Reviews
The Beach Boys, Royal Albert HallSunday, 31 May 2015
You might think that the carefree, gleeful melodies of sunny Californian surf-rock giants The Beach Boys would render them immune to the kind of egotistical wedge-driving that sunders most rock groups eventually. You would, of course, be wrong.... Read more... |
Fatoumata Diawara and Roberto Fonseca, BarbicanSunday, 31 May 2015
Though they're separated by thousands of miles, Cuba and Mali share a common musical connection. Right at the heart of Cuban music lie rhythms from sub-saharan African and last night the two traditions were united once again when Havana-born piano... Read more... |
CD: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard - Django and JimmieSunday, 31 May 2015
Merle and Willie – these kind of senior country summits can either be a bit of a coaster, all well and good underneath your tumbler of Bourbon, or actually something to write home about. Keep this one away from the liquor. It’s produced by Buddy... Read more... |
The Dream of Gerontius, RSNO, Oundjian, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 31 May 2015
To close its 2014-15 season the Royal Scottish National Orchestra chose the choral masterpiece that Elgar preferred not to call an oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius. Performances in Scotland are rare, whether this is because of Presbyterian unease... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Marvin GayeSunday, 31 May 2015
Marvin Gaye: Marvin Gaye 1961–1965On single, Marvin Gaye’s earliest years were defined by a head-long rush beginning with his fourth 45, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow". After that, future classic followed future classic: "Hitch Hike", "Pride and... Read more... |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Welsh National OperaSaturday, 30 May 2015
Debussy completed only one opera (though he started plenty), but it’s the most perfect work imaginable, not only in sheer musical refinement and narrative precision, but in psychological penetration and above all in that exact grasp of the... Read more... |
Robbins/MacMillan Triple Bill, Royal BalletSaturday, 30 May 2015
Last night at the Royal Ballet was, emphatically, laser-free. The combination of Afternoon of a Faun (1953) and In the Night (1970) by the great American choreographer Jerome Robbins, with a repeat of Kenneth MacMillan's 1965 Song of the Earth,... Read more... |
Schubert Sonatas 2, Barenboim, RFHSaturday, 30 May 2015
Personality is essential for Schubert’s piano sonatas. Listen to two recordings of the same one and you could easily think they are different works, such is the performer's input. Daniel Barenboim would therefore seem ideal. He’s a huge... Read more... |
Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, SSE Hydro, GlasgowSaturday, 30 May 2015
It seems a peculiar conceit to pack up a full symphony orchestra and choir and take them the length of the UK solely to perform suites of music from a popular television show – and I say this as a fan of the show in question. Yet I left the... Read more... |
When Pop Ruled My Life, BBC FourFriday, 29 May 2015
A long time ago I went out into the field to research a feature about the three ages of obsessive fandom. At the entry level was a bog-standard legion of young teenage girls who simply hung around outside the mansion block in Maida Vale where one or... Read more... |
San AndreasFriday, 29 May 2015
Time gets called on California in San Andreas, a bone-headed disaster movie that sends huge swathes of the West Coast toppling to its doom even as one particular family not only makes it through intact but is even enriched in the process. Who'd have... Read more... |
SunsetFriday, 29 May 2015
1972, a South American revolution, seen through the eyes of a cleaner. Sunset neatly side-steps the usual banana republic videogame clichés by shifting focus. You are neither the Generalissimo lording it over a strategy game, nor the first-person... Read more... |
