Reviews
Thomas H. Green
Once again theartsdesk on Vinyl returns to offer a round-up of the very best available on plastic, covering every style imaginable and, this month, a few that have to be heard to be believed. From albums to 7” singles to boxsets, all vinyl life is here. The ultimate vinyl reviews selection.Various Eleven into Fifteen: a 130701 Compilation (130701)Fat Cat Records were there at the beginning. In many ways it was unsurprising that the label who signed and supported classically influenced Icelandic acts Sigur Rós and Múm would be early adopters of new, accessible trends in classical modernism. Read more ...
Matthew Wright
Californian saxophone phenomenon Kamasi Washington is never knowingly understated. He rocked up for his Proms debut on Tuesday night having led a vast musical entourage on tour across Europe all summer, and delivered an ecstatic, if occasionally verbose, statement of intent. There were problems with both the performance and one or two of the compositions. But as a live experience, it was, in places, euphoric. Only a determined curmudgeon could leave without a grin.We were treated to some highlights of last year’s album The Epic. The title doesn’t disappoint, in terms of ambition, at least. Read more ...
Tina Edwards
Australia and Japan were first to host Björk Digital, but it lands at London’s Somerset House with fresh, never-before-seen work. The immersive virtual reality exhibition collates several digital- and film-based works born from Björk's critically acclaimed album Vulnicura. Arguably her most revealing release to date, Vulnicura – in all its forms – documents the destruction of her marriage, with devastatingly unguarded lyrics.Visitors are greeted by a 360-degree film commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, Black Lake. Accompanying the track of the same name, the dual-screen panoramic video Read more ...
alexandra.coghlan
Branding, as any marketing manager will tell you, is everything when it comes to selling, and when it comes to selling, classical music is no different from cars, cornflakes or shampoo. It explains why a Mahler orchestral song-cycle would fill the Royal Albert Hall while a similar work by his love-rival and near-contemporary Alexander von Zemlinsky last night left it half empty.Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony is a seven-movement orchestral song-cycle with echoes (as Matthew Rye’s programme note reminded us) not only of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, but also Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. A dialogue Read more ...
David Nice
There is no reason why young musicians shouldn't make something special out of mature thoughts on mortality. Nor is the Albert Hall problematic when it comes to haloing intimate Bach as finely as it does massive Bruckner. The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra glowed in both the large scale and the small last night. Any shortcomings were in senior hands and hearts - possibly those of a usually great conductor, Philippe Jordan, more likely the infirm purpose of his composer, Bruckner. The most surprising disappointment of all came from that most prized of baritones, Christian Gerhaher.First, though Read more ...
caspar.gomez
The Short VersionSet in the grounds of elegant Northamptonshire country house Kelmarsh Hall, Shambala has a wild atmosphere wherein psychedelic hippy antics meet spliff-lovin’ post-hip hop youth. It’s a great party, with a friendly, high-spirited crowd, offering a niche musical menu, mostly across a range of small, well-crafted venues. Friday night headliner Sister Sledge is great fun but Saturday night headliner Beardyman is, unexpectedly, rubbish. Nevertheless, the whole thing joyfully succeeds, whether in blazing sun or monsoon downpour, due to its vivaciousness, colour and imaginative Read more ...
aleks.sierz
For the final show in his year-long stay at this West End address, Kenneth Branagh has chosen to revive and star in John Osborne’s 1957 play. By doing so, he finds himself once again treading in the footsteps of Sir Laurence Olivier, who originally created the role. It’s not the first time he’s shadowed the legendary actor. In 1989, he played Henry V on film, and then also the great man himself (in the 2011 film Marilyn and Me). But can Branagh make this Angry Young Man period piece, which is both an attack on the British government’s handling of the Suez Crisis and a love letter to the music Read more ...
graham.rickson
The ingredients should be familiar by now. A plucky range of contestants drawn from across the geographic and social spectrum. A selection of interesting back stories. Demanding judges, their prickly edges softened by a fluffier presenter.We’ve recently had dancing, choirs, sewing, cooking and painting. Now we get All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge, a four-part series pitting five amateur orchestras against each other, the winner being selected to perform at this year’s Proms in the Park. Helmed by Katie Derham, it’s intermittently delightful, and anyone who’s ever played in such Read more ...
Mark Sanderson
“One of us is crying/ One of us is lying/ In her lonely bed/ Staring at the ceiling/ Wishing she was somewhere else instead…” Poor Juliet Stevenson must have wondered how she’d ended up like the girl in the Abba song – waiting for a call from her agent to apologise for getting her into this mess. It’s not Juliet’s fault. It’s the silly script.One of Us began last week on a dark and stormy night when a paranoid schizophrenic off his meds (but on recreational drugs) butchered a pair of newly-weds before car-jacking a Lexus and driving to a lonely Scottish glen where both sets of in-laws lived. Read more ...
Tom Birchenough
From the schoolroom straight to the throne: it was a rapid rise for 18-year-old Victoria, and managing as monarch wasn’t helped when everyone around you had their own agenda and was raring to act on your behalf. Moving nicely from TARDIS to palace – and mercifully from Alexandrina (even worse as the shorter 'Drina) to Victoria – Jenna Coleman in the title role combined wide-eyed innocence with an independence and hints at a steelier impetuosity that delivered well in this opening episode (of eight) of what has already been dubbed the new Downton.And not only because of its primetime Sunday Read more ...
David Kettle
It began with opera – Cecilia Bartoli’s pretty much universally adored Norma from Salzburg. And the Edinburgh International Festival ended with opera, too – Mozart’s Così fan tutte, in a co-production with the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Like Norma, it was an updating to more modern times – but one that in this case prompted the International Festival to send out a letter warning of the production’s explicit adult content.In the end, though, they needn't have worried too much. Director Christophe Honoré – a respected writer and film-maker in his native France, even if little known this side of Read more ...
alexandra.coghlan
If ever there was a Prom to put London’s classical crowd in their place, to remind us (as those outside the capital so frequently and justifiably do) that the city isn’t the be-all and end-all of concert-going, then this was it. It featured three major debuts – all of them overdue, two of them musical hand-me-downs from Birmingham. The CBSO’s much-anticipated new music director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla made not only her Proms but also her London debut, bringing with her Hans Abrahamsen’s RPS and Grawemeyer Award-winning song-cycle let me tell you, a London premiere lagging almost three years Read more ...