mon 27/01/2025

Features & Interviews

David Lynch: In Dreams (1946-2025)

Nick Hasted

David Lynch’s final two features mapped a haunted Hollywood of curdled innocence and back-alley eeriness. Mulholland Drive (2001) seemed the ultimate LA noir, till Inland Empire (2006) dug into deepest Lynch. The eighteen fallow big-screen years preceding his death this week show the loneliness of his vision in his medium’s conformist capital, which he nevertheless adored. “It’s kind of a trick in the light [that] is magical,” he said of his adopted hometown’s allure.

Best of 2024: Books

Theartsdesk

Billie Holiday sings again, Olivia Laing tends to her garden, and Biran Klaas takes a chance: our reviewers discuss their favourite reads of 2024.

Best of 2024: Film

Theartsdesk

 Saskia BaronAnoraBetween the TemplesIo CapitanoDahomeyEmilia PerezGreen BorderIo CapitanoMonsterA Normal ManSoundtrack to a Coup d’EtatThe...

First Person: cellist Matthew Barley on composing...

Matthew Barley

For many thousands of years, humans have turned to art to tell stories about themselves and others because it feels good. It feels good because we...

First Person: singer-songwriter Sam Amidon on...

Sam Amidon

Walking in the morning from my Airbnb along the road in West Kerry, a seven-minute walk with ocean on one side and farmland on the other, down to the...

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First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertos

Alec Frank-Gemmill

On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist

'His ideal worlds embraced me with their light and love': violinist Irène Duval on the music of Fauré

Irène Duval

On the centenary of the great French composer's death, a fine interpreter pays homage

Documentary highlights from the 2024 London Film Festival

Saskia Baron

A close look at insightful new non-fiction films about single motherhood, visionary photographers, scam artists, legacies of colonialism, and more

First Person: Bob Riley on Manchester Camerata's championship of a Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia

Bob Riley

Making a difference out of the musical ghetto

First Person: Lindsey Ferrentino on the play that has led Adrien Brody to the London stage

Lindsey Ferrentino

The American dramatist on bringing 'The Fear of 13', and its Oscar-winning lead, to the Donmar

First Person: Tim Etchells on 40 years of making a noise with Forced Entertainment

Tim Etchells

The experimental theatre company marks four decades with its new production 'Signal to Noise'

First Person: conductor Robert Hollingworth on a four-choir rarity by Benevoli

Robert Hollingworth

I Fagiolini join with two other choirs for a spectacular in St Martin-in-the-Fields

10 Questions for Black String’s Youn Jeong Heo

Tim Cumming

K-Music special: The founder of Korea’s finest quartet discusses their intense and otherworldly music

theartsdesk in Bradford - Leeds International Piano Competition 2024 finalists shine in St George's Hall

David Nice

A clear winner, but all pianists worked superbly with a great conductor and orchestra

First Person: soprano Elizabeth Atherton on the decimation of the classical music sector in Wales

Elizabeth Atherton

Singer who began her career on contract with Welsh National Opera clarifies savage cuts by Welsh and English Arts Councils

The law's sick voyeurism - director Cédric Kahn on 'The Goldman Case'

Hugh Barnes

Kahn's drama about the 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman mirrors conflicts in modern France

Here comes the flood: Bob Dylan's 1974 Live Recordings

Tim Cumming

Night after night: Sony's latest gargantuan release from the vaults

First Person: Alexandra Dariescu on highlighting women at the Leeds International Piano Competition

Alexandra Dariescu

A distinguished pianist fights for more balanced international programming

theartsdesk in Switzerland: Lucerne and Gstaad offer curious audiences fresh perspectives on much-loved works

Gavin Dixon

Two summer festivals find ever new ways to make each concert a memorable event

theartsdesk at Jaminaround 2024 - preview of the unique Dorset venue's second edition

Mark Kidel

A music venue that prizes intimacy

theartsdesk Q&A: Nina Ananiashvili, founder of the State Ballet of Georgia

Ismene Brown

Bolshoi superstar who made her name in London returns with a new generation

The Micro Golden Age of Mid Eighties Fantasy Films

Justine Elias

They don't make 'em like 'The NeverEnding Story', 'Labyrinth', and 'Legend' anymore

theartsdesk at the Ryedale Festival: dances, and songs, to the music of time

Boyd Tonkin

North Yorkshire's summer celebration blooms, and grows

Bill Viola (1951-2024) - a personal tribute

Mark Kidel

Video art and the transcendent

First Person: trans opera singer Lucia Lucas on Tippett’s 'New Year' and her life in music

Lucia Lucas

The baritone’s success with Birmingham Opera Company has led to further reflections

First Person: Katharina Kastening on directing slimline Bizet in a year rich in 'Carmen' productions

Katharina Kastening

Peter Brook's 'La Tragédie de Carmen' further reimagined at Buxton

theartsdesk Q&A: violinist and music director Pekka Kuusisto on staged Shostakovich, Sibelius, sound architecture and folk fiddling

David Nice

Al fresco talk around 'Concert Theatre DSCH', playing at the Southbank Centre

First Person: The Henschel Quartet at 30

The Henschel Quartet

On places, people, and playing Freda Swain's 'Norfolk' Quartet at the Aldeburgh Festival

First Person: LIFT artistic director Kris Nelson on delivering the best of international theatre to the nation's capital

Kris Nelson

LIFT2024 promises a characteristically broad and bracing array of global performance

The future of Arts Journalism

 

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