Reviews
Total Immersion: Julian Anderson, Barbican review - BBC ensembles showcase leading British composerMonday, 23 October 2017
Julian Anderson’s 50th birthday this year was the prompt for the latest of the BBC’s Total Immersion days, devoted to the work of a single contemporary composer. I have long been a fan of Anderson’s music since hearing the marvellous Khorovod in the... Read more... |
Jacqueline du Pré: A Gift Beyond Words, BBC Four review - ode to joyful cellistMonday, 23 October 2017
Hyperbole be damned. The most iconic English classical recording was made on 19 August 1965 in Kingsway Hall, London. Like Maria Callas singing Tosca, Jacqueline du Pré simply was the Elgar Cello Concerto once the LP hit the shops in time for... Read more... |
Gunpowder, BBC One review – death, horror, treason and a hint of farceSunday, 22 October 2017
Much is being made of the fact that Kit Harington is not only playing the Gunpowder Plot mastermind Robert Catesby, but is genuinely descended from him (and his middle name is Catesby). However, despite its factual underpinnings and screenwriter... Read more... |
Peggy Seeger: First Time Ever - A Memoir, review - a remarkable lifeSunday, 22 October 2017
Seeger. A name to strike sparks with almost anyone, whether or not they have an interest in folk music, a catch-all term about which Peggy Seeger and her creative and life partner Ewan MacColl (they didn’t actually marry until a decade before his... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Emerson, Lake & PalmerSunday, 22 October 2017
Committed fans of Emerson, Lake & Palmer are spoiled for choice when they need to feed their passion for prog rock’s most eminent trio. Decent shape original pressings of their albums can be picked up for under £10. There are at least six... Read more... |
Written On Skin, Melos Sinfonia, LSO St Luke's review - an ambitious musical achievementSunday, 22 October 2017
Beautiful though Katie Mitchell’s original production of Written on Skin is, George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s opera has always felt more at home in the concert hall. Last year’s Barbican performance put Benjamin’s meticulous orchestral writing... Read more... |
Priests/Downtown Boys, Deaf Institute, Manchester review - lively political punk-festSunday, 22 October 2017
Both Rhode Island’s Downtown Boys, and Washington D.C.’s Priests sit at the centre of today’s feminist punk scene. As stated in a recent Downtown Boys press release, they oppose “the prison-industrial complex, racism, queerphobia, capitalism,... Read more... |
Michael Clark Company, Barbican Theatre review - bad boy of dance comes goodSaturday, 21 October 2017
If there were an arts award for loyalty, the Barbican Theatre would surely win it for having kept faith with Michael Clark. It’s no secret that the bad-boy image that has clung to Clark since his punk extravaganzas in the 1980s had consequences in... Read more... |
David Bomberg, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester review - a reputation restoredSaturday, 21 October 2017
During his time at the Slade David Bomberg — the subject of a major new retrospective at Pallant House Gallery — was described as a "disturbing influence". The fifth son of Polish-Jewish parents who fled the pogroms, he grew up at the turn of the... Read more... |
Of Kith and Kin, Bush Theatre, review - comic but confused gay surrogacy dramaSaturday, 21 October 2017
A new baby is like an alien invasion: it blows your mind and it colonises your world. For any couple, parenthood can be both exalting and devastating, with the stress hugging the relationship so tightly that eventually all its lies pop out. In his... Read more... |
CD: Niall Horan - FlickerSaturday, 21 October 2017
I have a confession to make. The first time I heard "This Town" – the debut release for Niall Horan's new album – I thought it was Ed Sheeran.Which gives an indication of the general level of acceptability of Niall’s first solo foray outside of 1D... Read more... |
The Death of Stalin review - dictatorship as high farceFriday, 20 October 2017
Like Steptoe and Son with ideological denouncements, Stalin’s Politburo have known each other too long. They’re not only trapped but terrified, a situation whose dark comedy is brought to a head by Uncle Joe’s sudden, soon fatal stroke in 1953. The... Read more... |
