obituary
Mel Smith, 1952-2013Saturday, 20 July 2013
Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, will be principally remembered as one quarter of the satirical sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News and one half of its blokier spin-off Alas Smith and Jones. A natural and inclusive comedian, it’s less... Read more... |
Frozen Gold: Iain (M) Banks, 1954-2013Sunday, 09 June 2013
Iain Banks, who has died at the age of 59 only two months after revealing that he was suffering from terminal cancer, was a leading purveyor of contemporary fiction. Iain M Banks was eminent in the field of science fiction. Iain "Spanks The Plank"... Read more... |
'For him, maestro was an ironic term': Sir Colin Davis rememberedWednesday, 17 April 2013
Still the tributes come thick and fast, celebrating the greatest performances of the public figure who is remembered with the most universal affection and admiration this week (and on this day). We asked some of the top musicians to focus on an... Read more... |
Sir Colin Davis: 'He simply knew how Mozart should go'Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Colin was an enormous influence in my youth and I’d like to share some memories of those days. It was over 60 years ago, on a Sunday afternoon in May 1952, that I attended a concert performance of The Marriage of Figaro given by Chelsea Opera... Read more... |
Sir Colin Davis, 1927-2013Monday, 15 April 2013
In its ebbs, flows and final grand flourishing, the career of Sir Colin Davis was reminiscent of some of the great musical masterpieces with which he became closely identified. From Mozart to Tippett, Berlioz to Beethoven and Sibelius, Davis proved... Read more... |
Richard Griffiths, 1947-2013Friday, 29 March 2013
Richard Griffiths, who has died at the age of 65 from complications during heart surgery, will be remembered above all for three performances, two on screen and one onstage. In Withnail & I (1987), he embodied in Uncle Monty a predatory... Read more... |
Farewell Kenny Ball, 1930-2013Thursday, 07 March 2013
The death today at age 82 of trumpeter Kenny Ball makes him the first of the big three chart regulars of Britain’s trad jazz boom to pass away. Both Acker Bilk and Chris Barber are still with us. It’s easily forgotten, but trad actually was bigger... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch on Strauss and WagnerSunday, 03 March 2013
In many ways the most well-tempered of conductors, Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) brought a peerless orchestral transparency and beauty of line to the great German classics. Even the most overloaded Richard Strauss scores under his watchful eye and... Read more... |
‘Every woman in the building wanted a bit of his arse': Kevin Ayers, 1944-2013Thursday, 21 February 2013
Whenever the words English and whimsy come together in relation to rock, writes Mark Hudson, the name Kevin Ayers is invariably invoked – not least by Ayers himself. The notably erratic, but gifted singer-songwriter and Soft Machine founder was... Read more... |
Parting Shot: Michael Winner, 1935-2012Monday, 21 January 2013
Michael Winner was always proud to call himself a film director but his filmography is notably short of quality moments. The likes of I'll Never Forget What's'isname and Hannibal Brooks in the 1960s, pointless remakes of The Big Sleep and The Wicked... Read more... |
Encountered: Richard Rodney Bennett, 1936-2012Thursday, 27 December 2012
From his precocious early years at the cutting edge of the musical avant garde to those many and memorable nights where just the man and the piano and that engaging gravelly voice of his would wrap around an American songbook standard or a 32-... Read more... |
Sir Patrick Moore, Xylophonist and ComposerWednesday, 12 December 2012
The astronomer Sir Patrick Moore was a keen composer of decided musical preferences, and no mean xylophonist. The news of his death on Sunday reminded me of my hugely enjoyable encounter with him - for musical reasons - for the Daily Telegraph in... Read more... |
