Reviews
Ben Nicholson: From the Studio, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester review - domestic blissWednesday, 14 July 2021
The domestic realm has moved to the forefront of our lives in recent times. It’s been doing service as our place of work and our place of entertainment. Eating in has replaced eating out. Our hopes and dreams have been largely limited to what’s... Read more... |
Summer of Soul review - glorious documentary combines music and black American historyWednesday, 14 July 2021
It’s entirely appropriate that in 2021, when debates about racism fill our minds and music festivals are still curtailed that Summer of Soul, filmed in 1969 but forgotten for decades, should win Sundance and hit our screens. Its director Questlove (... Read more... |
The Cunning Little Vixen, Opera Holland Park review - imagine the forest, enjoy the music-makingWednesday, 14 July 2021
Gorgeous woodland romp, a tale of a vivacious, independent-minded young lady-into-fox objectified by three ageing, disillusioned men or a parable of natural regeneration? The different levels of Janáček’s one-off fantasy, from strip-cartoon origins... Read more... |
Dido’s Ghost, Buxton International Festival review - the Queen of Carthage returnsTuesday, 13 July 2021
“Remember me!”, sang Dido to a departed Aeneas in the heart-rending aria-chaconne announcing her demise that dominates the ending of Purcell’s baroque opera. But what if he did … if in fact he never could forget her? That’s the premise behind... Read more... |
Sex/Life, Netflix review - Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era?Tuesday, 13 July 2021
Has Netflix succeeded in reshaping Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era? Though situated in a contemporary New York where empowered women run investment companies, earn doctorates in psychology from Columbia University, and deliver forceful lectures... Read more... |
Carducci Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - complexity and depthMonday, 12 July 2021
This programme was a bit of a calling card from the Carducci Quartet. They have previously recorded all three works, and the three composers, Haydn, Shostakovich, Beethoven, clearly play to their strengths. Add to that a modest running time, the... Read more... |
The Dancing Master, Buxton International Festival review - doing it on the radioMonday, 12 July 2021
How would you solve the problems inherent in a production of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, bearing in mind the need for social distancing for performers, comparatively miniscule budgets for scenery and props, and the uncertainty... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Count Bishops - SpeedballSunday, 11 July 2021
A new band called the Sex Pistols played their fifth live show on 28 November 1975. The appearance at a ball at Kensington’s Queen Elizabeth College got them their first mention in the press. New Musical Express remarked “they are all about 12 years... Read more... |
The Dumb Waiter, Old Vic: In Camera review - more in sorrow than in angerSaturday, 10 July 2021
Pinter wrote The Dumb Waiter in 1957 (although it wasn't seen in London until 1960) the year before The Birthday Party received its notorious première at the Lyric Hammersmith. When a friend described them both as political plays, about power and... Read more... |
Tove review - tasteful portrait of the Moomins creatorSaturday, 10 July 2021
Even for this reviewer, who was brought up on Tove Jansson’s quirky children’s books (and is the owner of some 50 different Moomin coffee cups), it’s a stretch to recommend dropping everything to go and see Tove in the cinema. There’s nothing wrong... Read more... |
Mosley: It's Complicated review - flattering portrait of a clever and ruthless power-brokerFriday, 09 July 2021
Director and co-writer Michael Shevloff’s film about Max Mosley, who died in May this year, is a curious beast, perhaps reflecting the difficulties of pinning down such a complex character. In fact, each of the several phases of Mosley’s remarkable... Read more... |
'You have to be willing to kill your darlings': conductor Clark Rundell on advice from composer Louis Andriessen (1939-2021)Thursday, 08 July 2021
It’s taken me a day to try to find some words to share at the passing of my dear friend, mentor and guardian angel Louis Andriessen and I’m grateful to theartsdesk for giving me the space. It is such a profound loss because of the profound gifts he... Read more... |
