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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…
Boyd Tonkin |
If this time of year should prompt everyone to count their blessings, then one precious musical gift shines brightly over Smith Square Hall this week. For the choral ensemble…
Gary Naylor |
Peace and Goodwill to All Men outside. Inside, on stage at least, there’s not much peace nor goodwill to be had on the horror-filled Saturday afternoon before Christmas. A high-…
Barry Joseph |
As a boy growing up in the 1970s, I loved lazy afternoons spent on the red shag carpet of my family’s living room while listening to my parents’ collection of LPs.Sharing top…
graham.rickson |
Fantômas was the creation of French pulp novelists Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, whose titular criminal genius made his first print appearance in 1911. An amoral sadist with…
Mark Kidel |
Vox Luminis, the vocal and instrumental group based in Namur and led by Lionel Meunier, continued their residency at the Wigmore Hall, hot on the heels of a memorable rendition of…
Katie Colombus
Some albums announce themselves with a roar. Others arrive quietly, kind of casually strolling into your life when you weren’t looking. Returning to Myself did the latter. Brandi…
Kieron Tyler
UK prog-rockers Gracious! acquired their exclamation mark when their first album was released in July 1970. Up to this point, they were Gracious. Barney Bubbles, who designed…
Boyd Tonkin
When, in late 2021, I heard the UK premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, it truly felt like a heaven-sent gift of musical and vocal splendour after the long famine…
Adam Sweeting
Whether there really was a poisonous professional rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, composer to the Imperial court in Vienna, seems less than likely, but the success of…
graham.rickson
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/John Andrews, Samantha Ege (piano) (Resonus)
Image…
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. …
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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
From stage to screen to five-part TV series
Where's Edmund Blackadder when you need him?
Jeremy Renner keeps chaos at bay in Taylor Sheridan's traumatic crime drama
film
A forensic documentary on journalism and state power
Third instalment of James Cameron's saga is long but not deep
new music
Finding strength not in reinvention but in turning inward to listen
Home-counties prog rockers are collected in a box
Intensity, jazz-oriented psychedelia and the joys of recontextualisation
classical
Bach's Christmas marvel shines like new
Music illuminates the heart at the darkest time of the year
No cosy comfort in this major modern act of faith
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
Good illusions but pacing stymies the shocks
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
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
Writer Barry Joseph recounts his moments of clarity and connection with Stephen Sondheim’s lifelong love of puzzles
Bennett’s virtuosic prose returns to ponder intimacy, but treads some old ground
visual arts
Much-appreciated words of commendation from readers and the cultural community
The sky’s the thing
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