18th century
Messiah, Polyphony, OAE, Layton, St John's Smith SquareMonday, 24 December 2012
Messiahs of all kinds multiply at this time of year: the meek and the threadbare as well as the proud and polished. On the Sunday before Christmas, it was hard to choose between two potential archangels who could hardly fail given their respective... Read more... |
Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape, Royal AcademySunday, 16 December 2012
All roads start from Rome, and so it proves in this challenging exhibition put together from the holdings of the Royal Academy’s art collection, archives and library. It features 17th-century Italian paintings – some of the grandest by the French... Read more... |
Belshazzar, Les Arts Florissants, Barbican HallFriday, 14 December 2012
If you’ve ever wondered what a bad day at the office looked like for Handel then look no further than Belshazzar – an oratorio that positively demands heavenly intervention and possibly a bit of smiting. With a first act that worried even the... Read more... |
The Brook Street Band, de Bernières, Kennedy, Wigmore HallSaturday, 08 December 2012
What if Handel, after his death, descended to an eminently civilised afterlife, where he spent his time making music and new friends with the likes of Beethoven and even Jimi Hendrix? That’s the premise of Louis de Bernières’ new play Mr Handel, a... Read more... |
Montgomery, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 26 October 2012
It’s a sadness to all lovers of the French horn that Mozart’s four horn concertos, the product of his longest friendship, make their appearance all too rarely in the concert hall. Though the building blocks of the repertoire, perhaps their apparent... Read more... |
Don Giovanni, English National OperaThursday, 18 October 2012
“Don Giovanni – Coming Soon” winked and nudged the publicity posters for English National Opera’s latest production. And just in case the entendre wasn’t clear they added a picture of a condom. Playful, provocative and just a little bit sordid, it... Read more... |
The Company of Strangers: How the Royal Academy Was FoundedTuesday, 09 October 2012
Since becoming Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts almost exactly five years ago, I have become increasingly interested in why it was established. In particular, I almost inevitably got interested in the so-called Laws which... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Bonn: Tradition and Innovation at the 2012 BeethovenfestSunday, 07 October 2012
It’s Beethoven all right, but not as you know him. The scowl is there, and the broad heroic shoulders too, but the iconic tousled hair is glowing a rather unexpected shade of orange. A purple cloak sweeps down to the floor, setting off a jaunty pair... Read more... |
Così fan tutte, Welsh National OperaThursday, 04 October 2012
For some reason, the Welsh have revived their Così fan tutte, from last year, with positively unseemly haste – if not quite so unseemly as the haste with which their La Bohème, from this spring, was wheeled back on last month barely three months... Read more... |
Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip, BBC TwoWednesday, 03 October 2012
Shouldn’t it be a stiff lower lip? When a person loses control of his or her emotions, and gives in to the instinct to blub, the telltale sign is not the unstiffening of the upper lip but the wobbling of the lower. In short, we have been saddled... Read more... |
Tetzlaff, Wigmore HallThursday, 20 September 2012
When you hear Christian Tetzlaff play you hear Brahms, or Beethoven or, in this case, Bach. What you don’t hear a lot of is Tetzlaff himself. I mean that in the best possible way – so willing is the violinist to submerge himself, to set aside ego... Read more... |
The Country Wife, Royal Exchange, ManchesterTuesday, 18 September 2012
What’s in a name? Pinchwife, Fidget, Horner, Squeamish, Sparkish… William Wycherley labelled his characters blatantly. No one is hornier than Horner, the womaniser who puts it about (sorry) that he is impotent after surgery for the pox. Pinchwife’s... Read more... |
