Reviews
The Trip to Italy, BBC TwoSaturday, 05 April 2014
The Trip is a hall of mirrors put together with the help of Heath Robinson. It’s a comedy vehicle in which pretty much the only thing that’s real is the actual vehicle. The stars are two impersonators who above all impersonate themselves. Their... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Kletzki, Schumann, Szymanowski, Ji LiuSaturday, 05 April 2014
Brahms and Schumann: Piano Quintets Alexander String Quartet, Joyce Yang (piano) (Foghorn Classics)Schumann was the first major composer to pair solo piano with string quartet. His 1842 quintet remains one of the best examples of the genre,... Read more... |
Another Country, Trafalgar StudiosFriday, 04 April 2014
I must confess to feeling a warm tremble every time I hear “I Vow to Thee, My Country”, a result of the potent mix of Gustav Holst’s stately music and Cecily Spring Rice’s allusive words. So when Julian Mitchell chose the words “Another Country”,... Read more... |
changeType/DittoFriday, 04 April 2014
There is a grammar to most videogames. A crate, for instance, is almost always there to be opened and looted. These two free games subvert some of the basic rules of videogames to reinvent the "platform" genre. changeType puts you in a primary-... Read more... |
NoahFriday, 04 April 2014
Darren Aronofsky has made some of the most innovative and daring films that have ever been misunderstood. From Pi to Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Black Swan, his films have something to delight and upset everyone. That is as... Read more... |
Donose, Philharmonia, Gardner, RFHFriday, 04 April 2014
Arise, Sir Edward – Gardner, not Elgar, whose First Symphony the former conducted last night. Well, maybe a knighthood’s too premature; although the daft honours system has rewarded others in the operatic world for less, and Gardner has already... Read more... |
I Cheer a Dead Man's Sweetheart, De La Warr PavilionFriday, 04 April 2014
Given the kooky title of a new painting show at De La Warr Pavilion, it seems necessary to point out, yet again, that painting isn’t dead. The line is from poet A.E Housman, who wrote a versified dialogue between a dead man and his living friend. So... Read more... |
Jockey School, Channel 4Friday, 04 April 2014
Biança Barker's film was broadcast to coincide with the run-up to the Grand National this weekend, although one got no sense of where its subjects fitted into the horse racing world in general. In fact, one got no sense of where they fitted into... Read more... |
Powder Her Face, English National Opera, Ambika P3Thursday, 03 April 2014
The opening gyrations of Thomas Adès’s bluesy, schmoozy overture to Powder Her Face beckon you into a world of cheap sensation and excess. Accordion, saxophones and sizzle cymbal add their indecent, after-hours suggestions, and you have a microcosm... Read more... |
Lest We Forget, English National Ballet, BarbicanThursday, 03 April 2014
Taken together, the memorial accoutrements of the First World War are probably this country's most highly developed, and widely experienced, discourse of public history. Through two-minute silences, poppies, public monuments, and near-univeral... Read more... |
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Savoy TheatreThursday, 03 April 2014
The “fantasy” Riviera conjured by designer Peter McKintosh for the West End premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - the Musical is pretty much an extension of the Savoy Theatre’s shining Art Deco auditorium, its sleek angular segments gliding into... Read more... |
Polar Bear, XOYOThursday, 03 April 2014
“The most influential band of the last ten years. Period,” said Jez Nelson, of BBC Radio 3’s Jazz On 3, announcing Polar Bear to the XOYO audience last night. It’s difficult to live up to an introduction like that, especially when the band wanted... Read more... |
