21st century
DVD: The Nile Hilton IncidentFriday, 06 July 2018
The world was captivated by the Arab Spring – thousands of citizens rising up in unity against longstanding dictatorships, filling squares and refusing to bow. But for many of us, it was a world away; the crowds were a single organism, thinking and... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Olivia De Prato, Kärt Ruubel, Third Coast PercussionSaturday, 30 June 2018
Streya: New works for solo violin and violin with electronics Olivia De Prato (violin) (New Focus Recordings)Combining acoustic instruments with electronics is a dark art, and tantalisingly few details about the process are revealed in the... Read more... |
The Path to Heaven, RNCM, Manchester review - tragedy, truth, passionFriday, 22 June 2018
Adam Gorb’s The Path to Heaven, with libretto by Ben Kaye, is his longest work to date (almost two hours’ running time without interval) and on a story that could hardly be more tragic – the Holocaust. Its premiere at the Royal Northern College of... Read more... |
CD: AMMAR 808 - Maghreb UnitedMonday, 11 June 2018
Hot in the burning footsteps of Bargou 08, last year’s subtle but daring mix of traditional Tunisian sounds and electronic beats and textures, Sofyann Ben Youssef launches a new project under the name of AMMAR 808, Maghreb United. There is a great... Read more... |
Sancho: An Act of Remembrance, Wilton's Music Hall review - pure entertainmentFriday, 08 June 2018
One space, one person, one story, one voice – the monologue is theatre distilled, the purest form of entertainment. On a stage of packing boxes and boards, over the course of just over an hour, Paterson Joseph relays and plays the life of... Read more... |
Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh - transforming spacesThursday, 07 June 2018
In just five years, what the team behind Hidden Door Festival has achieved is quite remarkable. Having sprung up in 2014, taking over a group of disused vaults behind Waverley train station, the festival’s mission to transform redundant spaces in... Read more... |
Lessons in Love and Violence, Royal Opera review - savage elegance never quite glows red-hotFriday, 11 May 2018
A rope is mercy; a razor-blade to the throat, a kiss; a red-hot poker… But, of course, we never get anything so literal as the poker in George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s elegant, insinuating retelling of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II. The title... Read more... |
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dudamel, Barbican review - brilliant if overwhelming showcaseThursday, 03 May 2018
Insistence was the name of the LA Phil's first game in its short but ambitious three-day Barbican residency - insistence honed to a perfect sheen and focus, but wearing, for this listener at least, some way in to the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony... Read more... |
Dickson, SCO, Swensen, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - world premiere of a bold new workFriday, 13 April 2018
It’s as intricate as it is concise. The depth to the architecture of James MacMillan’s Saxophone Concerto – which was given its world premiere this week by saxophonist Amy Dickson and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – is quite astounding, and all the... Read more... |
Boy George and Culture Club: From Karma to Calamity, BBC FourThursday, 12 April 2018
The title signalled what was coming so clearly, it may as well have been called When Bands End Badly: the two camps, the arguments and sniping and the eventual collapse of Culture Club’s US and UK tour to promote an album of new material. It’s... Read more... |
Michael Rakowitz: The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, Fourth Plinth review - London's new guardianSaturday, 31 March 2018
Fifteen years ago on a cold grey Saturday in mid-February, Trafalgar Square was filled with people marching to Hyde Park in opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq. A million people gathered in London. Three times that number turned out in Rome... Read more... |
McMafia, Series finale, BBC One review - the last bite is the cruellestMonday, 12 February 2018
McMafia has taught us to recognise one thing – you might call it the “Norton stride”. As the charismatic Alex Godman, James Norton has been advancing, confidently at screen centre, towards one challenge after another, and they have been coming (... Read more... |
