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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 12 June 2025
When Neil Young releases a new album, you can be reasonably sure that you’ll get either a disc of melancholy singer-songwriter fare or a set of blistering rock’n’roll. His debut...
Jon Turney
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
The slightly overwrought subtitle, "How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World and Shapes Our Future", gives a good indication how computer enthusiast Sam...
Kieron Tyler
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Although Mary Halvorson leads the sextet Amaryllis on About Ghosts, instrumentally, she does not place her guitar to the fore. The first time her playing really leaps out on her...
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bridge Theatre review - Nick Hytner's hit gender-bender returns refreshed
Helen Hawkins
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
It’s a sign of the inroads that the term “immersive” has made in theatreland that it now gets jokily namedropped at the Bridge inside Shakespeare’s actual text, when Duke Theseus...
Rachel Halliburton
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
This thrilling production of Saul takes Handel’s dramatisation of the Bible’s first Book of Samuel and paints it in pictures ranging from grotesque exuberance to monochromatic...
David Nice
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
If, like me, chamber music isn’t your most frequent home, there are bound to be revelations of what for many are known...
Thomas H Green
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Marina Diamandis is a proper pop star, brilliantly full-on, off on her own thing. The Welsh singer is primarily known for...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 09 June 2025
The first series of The Gold in 2023 was received rapturously, though apparently it only told one half of the story of the...
Tim Cumming
Monday, 09 June 2025
Eva Quartet are four outstanding Bulgarian voices of polyphonic purity and depth, drawn from the legendary choir Le Mystere...
Liz Thomson
Monday, 09 June 2025
In those seemingly long-ago times of loneliness and lockdown, artists around the world invited us into their kitchens and...
Aleks Sierz
Sunday, 08 June 2025
The Bush Theatre is becoming a garden centre. Earlier this year, the venue staged Coral Wylie’s Lavender, Hyacinth,...
Boyd Tonkin
Sunday, 08 June 2025
Marianne Moore once famously defined poems as “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”. Operas also fill, or anyway...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 08 June 2025
“Forest and the Shore” by Keith Christmas is remarkable. In his essay for Gather In The Mushrooms, compiler, author and...
Justine Elias
Sunday, 08 June 2025
If you’re horse mad or merely an every-four-years Olympic fan, you already know Nick Skelton’s story. Equestrianism can...
Simon Thompson
Saturday, 07 June 2025
There was a neat conjunction of commemorations to this concert, the most obvious one being the fact that that 2025 marks the...
Sarah Kent
Saturday, 07 June 2025
Hamad Butt studied at Goldsmiths College at the same time as YBAs (Young British Artists) like Damien Hirst and Gillian...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 07 June 2025
Antal Doráti in London: The Mercury Masters Vol. 1 (Decca Eloquence)A couple of recent YouTube videos show DG...
Tim Cumming
Saturday, 07 June 2025
When Van Morrison last released an album of original songs, during the Covid pandemic, it didn’t go down well. Indeed...
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disc of the day
Album: Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts - Talkin' to the Trees
Musical titan reflects on his life as he careers towards his 80th birthday
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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
The Gold, Series 2, BBC One review - back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits
Following the money to the Isle of Man, Spain and the Caribbean
Dept. Q, Netflix review - Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh
Matthew Goode stars as antisocial detective Carl Morck
The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade
Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar
film
Big Star: The Nick Skelton Story review - the ways of a man with his mount
Documentary about the champion showjumping duo
Goebbels and the Führer review - behind the scenes from the Nazi perpetrators' perspective
Joachim Lang's docudrama focuses on Goebbels as master of fake news
new music
Album: Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts - Talkin' to the Trees
Musical titan reflects on his life as he careers towards his 80th birthday
Album: Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts
Lauded US jazz guitarist strikes a balance between the composed and the improvised
Album: Marina - Princess of Power
Sixth album from L.A.-based Welsh singer is over-the-top but rife with pop gems
classical
theartsdesk at the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival - musical revelations, nature beyond
Artistic director Ciara Higgins’ programming ensures plenty of surprises
Müller-Schott, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - spectacular Shostakovich to end the season
Brilliant orchestral results, while the cellist walks a tightrope in the Second Cello Concerto
Classical CDs: Cannons, culverts and mooching cattle
Box sets celebrating a pair of conductors, plus baroque vocal music and a beguiling bassoon anthology
opera
Saul, Glyndebourne review - playful, visually ravishing descent into darkness
Ten years after it first opened Barrie Kosky's production still packs a hefty punch
Così fan tutte, Nevill Holt Festival/Opera North review - re-writing the script
Real feeling turns the tables on stage artifice in Mozart that charms, and moves
theatre
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bridge Theatre review - Nick Hytner's hit gender-bender returns refreshed
This Dream is a great night out, especially for Shakespeare first-timers
Miss Myrtle’s Garden, Bush Theatre review - flowering talent, but needs weeding
New play about loss, love, grief and gardening is humane, but flawed
Fiddler on the Roof, Barbican review - lean, muscular delivery ensures that every emotion rings true
This transfer from Regent's Park Open Air Theatre sustains its magic
dance
Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works, Royal Ballet review - the impressive range and reach of Christopher Wheeldon's craft
The title says it: as dancemaker, as creative magnet, the man clearly works his socks off
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
comedy
Dara Ó Briain, Soho Theatre Walthamstow review - master storyteller spins a family yarn
Search for his birth father takes a few turns
Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic tricks and mayhem
Nick Mohammed gives his creation's origin story
Books
Samuel Arbesman: The Magic of Code review - the spark ages
A wide-eyed take on our digital world can’t quite dispel the dangers
Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge
Notes on danger and dialogue in the shadow of the Swiss Alps
visual arts
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions, Whitechapel Gallery review - cool, calm and potentially lethal
The YBA who didn’t have time to become a household name
Bradford City of Culture 2025 review - new magic conjured from past glories
City, mill and moor inspire the city's visual arts offering
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