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…
graham.rickson |
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/John Andrews, Samantha Ege (piano) (Resonus)
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Kieron Tyler |
“The wonderful Mirra exists in its own space.” Back in August, that was the conclusion of my review of Benedicte Maurseth’s then-new album. Living with this “stunningly intense…
Nick Hasted |
Eugene Jarecki’s forensic investigation concludes that Julian Assange’s character flaws are dwarfed by the high crimes he exposed, and can’t justify the cruel and unusual…
Sebastian Scotney |
There were moments during the starry, two-evening Beare’s Chamber Music Festival when the quality of the playing reached such heights, it was tempting to ask if a higher level of…
Rachel Halliburton |
JB Priestley’s glorious pot shot at marital complacency in pre-First World War Bradford proves to be a tonic at a time of year where, for better or for worse, many people are…
Adam Sweeting
The third of James Cameron’s world-building epics arrives 16 years after the first one, but only three after number two, Avatar: The Way of Water. Apparently proceedings were held…
Demetrios Matheou
A leftfield, Tony-winning phenomenon on Broadway, Cole Escola’s comedy comes to London very much living up to the hype. This is a gloriously eccentric, rude, riotous marvel –…
mark.kidel
My musical year isn’t primarily made up of albums – there are so many other ways of enjoying “New Music” – not to mention the classical which I follow too. Bon Iver’s SABLE fABLE…
Jenny Gilbert
Is there a neuroscientist in the house? I need a latterday Oliver Sacks to tell me about earworms, specifically earworms issuing from the music of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. …
Gary Naylor
In a warehouse, Tube trains rumbling below, Noah, his sister Tamara and his (Gentile) girlfriend Maud, live in a disused warehouse space, a North London simulacrum of a kibbutz,…
Tim Cumming
Mark Rothko’s colour field paintings invite contemplation, reflection, quietude, association, and in British, Irish and Scottish folk this year, that feeling of an open field, a…
Helen Hawkins
If your heart sinks every time a Shakespeare funny-man enters, here comes the RSC to put an unforced grin on your face. Its latest Feste is the real deal: an emcee with true…
Rachel Halliburton
“My goal was to take the Messiah as if it had been written yesterday,” the conductor and eminent French harpsichordist Christophe Rousset told Tom Service on Radio 3 on Saturday…
Helen Hawkins
With teasing timing, the latest revival of a Tom Stoppard play at the Hampstead Theatre arrived just hours after his funeral, a weird echo of his maxim, “Every exit is an entry…
Thomas H. Green
VINYL OF THE MONTHManduria Bite Me (Wild Honey)
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The debut from Milan punkers Manduria is a six-tracker haemorrhaging rock…
Gary Naylor
Bat away your lurgy, stop that coffin’ and get up to Finsbury Park for a laugh laden, ballad blitzing, sensational spoof starring the toothsome Transylvanian. If that sentence is…
Thomas H. Green
Yes, I know. Maybe everything bitched about them is true; an eye-watering marketing push, cynically calculated, monied, etc. Maybe it is not. I’ve no real idea.But, but, but, the…
Gary Naylor
Wonder is a word that is used too often in theatre, somewhat emptied of meaning by marketing’s emasculating of language. It’s used even less honestly by critics - we’ve seen too…
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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
Where's Edmund Blackadder when you need him?
Jeremy Renner keeps chaos at bay in Taylor Sheridan's traumatic crime drama
Vintage documentary series boosted by sound and vision upgrades
film
Assange's character is irrelevant to his persecution in a forensic doc on journalism and state power
Third instalment of James Cameron's saga is long but not deep
new music
Intensity, jazz-oriented psychedelia and the joys of recontextualisation
One among a new wave of folk artists exploring their music's outer limits
classical
A neglected 20th century composer celebrated, plus three box sets of weighty Russian repertoire
New biennial event earns its place in the calendar
Christopher Rousset brought bold stripes of colour to his interpretation
opera
Emily D'Angelo shines as Handel's impetuous, besotted protagonist
Playing from strength in a game where the Royal Northern has all the cards
Best of all possible casts fill every moment of Christopher Alden’s Handel cornucopia
theatre
Sheader has assembled a dream cast to channel affluent prudery of Edwardian Bradford
Rising star Mason Alexander Park excels in this Tony Award-winning comedy
Ambitious but tangled examination of British Jewish identity in troubled times
dance
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
On its second time out, ENB's production is a winner where it counts
A strong revival for this stage adaptation of a British film classic
comedy
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Reunion of sketch show's creators
Storytelling that playfully wrongfoots the audience
books
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
Bennett’s virtuosic prose returns to ponder intimacy, but treads some old ground
Broad and idiosyncratic survey of classical music is insightful but slightly indigestible
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
The sky’s the thing
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