theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
theartsdesk |
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…
Veronica Simpson |
In the world of contemporary classical music, it takes confidence to launch your seasonal programme with an 18-year-old performer, and no hint of the repertoire. But Ryan Wang’s…
David Nice |
Berlioz's intended companion for his Symphonie fantastique was Lélio, or the Return to Life - an assemblage of mostly magical earlier pieces strung together with an…
Thomas H. Green |
“Enola Gay” is perfect pop, the ultimate party-uplift banger. It’s that rare song which only seems to grow better as the years, then decades pass. This is tricky to reconcile with…
Rachel Halliburton |
This beguiling “semi-staged” performance of Mahler’s First Symphony is the latest attempt in a growing movement to interrogate the relationship between classical music performers…
Thomas H. Green |
As I started to write this review, I found that Tucker Zimmerman died in January this year. This was news to me, sad news, made worse by the fact he died in a house fire at his…
Demetrios Matheou
It’s 1959. Trinidad is fighting for independence from British colonial rule, while the US is beginning to stake its own control over the island, whether through labour…
Adam Sweeting
Can you remember what you were doing on 23 June 2016? You might well have been out to cast your vote in the EU referendum, which has thrown its interminable shadow over our…
Liz Thomson
Judy Garland's Carnegie Hall comeback concert on Sunday, 23 April 1961 has often been lauded as "the greatest night in show business history", though that judgment surely depends…
Bernard Hughes
The world as we perceive it always has bits missing. This is either because your brain cuts bits out to avoid data overload, or because things are externally cut out before the…
David Nice
Range, I decided on Monday night, was what makes for great performances: range of emotions, dynamics, pitches. It was as true of Abel Selaocoe and his fine fellow musicians…
Guy Oddy
While it’s four years since the Bobby Lees’ excellent Bellevue album was released, they haven’t been stumbling around in the slow lane since then. Having gone on a burnout-…
Boyd Tonkin
“Never have I had such a day,” sings the baffled Emperor Tito as he wearily forgives all and sundry for their conspiracies, treacheries, deceits, attempted murders – and, by the…
Joe Muggs
There’s not – and never has been, really – that much discourse about commercial dance music as music. It’s either talked about by ageing doomers (“oh the kids just want to film on…
Bernard Hughes
Danish by name, and very much Danish by appearance (the cellist is Norwegian, but we’ll let that go). This quartet combines a glorious selection of blonde beards and moustaches…
Rachel Halliburton
Kurt Vonnegut’s hallucinatory countercultural classic, Slaughterhouse Five, famously took his experience of being a prisoner of war in Dresden and turned it into a story about a…
stephen.walsh
The first question is always: Don Carlos or Don Carki? Verdi’s opera was originally composed for Paris in 1867, in French, with the requisite five acts and the inevitable ballet.…
Mark Kidel
In a cultural world with no frontiers, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf has a musical CV that ranges very widely: collaborations with Angélique Kidjo, Sting, Quincy Jones…
Guy Oddy
The Ryland Caravan Festival is an annual festival put together by local musical eccentrics, Independent Country, and held in the outside amphitheatre at the Midlands Arts Centre (…
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
disc of the day
Genial strummings and spaciness as an underheard master drifts off
the future of arts journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
Ten years later, the Euro-controversy still rages
Friendships tested to destruction in Catherine Shepherd's satirical drama
Steve Coogan and Tom Burke lead a formidable cast in Neil Forsyth's drama
film
The Brat star convinces in a freewheeling, nouvelle vague-ish Polish excursion
Fictionalised account of Keith Jarrett’s iconic concert feels as improvised as its subject
Life-enhancing vintage entertainment, for children of all ages
new music
The rain just about stays away as Eighties synth perennials stick to the hits
Genial strummings and spaciness as an underheard master drifts off
Rufus Wainwright's final tribute to Judy Garland
classical
Subtle, introspective 'Harold in Italy' followed by over-punchy 'Symphonie fantastique'
Semi-staged version brings a heightened appreciation of the symphony's jostle of voices
Cellist/singer with friends and top quartet make welcome returns to the DICMF
opera
In concert, Mozart's farewell opera burns bright
Not much to look at, good on the ear
Not a huge number of laughs, but plenty of vocal charm from tenor and soprano
theatre
Martina Laird’s debut play is twisty, sexy and provocative
A versatile ensemble of four brings the countercultural classic to life
New play about the real and the fake in the online world is both humorous and distressing
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
The latest tranche of Korean contemporary dance offered a mesmerising instant classic
A handsome production in need of a stronger score and deeper characterisation
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Comic revisits her alma mater to talk politics
Absurdist comic's most personal show yet
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
An enjoyable look at 'missingness' and how it affects the way we experience the world
This not-a-biography of the 80s pop icon feels like an overextended magazine feature
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
An inventive and uplifting programme of sculpture, live music, dance and spoken word
latest comments