Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Peter LaughnerSunday, 21 July 2019
“As much as I love New York City, it’s all too obvious that Cleveland is about to become the musical focal point that the Big Apple has been on and off since the beginning of the century,” wrote Peter Laughner in October 1974. “I want to do what... Read more... |
Gossip, SWG3, Glasgow - a reunion tour worth celebratingSunday, 21 July 2019
If there was a downer during the giddy, gleeful Glasgow stop of Gossip’s recent run of shows, it was only when front woman Beth Ditto introduced the band as being “not really together but we’re here”. The dance-punk trio - joined, for this short run... Read more... |
Prom 1, BBCSO, Canellakis review - space-age First NightSaturday, 20 July 2019
A new commission, a Romantic tone poem and a choral spectacular – standard fare for the First Night of the Proms. Traditionally, the First Night sets out the themes for the season ahead, but the rationale behind much of this programme was paper-thin... Read more... |
Tell It to the Bees review - taboo love in 1950s ScotlandSaturday, 20 July 2019
In Tell It to the Bees, sex is aberrant unless it’s conducted by a straight married couple. Since Annabel Jankel’s low-key drama is set in a grim Scottish mill town in 1952, you can add “white” to that dictum. We’re in the land of John Knox here and... Read more... |
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne Festival review – high jinks in the Grand Mozart HotelFriday, 19 July 2019
Die Zauberflöte rarely attracts the plain cooks of the operatic world. Mozart’s farewell opera chucks so many highly-spiced ingredients into its outlandish pot – pantomime and parable, burlesque and ritual – that many productions opt for one show-... Read more... |
Pavarotti review - enjoyable but superficial survey of a superstarFriday, 19 July 2019
One of the most memorable moments in Ron Howard’s documentary about Luciano Pavarotti is one of its earliest scenes. It’s a chunk of amateur video shot when Pavarotti visited the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, a splendid Belle Epoque structure in the... Read more... |
Beuys' Acorns, Bloomberg Arcade London review – not much to look at, but important all the sameFriday, 19 July 2019
The City of London is an ecological disaster. Around Bank, Mansion House and Cannon Street there’s scarcely a green leaf to be seen. Glass, steel, concrete and tarmac create an environment that excludes plant life, birds and insects and is... Read more... |
Varda by Agnès review - a richly moving film farewellFriday, 19 July 2019
French director Agnès Varda looks back over a cinematic career of seven decades in this a richly moving film farewell, finished not long before her death at the end of March, aged 90. It’s structured around a series of masterclasses in which she... Read more... |
The Lion King review - a dazzling photocopyThursday, 18 July 2019
The cynicism of this film’s existence squeezes all the feeling from it. It approaches cherished childhood memories of the original The Lion King (1994) with a view to remonetising them. Technological advances apart, there’s no reason at all for this... Read more... |
Yorkshire Sculpture International review - Hepworth and Moore loom largeThursday, 18 July 2019
Sculpture is as much a part of Yorkshire as cricket and a decent cup of tea, with the “sculpture triangle”, comprising four prestigious museums and galleries, feeling almost as well-established as the county’s famed rhubarb triangle. Now the... Read more... |
Gwen review - gothic horror set in north WalesThursday, 18 July 2019
This gothic yarn set in 1850s Snowdonia stars Maxine Peake as Elen. She’s left alone with two young daughters to manage an isolated farm when her husband goes off to war. Mysterious omens – a sheep’s heart filled with nails festoons the farm... Read more... |
Boogarins, Jazz Cafe review - psychedelic hues and Brazilian groovesWednesday, 17 July 2019
I never quite know where I stand with with jazz. The endless, drifting circular loops of sound, subversive grooves and syncopated rhythms are like having the same conversation over and over, with slightly different turns of phrase and emphasis on... Read more... |
