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Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Towards the end of this new documentary, an account of how he recorded his new album Letter to You at his home studio in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen delivers a eulogy to the E...
David Nice
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Big orchestras to serve the late romantic masterpieces and contemporary blockbusters still aren’t the order of the Covid-era day, even in streamed events, at least not in the UK....
Joseph Walsh
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Chloé Zhao’s The Rider was a film of rare honesty and beauty. Who would have thought she’d be able to top the power of that majestic docudrama? But with Nomadland she has.To call...
Jessica Payn
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman is a powerful invitation to rethink, to doubt and to engage. Beginning among the Diggers’ tilled earth in 1649 and the eco-socialist "...
Daniel Baksi
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Shot across a period of five years, David Lynch’s creepy debut feature Eraserhead (1977) follows the story of Henry Spencer, played by Jack Nance, an employee at a print...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 19 October 2020
A lifelong socialist who has regularly written about the Labour party, playwright David Hare admits that in his career he has “rarely looked closely at the appeal of Conservative...
David Nice
Monday, 19 October 2020
Think you’ve seen enough of monologues and duets over the past few months? Watch this and reel. Four British directors, four...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 19 October 2020
Ronnie Scott was a remarkable man: “Jazz Musician, Club Proprietor, Raconteur and Wit, he was the leader of our generation...
Jessica Duchen
Monday, 19 October 2020
What do you want to do on your 80th birthday? Well, playing two of your favourite pieces of music at the Wigmore Hall...
Daniel Baksi
Monday, 19 October 2020
The majority of Daniel Saldaña París’s latest novel spurs from a single act, committed during the height of summer, in ...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 19 October 2020
After a successful – and very welcome - summer season of gigs in its outdoor courtyard, Battersea Arts Centre has come...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 19 October 2020
The big news is that this is Faithless’s first album without longterm frontman Maxi Jazz. Instead, remaining members Rollo...
Bernard Hughes
Sunday, 18 October 2020
Rarely have I seen so many smiles on stage as at Kings Place on Saturday. The combination of the delight of the performers...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 18 October 2020
La Locura de Machuca translates as “the madness of Machuca.” A Colombian label which issued its first record in 1975,...
Graham Rickson
Sunday, 18 October 2020
Released in 1956, J. Lee Thompson’s Yield to the Night is remembered by many for what it isn’t, namely a fictional retelling...
Markie Robson-Scott
Saturday, 17 October 2020
“Thank you, Shepherd, for allowing us to be your wives. Come down upon me and fill me with yourself.” Collective ecstasy –...
Bernard Hughes
Saturday, 17 October 2020
If “things” hadn’t intervened, September would have seen the Divine Comedy play a five night residency at the Barbican,...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 17 October 2020
The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl was brilliantly explored in last years’s HBO series, but here, prolific Polish...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 17 October 2020
Jess Gillam: Time (Decca)Cellists, violinists and pianists have it easy. They’re spoilt for choice when it comes to...
tv
Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You, Apple TV+ review - his new album is a matter of life and death
Documentary takes an emotional journey through the past with the E Street Band
Roadkill, BBC One review - David Hare pokes under the floorboards of the Conservative party
Hugh Laurie plays an ambitious government minister with a shady history
film
Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You, Apple TV+ review - his new album is a matter of life and death
Documentary takes an emotional journey through the past with the E Street Band
Ronnie's review – fascinating story of the fabled Soho jazz club
Oliver Murray's film is packed with great music and revealing interviews
new music
Album: Faithless - All Blessed
Reappearing as a duo, without their usual frontman, revitalizes the Nineties dance outfit
Reissue CDs Weekly: La Locura de Machuca
Deep-digging exploration of the wayward Colombian label Machuca
The Divine Comedy: Live from the Barbican review – thirty years of great songs
Neil Hannon marks the anniversary with a joyful trawl through his catalogue
classical
London Symphony Orchestra, Hasan, LSO St Luke's review - dances great and small
Miniature Strauss followed by a big orchestra for works by Hannah Kendall and Bartók
Stephen Kovacevich, Wigmore Hall review - a sublime birthday treat
The great American pianist celebrates his 80th at a favourite venue
Cooper, Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place review - a heartwarming delight
Chamber version of Mozart concerto reveals unexpected pleasures
opera
4/4, Royal Opera review – desire, loss and lunacy in four surprising acts
Allan Clayton and Richard Jones are kings of bedlam, but the rest has high style too
First Person: tenor Nicky Spence on working with Blackheath locals on screen Stravinsky
'The Rake's Progress' distilled and introduced by its star and community opera patron
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - heart of darkness, light-filled liberation
Fine singers equalled by Philharmonia soloists in revelatory chamber-music Beethoven
theatre
Quarter Life Crisis, Bridge Theatre review – slender and superficial
Return of one-woman show about growing up is disappointingly thin
Hermione Lee: Tom Stoppard, A Life review - the last word on a theatrical wordsmith
Capacious biography pins down an elusive subject
Nights in the Garden of Spain & Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet, Bridge Theatre review - potent mix of pain and comedy
Essential series of Alan Bennett stage pairings comes to an end
dance
The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage review - fireworks in the Garden
At long last, our premier ballet company is back in action. And it's dynamite
theartsdesk in Hamburg: Ghost Light - a ballet in the time of corona
How the city is showing the world a way through the live-performance impasse
'She was Paris': RIP Zizi Jeanmaire (1924-2020)
Ballet or cabaret, Zizi's passion was for performance - preferably with her husband
comedy
Live From the Grand Hall, BAC review - strong mixed bill to start autumn season
Lockdown stories, personal woes and a bit of politics
Mixed bill, 21Soho review - opening of new club is cause for celebration
Strong line-up with engaging MC
Books
10 Questions for Poet and Critic Rebecca Tamás
On 'Strangers' and the urgent interconnectedness of the human and non-human
Daniel Saldaña Paris: Ramifications review – chaos reigns in contemporary Mexico
Revolutionary fervour sends ruptures through a nuclear family
The Secret History of My Library: Essay by Daniel Saldaña París
The eminent Mexican novelist on books and their ghosts
visual arts
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer, Barbican Art Gallery review - mould-breaker, ground-shaker
A crash course in the life and times of an iconoclast and muse
Sin, National Gallery review - great subject, modest show
A small gathering can't do justice to this fabulous topic
Bruce Nauman, Tate Modern review - the human condition writ large in neon
How to make great art out of almost nothing
latest comments
Hi Paul. I don't know if you are reading these...
Many apologies! It was no.25 - I have now amended...
Thanks, but you didn't say which Mozart concerto.
I’m still trying to get a model of this GREAT...
Sean Bean, the entire cast and everything about...
Could not stand CQ. I'd rather listen to...
Oh Kay, but on musical content it's pretty fuckin...
Why would there be a sign of covid? Isn't it...