Features & Interviews
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Between 1991 and 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former USSR conducting interviews with the “the little great people” who had lived under Soviet communism and witnessed its demise. The resulting book, Second-Hand Time, is an oral history which tells through the words of ordinary people the end of what she, in her 2015 Nobel Prize lecture, called a “historical experiment”.
'The Academy and I': composer and viola-player Sally Beamish on a special relationship
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
I was 13. It was a Saturday, and Mum was working. On this occasion she asked if I’d like to come along and bring a book. I was wearing a dress I’d made myself – psychedelic orange and pink, with red edging. It was 1969. I don’t remember what the book was, but I know I didn’t look at it once that day.
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana...
Monday, 11 November 2019
Between 1991 to 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former USSR...
Music for Youth's Judith Webster: '91%...
Sunday, 10 November 2019
Music resonates with everyone. It plays a powerful and evocative role in people’s lives; it punctuates our memories and changes our mood. We can all...
'These were the quartets that made us fall...
Saturday, 02 November 2019
As a string quartet, it’s not easy to distinguish yourselves from others. There are so many string quartets playing the great repertoire, and the...
First Person: Simon Stephens - the contemplation of kindness
A journey to the North, into the playwright's past, provides the genesis for ‘Light Falls’, opening at the Royal Exchange |
First Person: Hannah Khalil on museum as metaphor in her new play for the RSC
The playwright on 'A Museum in Baghdad', and how she discovered the story of Gertrude Bell |
‘We must not allow boorish, opportunistic autocrats to hijack music’: Gabriela Montero on life and art
The Venezuelan pianist and composer on the creative impulse and how she uses it |
The deathless Alicia Alonso, in person
Remembering the woman who was Cuban ballet's legend and monster |
theartsdesk at the Tsinandali Festival: young Caucasians join hands and instruments
World-class chamber players and young orchestras on a Georgian country estate |
Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol
Extract III of III - She Rides along the Coast toward a Historic |
Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol
Extract II of III - Days of the Dead |
Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol
Extract I of III - Translations |
'A laboratory for everything': Jasper Parrott on the future of his classical music agency
As Harrison Parrott celebrates 50 years with concerts on Sunday, its main mover reflects |
Jessye Norman, 1945-2019
The great soprano has died at the age of 74, leaving behind a fabulous legacy |
Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva on the London Piano Festival: 'It's not just playing one concert and going home'
On a meeting of musical friends with a Two-Piano Marathon at its heart |
Simon Halsey on Tippett’s ‘A Child of Our Time’: ‘the biggest lesson was how to feel what he had written’
The CBSO Chorus's director on preparing a masterpiece, and working with the composer |
Al Alvarez: 'If I drop dead this minute, I’ve had a terrific time'
An encounter with the literary daredevil and critic who published Sylvia Plath |
theartsdesk in Hamburg: Reeperbahn Festival 2019 review
Hustle, bustle, Matt Dillon and forehead-slappingly forceful Mancunians in sin city |
'This goes beyond music and drama': tenor Nicky Spence on Martinů's 'The Greek Passion'
On his Christ-playing character in Opera North's new production of a Czech masterpiece |
First Person: Matthew Xia on why his production of 'Amsterdam' feels especially pertinent and vital now
The director sets the scene for his debut production at the helm of Actors Touring Company |
theartsdesk at the Southrepps Music Festival - world-class young musicians return to North Norfolk
Pianist Martin James Bartlett and guitarist Sean Shibe help celebrate a big 10th birthday |
Foragers of the Foreshore - London's mudlarks on show
The director of Totally Thames introduces this year's festival, including an exhibition of mudlarks and their finds |
Power, politics and Peaky Blinders - the Shelby family return for Series 5
Steam-punk gangsters invade the corridors of Westminster |
Making new waves: Royce Vavrek on forging a libretto from Lars von Trier
Missy Mazzoli's collaborator on their new operatic version of 'Breaking the Waves' |
theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2019 - super-orchestra, top clarinettists, transcendent strings
Paavo Järvi motivates an ever-growing family of musicians in Estonia's summer capital |
theartsdesk at Itinéraire Baroque 2019 - a musical journey through the Périgord
Instrumental/vocal conversations and collisions celebrate the full breadth of the baroque |
theartsdesk in Dalarna: Rhinegold in a Swedish barn by a lake
Intimate Wagner works a treat with a uniformly world-class cast and a 32-piece orchestra |
10th Odessa International Film Festival review - exquisite gay love stories and visionary new music
Not so far from the war zone, the 'Cannes of the East' keeps the film flag flying |
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