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Sarah Kent |

I’ll never forget watching Tracey Emin reduce an audience to tears at the Royal Festival Hall. About 25 people were expected, but some 500 turned up even though she wasn’t well known. It was 1995, four years before she was propelled into the limelight by entering My Bed (pictured below) into the Turner Prize. (The dishevelled bed where she’d spent four days in a state of catatonic despair after a break-up caused a furore.

Simon Thompson
Pretty much any performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is a special occasion, but this one perhaps more so than most. For one thing, it was…
Veronica Lee
Mark Simmons is, in the nicest possible way, an old-fashioned comic, in that he tells jokes. Puns, one-liners, slow-burners, delayed payoffs as well…
Adam Sweeting
The brainchild of Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, this is a strange and tortuous tale which defies easy categorisation. There’s plenty of humour in…

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Kieron Tyler
Thought-provoking primer in US pop’s varied pre-psychedelic musical landscape
Boyd Tonkin
A master pianist dives deep into the farewell moods of Brahms and Beethoven
stephen.walsh
Big sounds needing more space but no better playing
Jon Turney
A Harvard professor presents a sprawling urban history
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Style, sophistication and philosophical elegance
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Despite a limited audience, an evening of whole-hearted sing-alongs
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It pays to delay; how to be a great painter at 91
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Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play tells the story of George Eliot’s early struggle for independence
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Styles harmonise in music of memory and mourning
Kieron Tyler
When guitar solos are as important as the meaning of the song
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Shaggy-dog story about a Hollywood party
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First-rate singing, playing and conducting, and the portable production has some impact
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Popular novel-turned-musical pushes the bounds of credibility to breaking point and beyond
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Phony Tony or saviour of the world?
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Biopic opera of the great Japanese artist Hokusai slightly misses its mark
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Long-time collaborators offer great singing but some wobbly playing

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I’ll never forget watching Tracey Emin reduce an audience to tears at the Royal Festival Hall. About 25 people were expected, but some 500…
Pretty much any performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is a special occasion, but this one perhaps more so than most. For one…
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