Reviews
Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie, BBC FourSaturday, 10 October 2015
If there was any doubt as to the musical preferences of BBC4's commissioning arm, consider this: the whole history of funk got an hour. Meanwhile, indie music – a niche, artistic movement that somehow ended up drinking champagne while... Read more... |
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Volkov, BarbicanSaturday, 10 October 2015
This Barbican concert began with a Mendelssohn overture and ended with a Haydn symphony. But on stage were the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. What did you expect in between, a Mozart piano concerto? Not likely. Instead they gave the first... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Gesualdo, Wim Henderickx, Fleisher-Jacobson DuoSaturday, 10 October 2015
Erkki-Sven Tüür, Brett Dean: Gesualdo Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tõnu Kaljuste (ECM) Hearing composers engaging with the music of the past is invariably fascinating. Stravinsky's Pulcinella prompted me... Read more... |
Measure for Measure, Young VicFriday, 09 October 2015
If one definition of Shakespeare’s problem plays is that they can’t easily be categorised in the canon, being neither tragedy nor comedy, then that issue is swept aside by this radical Young Vic production. In the hands of director Joe Hill-Gibbins... Read more... |
Sweeney Todd, Welsh National OperaFriday, 09 October 2015
If nothing else, Stephen Sondheim’s best-known work will put you off pies; it will put you off barbers; and it may in the end put you off Sondheim. Popular though it seems to be with planners and programmers, it’s sluggish and heavy going as drama... Read more... |
Alan Broadbent & Georgia Mancio Songbook, Watermill, DorkingFriday, 09 October 2015
Fashions in art and music come and go in less time than it takes to read a Buzzfeed list. So there was something uncannily satisfying about star pianist Alan Broadbent’s admission that he’s been working on last night’s collection of entirely new... Read more... |
Unforgotten, ITVFriday, 09 October 2015
The rule doesn’t always hold good, but in a television drama a fairly reliable kitemark of quality is when the opening credits list the cast and you’ve heard of them. The title sequence of Unforgotten promised Trevor Eve, Nicola Walker, Sanjeev... Read more... |
Tuba concerto unveiled in LiverpoolFriday, 09 October 2015
How many tuba concertos are there? How many pieces are there where the guys from the heavy battalion can really shine as soloists? Well, possibly, here is one: this was the world première of Robin Holloway’s Europa and the Bull, billed as a... Read more... |
Sebadoh, Ramsgate Music HallThursday, 08 October 2015
The three-toed sloth moves at a maximum – that’s maximum – of 10 feet per minute. It’s thought to be the slowest animal in the world. While on a train hugging the north Kent coast however, I reckon I could give it a, figurative, run for its money. I... Read more... |
SicarioThursday, 08 October 2015
"I just wanna know what I'm getting into," states FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), not unreasonably, as she heads blindly down the rabbit hole. She emerges into a lawless land where bad guys rule, police fearfully follow and her own side's... Read more... |
Doctor Foster, Series Finale, BBC OneThursday, 08 October 2015
Revenge dramas are such a guilty pleasure - there's a vicarious thrill in watching a baddie being taken down in a way that we might wish to, but never would, in real life. And boy, but did Gemma take down cheating husband Simon in the closing... Read more... |
Eventide, Arcola TheatreThursday, 08 October 2015
His style is probably too subtle to be described as causing anything as noisily obtrusive as a splash, but Barney Norris’s debut play Visitors certainly created significant ripples last year. This follow-up drama is also, on the surface at least,... Read more... |
