20th century
Rags: The Musical, Park Theatre review - a timely, if predictable, immigrant taleMonday, 20 January 2020
“Take our country back!” is the rallying cry of the self-identified “real” Americans gathered to protest the arrival of immigrants. It could be a contemporary Trump rally – or, indeed, the nastier side of current British political discourse – but in... Read more... |
Mahler's Eighth, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - a symphony of 600Monday, 20 January 2020
“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound” wrote Gustav Mahler of his Eighth Symphony. “There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.” It’s an image that captures the impossible scale and mind-boggling... Read more... |
1917 review – immersive, exemplary war filmThursday, 09 January 2020
The greatest war films are those which capture the terrifying physical and psychological ordeal that soldiers face, along with the sheer folly and waste of it all – Paths of Glory, Come and See, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, most... Read more... |
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Martín, Barbican review - songs of protest and resilienceMonday, 06 January 2020
In youth we trust. That can be the only motto worth anything for 2020, as the world goes into further meltdown.So it was startling, stunning and cathartic, two days after the big downer of 3 January – the American horror clown seemingly in... Read more... |
Wallfisch, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - Weinberg UK premiereSaturday, 09 November 2019
Everyone’s doing Weinberg now, or so it seems. The Polish-born composer who became a close friend of Shostakovich was born 100 years ago, and there’s plenty of his music to go round. Raphael Wallfisch gave the UK premiere of his Cello... Read more... |
Get Rich Or Try Dying: Music’s Mega Legacies, BBC Four review – inside the RIP businessSaturday, 02 November 2019
Half a billion dollars is what the top five most lucrative estates of deceased musicians earned last year. The figure represents the cunning work of a few people to turn “legacy” into its own immortal industry. To watch a program on this theme is to... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 25 - with bohemian chanteuse Anne PigalleSaturday, 26 October 2019
This edition of Peter Culshaw’s periodic global music radio show features guest special guest Anne Pigalle. A flâneuse and doyenne of the urban demi-monde, she came to our attention recording for ZTT Records in the 1980s and ran Soho... Read more... |
Kozhukhin, BBC Philharmonic, Carneiro, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - melancholy heart of MahlerFriday, 25 October 2019
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is a repertoire piece nowadays, probably as familiar to as many listeners as to orchestral players, which means you look for something distinctive in any performance to identify its essential quality against all the others.... Read more... |
Gerstein, LPO, Adès, RFH review - engaging new piano concertoThursday, 24 October 2019
Every ten years or so Thomas Adès writes a piano concerto and the latest had its UK premiere last night at the Royal Festival Hall, played by Kirill Gerstein and conducted by Adès himself. Following on from the youthful, skittish Concerto Conciso of... Read more... |
Ehnes, Hallé, Gabel, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - happy unexpected discoveriesFriday, 18 October 2019
Changes from the artists originally advertised can bring some happy discoveries. Sir Mark Elder, though present in the audience to hear last night’s Hallé performance at the Bridgewater Hall, was still recovering from surgery and so did not conduct... Read more... |
Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art, Barbican review - great theme, disappointing showTuesday, 08 October 2019
The Barbican’s latest offering – a look at the clubs and cabarets set up by artists mainly in the early years of the 20th century – is a brilliant theme for an exhibition. Established as alternatives to galleries and museums, places like the Chat... Read more... |
Williams, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall Manchester review - vision before gloomMonday, 03 June 2019
The BBC Philharmonic have given memorable accounts of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 4 in Manchester before – notably conducted by Günther Herbig in 2010 and by John Storgårds in 2014 – but surely none as harrowingly grim as under Mark Wigglesworth this... Read more... |
