theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Bernard Hughes
Saturday, 08 May 2021
This Philharmonia concert from the Royal Festival Hall comprised three masterworks of English music, following a (welcome) trend that has emerged in COVID-era streamed concerts in...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 08 May 2021
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 30-32 Boris Giltburg (Naxos)It's worth noting that Beethoven's final piano sonatas weren't his last works; there was still a lot of music in him....
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 08 May 2021
Shabaka Hutchings ijs a busy man. Not only does he head up the calypso-reggae-hip-hop-jazz mash-up that is Sons of Kemet, there’s also The Comet is Coming and Shabaka and the...
David Nice
Friday, 07 May 2021
I only saw Christa Ludwig twice live in concert, but those appearances epitomise her incredible dramatic and vocal rage as well as her peerless artistry in everything she did. The...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 07 May 2021
They stand in a row, nine of them, in a long, strange corridor between rows of stacked, palleted, planked wood and the red brick wall of an endless warehouse. Nine tripods, each...
Asya Draganova
Friday, 07 May 2021
It seems fitting that Brighton, a city of youth culture and protest, is the starting point for a band like Squid. Their debut album Bright Green Field is a real statement:...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 06 May 2021
Sheds have flourished in lockdown: they’ve always been places to escape to and in the past year, when spruced up as home...
Theartsdesk
Thursday, 06 May 2021
Nearly a year has passed since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police on 25 May. Nearly 200 have passed since the...
Nick Hasted
Thursday, 06 May 2021
Rory Graham was always stoically familiar with life’s knocks. With a stage-name inspired by Galton and Simpson’s fatalistic...
John Bungey
Wednesday, 05 May 2021
If you want to understand the psychic harm that prolonged lockdown can do to a man, then take a listen to Van Morrison's new...
David Nice
Tuesday, 04 May 2021
“You have to be careful you’re not judging the piece,” cautioned a pearl-necklaced Nicholas Daniel, great oboist and winner...
Laura De Lisle
Tuesday, 04 May 2021
It wasn’t Jane Austen’s subtlest move, naming her roguish soldier George Wickham. As countless GCSE English teachers have...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 04 May 2021
Raw opens with a bang, a distant figure on a remote country road stepping out in front of a car, causing it to crash into a...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 03 May 2021
WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERSHalf the fun of this series of Line of Duty has been the crescendo of conspiracy theories...
Rachel Halliburton
Monday, 03 May 2021
To accept or not accept a donation: that’s certainly the burning political question of the moment. So Isla van Tricht’s play...
Boris Giltburg
Monday, 03 May 2021
About a year ago, in a distant pre-pandemic world, I remember walking down Edgware Road one cold London evening. I was...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 03 May 2021
What a pleasure it was to go to the first drive-in date of 2021 as Mark Watson's Carpool Comedy Club, produced in...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 03 May 2021
I think I can safely say that polymath playwright Philip Ridley has had a good lockdown. In March last year, when The Beast...
Joe Muggs
Monday, 03 May 2021
It’s funny how the most high tech music can sound very traditional. In the case of producer / instrumentalist / occasional...
tv
BBC Young Musician 2020 Finale, BBC Four review - poise versus extraterrestrial ecstasy
After a year's wait, three finalists serve up first-rate professionalism - and something more
Line of Duty, Series 6 Finale, BBC One review - crafty ending leaves wriggle room for a sequel
Jed Mercurio's harsh verdict on police corruption gives no grounds for optimism
Intergalactic, Sky One review - lovely CGI, shame about the drama
Cosmic jailbreak yarn struggles to convince
film
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation review - genius dogged by disappointment
Empathic documentary honours two literary legends
new music
Album: Squid - Bright Green Field
An explosion of energy and intelligent anger from the Brighton newcomers
classical
Coote, Philharmonia, Gardiner, Southbank Centre online review - English masterworks
Compelling Tippett and Britten alongside Elgar’s perennial favourite
Classical CDs: Mexican brass, fairy gardens and a socially distanced orchestral recording
Hefty piano sonatas, a joyous symphony and a semi-improvised epic from an inventive trumpeter
BBC Young Musician 2020 Finale, BBC Four review - poise versus extraterrestrial ecstasy
After a year's wait, three finalists serve up first-rate professionalism - and something more
opera
Christa Ludwig, 1928-2021: a selective tribute
The German mezzo-soprano embraced the light and the dark at a transcendental level
The Seven Deadly Sins / Mahagonny Songspiel, Royal Opera online - modern morality tales mesh uneasily
More time needed in knocking this fascinating Brecht/Weill double bill into shape
L'heure espagnole, Grange Park Opera online review - seduction and sandwiches in 60 minutes
Ravel takes a Kensington lunchbreak, in an operatic updating for the YouTube generation
theatre
Being Mr Wickham, Original Theatre Company online review - an uncontroversial apologia
Adrian Lukis proves himself far better at portraying Austen's rake than he is at writing him
Money, Southwark Playhouse online review - ethical dilemmas for the Zoom generation
A vivid and credible production that is also limited by its form
Tarantula, Southwark Playhouse online review – spine-tingling love and trauma
Philip Ridley’s new monologue is a dazzling masterclass in storytelling
dance
The Royal Ballet - variations on a comeback
How one major ballet company survived to dance another day
The Nutcracker: an end-of-year obituary
It's been a rough ride for the seasonal cash cow. Here's how ballet companies coped
comedy
Mark Watson's Carpool Comedy Club, the Hop Farm review - strong kick-off to 2021 live comedy
Kent venue provided picturesque backdrop
Loyiso Gola, Netflix review - South African muses on race, religion and friendship
Reflections that make you stop and think
Books
Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson
Examining the history and legacies of this racist performance mode
Kate Lebo: The Book of Difficult Fruit review - a rich, juicy delight
Essays on tricky and fascinating fruits, food and medicine, pain and care
Michael Spitzer: The Musical Human review - charting our age-old relationship with music
The futility of capturing music with words shows in this beguiling attempt at “big history”
visual arts
Points of Departure, Brighton Festival 2021 review - Ray Lee's harbour-based sound art impresses
At Shoreham's working port, something strangely wonderful is happening
Rachel Whiteread: Internal Objects, Gagosian Gallery review - apocalyptic sheds
A triumphant change of direction from the queen of casting
This is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist, Netflix - the last word (for now)
Three decades on and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum mystery is still hot
latest comments
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