Features & Interviews
David Lynch: In Dreams (1946-2025)
Monday, 20 January 2025
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
Tuesday, 31 December 2024
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
Thursday, 26 December 2024
Saskia BaronAnoraBetween the TemplesIo CapitanoDahomeyEmilia PerezGreen BorderIo CapitanoMonsterA Normal ManSoundtrack to a Coup d’EtatThe...
First Person: cellist Matthew Barley on composing...
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
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...
Monday, 25 November 2024
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
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
On the centenary of the great French composer's death, a fine interpreter pays homage |
Documentary highlights from the 2024 London Film Festival
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
Making a difference out of the musical ghetto |
First Person: Lindsey Ferrentino on the play that has led Adrien Brody to the London stage
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
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
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
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
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
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'
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
Night after night: Sony's latest gargantuan release from the vaults |
First Person: Alexandra Dariescu on highlighting women at the Leeds International Piano Competition
A distinguished pianist fights for more balanced international programming |
theartsdesk in Switzerland: Lucerne and Gstaad offer curious audiences fresh perspectives on much-loved works
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
A music venue that prizes intimacy |
theartsdesk Q&A: Nina Ananiashvili, founder of the State Ballet of Georgia
Bolshoi superstar who made her name in London returns with a new generation |
The Micro Golden Age of Mid Eighties Fantasy Films
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
North Yorkshire's summer celebration blooms, and grows |
Bill Viola (1951-2024) - a personal tribute
Video art and the transcendent |
First Person: trans opera singer Lucia Lucas on Tippett’s 'New Year' and her life in music
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
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
Al fresco talk around 'Concert Theatre DSCH', playing at the Southbank Centre |
First Person: The Henschel Quartet at 30
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
LIFT2024 promises a characteristically broad and bracing array of global performance |
The future of Arts Journalism
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