20th century
Photo Gallery: A Century Apart, James Ravilious & John Wheeley GutchSaturday, 14 August 2010
Life changes at such speed in cities that it seems as if all the world must move at the same pace. Photographs prove otherwise. Looking at the two portfolios of West Country photographs below, you could surely not readily believe that more than a... Read more... |
theartsdesk MOT: Les Misérables, Queen's TheatreFriday, 13 August 2010
For most people a 25th anniversary is cause for celebration – a party, a dinner, maybe a few speeches. If you are musical theatre phenomenon Les Misérables however, festivities operate on an entirely different scale. London struggles to support two... Read more... |
BBC Symphony Chorus, Stephen Jackson, Royal Albert HallMonday, 09 August 2010
Every year there are a couple of Proms that have a haphazard look about them, as if a fire had suddenly broken out in the BBC archives, and the programming committee grabbed whatever came to hand – a piano quartet, a couple of choral odes and a... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Bregenz: The Genius of Mieczyslaw WeinbergSunday, 08 August 2010
Ever since I can remember, the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg has played a walk-on part in histories of Soviet music. If you find him in an index at all (probably under Vainberg or Vajnberg, and usually with the first name given him by a box-ticking... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Impresarios Victor and Lilian Hochhauser, Part 2Friday, 06 August 2010
In the second part of this historic career overview interview with the unique British impresarios, Victor and Lilian Hochhauser talk about their razor-edged relations with Soviet apparatchiks and the pressures they came under to prevent artist... Read more... |
Australian Youth Orchestra, Elder, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 31 July 2010
The stage of the Royal Albert Hall has a rather unfortunate habit of making orchestras seem incidental. Stretching endlessly across, one of the world’s largest organs by way of backdrop, even the most generous conventional ensembles take on... Read more... |
theartsdesk MOT: The Phantom of the Opera, Her Majesty's TheatreFriday, 30 July 2010
With summer now fully upon us, and tourists flocking to the West End, it seems a good time to lift the bonnet on the tireless engine of London’s long-running hit shows. Over the next six weeks theartsdesk will be giving six of London’s hardest-... Read more... |
Josefowicz, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Knussen, Royal Albert HallThursday, 29 July 2010
"Stockhausen's festive overture from 1977 opens the programme," declared the Proms website cheerily. Come again? Festive? Stockhausen? From my limited but largely enthusiastic knowledge of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen - much of which is about... Read more... |
Larkin's Jazz, Proper RecordsTuesday, 27 July 2010
“A E Housman said he could recognise poetry because it made his throat tighten and his eyes water. I can recognise jazz because it makes me tap my foot, grunt affirmative exhortations, or even get up and caper round the room.” For those curious to... Read more... |
The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, Duchess TheatreWednesday, 21 July 2010
How do you construct a compelling play about the greatest of fictional detectives without either mystery or reveal? The cryptic answer, in the form of Jeremy Paul’s 1988 theatrical two-hander The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, is far from elementary.... Read more... |
The Railway Children, Waterloo StationTuesday, 13 July 2010
"Oh! My Daddy, my Daddy!" It’s a cry that has echoed through the childhood of generations of English children, reducing all but the very staunchest to tears. Whether encountered through Edith Nesbit’s book or the classic 1970 film, The Railway... Read more... |
Concorde’s Last Flight, Channel 4Monday, 12 July 2010
As an 11-year-old boy, I was awestruck from the first moment I saw Concorde on our three-channel black-and-white television, seemingly rearing up from its runway like a cyborg swan. At that age - and during that era - fact and fiction became... Read more... |
