festivals
theartsdesk in Llantwit Major: Arvo Pärt in the Vale of GlamorganSunday, 12 September 2010
Amazingly, the Vale of Glamorgan Festival has been on the go for more than 40 years, and has got better and better as it has gone along. Until recently, any kind of mould-breaking musical enterprise was likely to collide with the entrenched... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Borneo: The Rainforest World Music FestivalSaturday, 04 September 2010
The group Pingasan’k “calls for good spirits”. The name refers to “a bucket to put rice in, tied with the bark of a tree”. Regardless of rice or spirits, this band touched my heart. The gentle, haunting sounds come from the bamboo tube zithers (... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Presteigne Festival of Music and the ArtsWednesday, 01 September 2010
The Presteigne Festival, which has just ended after a packed long weekend of events of various shapes and sizes, is a music fest with a profile very much its own. Presteigne is one of those enchanting pocket county towns that proliferate along the... Read more... |
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ticciati, Usher Hall, EdinburghSaturday, 28 August 2010
Which of the following has the thorniest dissonance: an early 18th-century dance-drama by Rebel, a symphony by Bizet, a concerto by Poulenc or a new work by South African composer Kevin Volans? If you think it's a trick question, you'll guess the... Read more... |
Omar Souleyman, New World Music Sensation?Friday, 27 August 2010
The world music scene is hungry for new sensations - and Omar Souleyman, about to hit London and the Shambhala Festival, well deserves to be one of them. In the early 1980s the hunger for the exotic focused on anything that came from the parallel... Read more... |
Green Man Festival 2010, Glanusk CastleWednesday, 25 August 2010
If there's one festival in Britain where people are ready for the rain, it's the Green Man. After all, nobody goes to the Brecon Beacons to sunbathe, right? The weekend, which began the spate of boutique and specialist festivals that dominate the... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Stuart Goldsmith/ Steve Mason/ Peter StrakerThursday, 19 August 2010
You may think the very well-presented comic Stuart Goldsmith - clean-shaven and wearing sensible Merrells (“which says I’m not wearing a fleece but I own one”) - is the sort of bloke your mum always hoped you would end up marrying or having as your... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Shakespeare - The Man from Stratford/ Mick Ferry/ John GrantWednesday, 18 August 2010
The premise of Jonathan Bate’s one-man play, directed by Tom Cairns, is simple but surprisingly effective: a trawl through the seven ages of Shakespeare, from babe to box, told through a mixture of biographical narrative illuminated by relevant... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Celia Pacquola/ Could It Be Forever?/ Sammy JMonday, 16 August 2010
Celia Pacquola made her Fringe debut last year after storming various comedy festivals in her native Australia with a show about her boyfriend’s infidelity and, while it was entertaining enough, it lacked a bit of oomph. But her new show packs a... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Locarno: I'm Watchin' in the RainSunday, 15 August 2010
It had to happen. Until now, I've always resisted. But last Thursday, I had, finally, to tear open the plastic container to get to the protection inside. A nice man from Screen International gave me his before leaving - he'd have no use for it... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Jo Bartlett of the Green Man FestivalSunday, 15 August 2010
The Green Man festival takes place this coming weekend at the Glanusk estate near Abergavenny in the rolling hills of the Brecon Beacons. What begun in 2003 as a glorified gig for the husband and wife duo It's Jo And Danny has become the very... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Daniel Kitson/ Leisa Rea/ MisconceptionFriday, 13 August 2010
Daniel Kitson only occasionally performs at comedy venues at the Fringe these days - perhaps a late-night spot here and there, though not a full set - but it has become almost a tradition that he writes a new piece for the Traverse each year. On the... Read more... |
