Reviews
Colli, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican HallSaturday, 17 January 2015
Was 1911 the best ever year for music? Works premiered or composed then include Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and the Tenth Symphony he’d completed in outline by the time of his death that May,... Read more... |
The Railway Children, King's Cross TheatreSaturday, 17 January 2015
Disillusioned with our modern world? Why not journey back into an idyllic past, when trains were benign, anthropomorphic creatures rather than sources of commuter angst, red petticoats held life-saving powers, and it was perfectly all right for... Read more... |
First Aid Kit, Symphony Hall, BirminghamSaturday, 17 January 2015
All-seater, up-market concert halls can be a bit intimidating to bands when they are used to more intimate venues. Silences can feel awkward and stage talk can dry up or be reduced to perfunctory “thank you”s. So it almost proved this evening when... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Mozart, PoulencSaturday, 17 January 2015
Bach: St John Passion Berliner Philharmoniker, Members of the Rudfunkchors Berlin, Soloists/Sir Simon Rattle, with staging by Peter Sellars (Berliner Philharmoniker)You'd happily settle for an audio recording of Sir Simon Rattle's version of... Read more... |
Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel GalleryFriday, 16 January 2015
From an apparently simple idea stems a very confusing exhibition. Here’s the idea: taking the seminal black square painted by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich as its starting point – in fact, a rectangle, with the small and undated Black... Read more... |
Hannigan, LSO, Rattle, Barbican HallFriday, 16 January 2015
For his second programme this week with the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conducted variations on a programme he’s been doing for years. So what’s the theme? Invention and hysteria, you might say. Berg’s Marie in Wozzeck and... Read more... |
WhiplashFriday, 16 January 2015
Among the many pleasures of Whiplash, the low-budget indie film that is now up for five Oscar nominations (Best Picture included) and by rights deserved more, is a final sequence so breathlessly exciting that if this were a stage show, the ending... Read more... |
Marry Me, E4Friday, 16 January 2015
The latest sitcom from the United States is very much in the American mould of smart dialogue, pacy timing and some astute human observation layered with a hint of schmaltz. It concerns two thirtysomethings, Annie and Jake, who have been together... Read more... |
Lumino CityFriday, 16 January 2015
Ever wondered what would happen if a bunch of architects, prop-makers, fine artists, musicians and animators got together and decided to make a computer game? Well, if you’ve played any of the games created by State of Play, particularly Lume, then... Read more... |
Bull, Young VicThursday, 15 January 2015
Mike Bartlett is the most prolific and talented British playwright to emerge in the past decade. Not only has he created large-scale epics in a variety of styles — from the science-fiction fable Earthquakes in London to the Shakespearean King... Read more... |
Oscars 2015: Selma largely snubbed, Brits aplenty, and Meryl enters record books - againThursday, 15 January 2015
The Brits are back in the Oscar race big-time, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, and Rosamund Pike among the first-time Academy Award hopefuls who will be duking it out in the leading categories. But amidst the 2015 Oscar... Read more... |
Young Men, BalletBoyz, Sadler's WellsThursday, 15 January 2015
Having gathered an excellent cadre of dancers and forged them over years into a fine company (The Talent), the BalletBoyz Michael Nunn and William Trevitt – two of the most astute artists in dance – must have known they needed to go further, to... Read more... |
