a brutal Interrogator in a classic modern ballet
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Shaggy-dog story about a Hollywood party
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Saskia Vogel brings a darker than dark tale of rural grief to English for the first time
A Harvard professor presents a sprawling urban history
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
A frieze of iPad pictures that sends you hurrying for the door
Photographs of California’s queer community in the 1990s
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