theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
India Lewis
Friday, 03 December 2021
Perhaps appropriately, when I called Pete Tong for his 10 questions I was hungover, on the phone in a park after a night at a very good party. It’s a sign of the times that things...
Barney Harsent
Thursday, 02 December 2021
It’s a far cry from his beginnings in a tight, no-frills power-pop-post-punk three piece, that’s for sure. Last May, Paul Weller took to the stage with guitarist Steve...
Demetrios Matheou
Thursday, 02 December 2021
Film festival chiefs the world over have been having a tricky time navigating the pandemic, juggling ever-changing Covid rules with an industry desperate to return to normal. Yet...
Florence Hallett
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The Courtauld Gallery’s dark corners have gone, and with them a certain apt melancholy, that effortlessly summoned the ghosts of Gauguin’s Nevermore, 1897, – the abused...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The opening moments don’t suggest what’s coming. A solo flute is followed by a few spoken phrases from a treated voice. What’s being said? It’s impossible to work it out. Is it a...
Richard Bratby
Thursday, 02 December 2021
As the conductor of English National Opera’s 2018 production of Porgy and Bess, there can’t be many maestros in the UK who can currently match John Wilson’s knowledge of that...
Miranda Heggie
Thursday, 02 December 2021
After a two year hiatus (imposed for obvious reasons) Edinburgh-born Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Ross Wilson - AKA...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The Californian label Stones Throw has long specialised in inseparably folding together the most profound and most wilfully...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
The archetypal fascinating male in Jane Campion’s films – whether his allure for a woman owes to his earthy virility or...
Paul Weller, Barrowland, Glasgow review - Modfather holding back father time with old and new tricks
Jonathan Geddes
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
There was a brief lapse in this lengthy set when Paul Weller stood up from the piano, walked towards centre stage and then...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Though sexual hypocrisy in modern-day Romania is the ostensible target of Bad Lack Banging or Loony Porn – a satirical drama...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
The first of two December round-ups from theartsdesk on Vinyl runs the gamut from folk-tronic oddness to Seventies heavy...
Kieron Tyler
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Although it’s indirect, the overall feel of In Order To Know You points to where jazz and soul meet – a space...
Saskia Baron
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Do we need another documentary about Nazi Germany? Yes when it is as cogent and subtle as Luke Holland’s Final Account. Made...
Matt Wolf
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
It seemed impossible and yet, the other evening, while idly flicking through emails, I learned the unimaginable: Stephen...
Ian Julier
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Even with a chill wind blowing from the Sussex Downs, this copper-bottomed Overture-Concerto-Symphony Sunday matinée was...
John Carvill
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Thomas Pynchon’s saturnine '70s novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) begins with “[a] screaming [that] comes across the sky. It...
Saskia Baron
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
In an era when toxic masculinity has become a clichéd accusation to throw at any portrait of men behaving macho, it’s...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 29 November 2021
On a night when any brooks running past the Wigmore Hall might have frozen almost solid, Imogen Cooper’s recital travelled...
disc of the day
Album: Paul Weller - An Orchestrated Songbook
The Modfather adds another string to his bow with varying degrees of success
tv
The Beatles: Get Back, Disney+ review - 1969 revisited in Peter Jackson's three-part documentary
Eight hours of vintage Fab Four footage may be a trifle excessive
Death of England: Face to Face, National Theatre at Home review - anti-racist trilogy ends with a bang
Roy Williams and Clint Dyer bring their monologue sequence to a triumphant conclusion
Dopesick, Disney+ review - the harrowing inside story of America's OxyContin scandal
How corporate greed rode roughshod over regulatory oversight
film
theartsdesk at Tallinn's Black Nights Film Festival - still crazy after all these years
With its black carpet and audiences referred to as ‘wolves’, Black Nights is 25
The Power of the Dog review - of rawhide and roses
Jane Campion's 1920s Western nails the lid on rugged masculinity
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn review - viral venom in Bucharest
Radu Jude's satire takes the sword to Romania's hideous past and present
new music
Album: Paul Weller - An Orchestrated Songbook
The Modfather adds another string to his bow with varying degrees of success
Hedvig Mollestad, National Jazz Scene, Oslo review - watch out, there’s a storm about
Norway’s jazz individualist launches her new album ‘Tempest Revisited’ with a bang
classical
Feng, CBSO, Wilson, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - effortless expression
Big emotions and unexpected connections, played with matchless style
Tchetuev, LPO, Larsen-Maguire, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne review - sunshine by the sea
Recreative energy from a conductor to watch, fantasy from a fine Ukrainian pianist
Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall review - calm waters run deep
A piano journey down the river of musical time
opera
The Valkyrie, English National Opera review - fitfully flickering flames
Consistently fine orchestra, singing from strong to strenuous, clear but patchy staging
The Cunning Little Vixen, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - nature, large as life
Janáček's natural wonder goes large, in a supercharged concert staging
Macbeth, Royal Opera review - bloody, bold, and resolute
A strong ensemble for Verdi’s tragedy, but Simon Keenlyside dominates
theatre
Stephen Sondheim in memoriam - he gave us more to see
A master gone but in no way and never to be forgotten
The Good Life, Richmond Theatre review - popular sitcom gets its own origin story
Tom, Barbara, Jerry and Margo are back in the '70s, but with a message for today
Four Quartets, Harold Pinter Theatre review - brilliant Fiennes breathes air and physicality into Eliot's work
His earthy informality instantly anchors the philosophy
dance
Past Present, Linbury Theatre review - historic, but very much alive
Yorke Dance Project premieres the final work of Robert Cohan
Ballet Black, Linbury Theatre review - an essential part of the landscape
Twenty years on, the pity is that it's still necessary for this excellent company to exist
Curated by Carlos, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells review - a star turn
Carlos Acosta and Alessandra Ferri show the young things how it's done
comedy
The Good Life, Richmond Theatre review - popular sitcom gets its own origin story
Tom, Barbara, Jerry and Margo are back in the '70s, but with a message for today
Alfie Brown, Soho Theatre review - a contrarian on great form
Mental health and male privilege examined
Ahir Shah, Soho Theatre review - lockdown laid bare
Disappointing show feels like a work in progress
Books
Peter Robison: Flying Blind review – a story of decline and crawl
The galling account of the 737 MAX Boeing tragedies
Lucie Elven: The Weak Spot review - a cryptic modern fable
This study in manipulation asks what happens when our weaknesses are weaponised
Sarah Moss: The Fell review - a dark night on the hills
What happens when you go missing in a pandemic?
visual arts
The Courtauld Gallery - the old place, just better
After a three-year redevelopment, one of the UK's finest galleries is better than ever
Lubaina Himid, Tate Modern review – more explication please
A carnival of characters looking forwards as well as backwards
The Danish Collector: Delacroix to Gauguin review - fabulous art, not sure about the framing
Exhibition on Screen offers a catch-up for those who missed the RA show
latest comments
Lol, how to make a review about a thing you know...
Lovely tribute, Matt. Thank you. We all have our...
This a very in depth interview. Charles Lloyd is...
Gosh, this looks fun! We'll be dancing to this at...
Yes! I loved Shetland, but season 6 is tiresome...
Following on from what Juan Martinez said, I...
My problem with the tale was not that it was...
Spoilt by ridiculously loud music and cartoon...