19th century
Jane EyreFriday, 09 September 2011
As fresh and enchanting as the first flushes of spring, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s imaginative retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s 19th-century proto-feminist novel captures the thrill of attraction with rare perception, sweep and tenderness. It foregrounds... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Jansen, Philadelphia Orchestra, DutoitFriday, 09 September 2011
After filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, the Philadelphia Orchestra seemed poised to be the flagship cultural casualty of the financial crisis. Five months on and the bills continue to rise, but in the best Titanic tradition the band are... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, HoneckMonday, 05 September 2011
In a week that sees Proms visits from two major American orchestras, it fell to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise the curtain for their blue-blooded “Big Five” colleagues the Philadelphia Orchestra. With Tchaikovsky... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Missa Solemnis, London Symphony Orchestra, DavisSunday, 04 September 2011
While revered and respected, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis has never inspired audiences with the same affection as Bach’s B minor Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, or even Mozart’s Coronation or C minor settings. Perhaps it’s the austerity, the monumentality... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Desyatnikov, Glière, TchaikovskyFriday, 02 September 2011
We head east this week - new pieces by a contemporary Russian composer, and a bargain box set showcasing the flamboyant orchestral music of a neglected Russian. And a famous viola player leads a young Moscow orchestra in electrifying accounts of... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Bayreuth: Wagner in the LaboratorySaturday, 13 August 2011
Richard Wagner has probably only himself to blame if his operas have become a laboratory for the testing-to-destruction of the intellectual preoccupations of that Opera Führer of our time, the stage director. Wagner it was, after all, who... Read more... |
Caractacus, Worcester Cathedral, Three Choirs FestivalThursday, 11 August 2011
“The text of Britain’s teaching, the message of the free…”. No, not the Last Night of the Proms or the Olympic Games ahead of time. This is the final chorus of Elgar’s concert-length cantata Caractacus, which was given a vigorous work-out in this... Read more... |
Timeshift: All the Fun of the Fair, BBC FourWednesday, 03 August 2011
Is there a place for the travelling fun fair any more? Static attractions like Alton Towers and Thorpe Park have rides that are bigger, grander, more varied and scarier than anything a traditional, transient fair could ever transport. All the Fun of... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Les Talens Lyriques/ BBC Philharmonic, NosedaMonday, 01 August 2011
According to Classic FM’s managing director Darren Henley there are many people who find the term “chamber music” offputting, if not downright intimidating. Perhaps the best explanation of the genre comes from a musicologist who has termed it “the... Read more... |
Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake, National GalleryThursday, 28 July 2011
We are still acknowledging our 21st-century debts to the energy, curiosity, determination and passion for discovery of a host of Victorian polymaths, and here is another. Sir Charles Eastlake (1793-1865) was a painter, scholar, author, collector and... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Byrd, Cage and RossiniFriday, 22 July 2011
This week's chronologically varied selection includes instrumental music written by one of the giants of Elizabethan music and a baffling, beguiling work composed by a 20th-century maverick, inspired by a visit to a Japanese garden. There's also a... Read more... |
Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes, National GalleryWednesday, 20 July 2011
The National Gallery has in recent years made a speciality of examining the hitherto unexamined. Just for starters, a surprise hit some years ago was Spanish Still Lifes, 2007 saw Renoir Landscapes (who knew?), last year there was the ravishing... Read more... |
