Manchester
Bluedot Festival 2023 review - monsoon weather can't defeat the music'n'science extravaganzaWednesday, 26 July 2023
“This wasn’t the day to wear white suede boots,” says Django Django’s singer Vincent Neff, midway through the band’s Friday evening set.He’s not kidding.Mud can be worse (Glastonbury ’97, ’98, ‘07 & ’16). Wet weather can wreck the vibe (Nova ’12... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Keeping Control, Where Were You - Leeds and Manchester navigate the aftershocks of punkSunday, 16 July 2023
“Keeping Control” were the watchwords adopted by The Manchester Musicians’ Collective, an organisation founded in April 1977 to bring local musicians together and give them platforms. On 23 May 1977, it put on its first show – also the first live... Read more... |
Manchester International Festival exhibitions review - a new arts centre puts Manchester firmly on the cultural mapThursday, 06 July 2023
At 94, Yayoi Kusama is said to be the world’s most popular living artist. People queue for hours to spend a few minutes inside one of her Infinity Rooms, spaces with walls mirrored to create infinite reflections.Inviting her to inaugurate Manchester... Read more... |
Osborne, BBC Philharmonic, Glassberg, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - energy and virtuosityMonday, 19 June 2023
The BBC Philharmonic ended its 2022-23 season in Manchester with a programme that might have been chosen as a showpiece for virtuosity.There was orchestral virtuosity in the form of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, pianistic virtuosity in the shape... Read more... |
Elgar Oratorios, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a landmark in music makingMonday, 12 June 2023
Sir Mark Elder has a special affection for the music of Elgar. They share a birthday, on 2 June, and his time with the Hallé has included more than one celebration of the composer at this time of year.Now that his departure as music director is in... Read more... |
Album: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Council SkiesMonday, 29 May 2023
Council Skies was created in Noel Gallagher’s new studio, partly during lockdown, an attempt to reconnect with where he came from, Manchester, as per its cover art. It’s not an exercise in nostalgia (except insofar as everything either Gallagher... Read more... |
Album: BC Camplight - The Last Rotation of EarthMonday, 08 May 2023
On Brian Christinzio’s sixth album as BC Camplight, he wants listeners to know about his recent experiences and their effect on him. Herewith, a mostly unembroidered account of how he sees things. When allusiveness arrives, the metaphors are easy to... Read more... |
Prohaska, Hallé, Bloxham, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a sure hand at the helmFriday, 05 May 2023
Getting on for 27 years ago, Thomas Adès’ These Premises Are Alarmed was one of the pieces commissioned by the Hallé for a premiere in the opening series of concerts at the new Bridgewater Hall, conducted by Kent Nagano.Now that Adès, then their... Read more... |
Lapwood, Hallé, Niemeyer, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - light and fiery Poulenc concertoFriday, 28 April 2023
“Let the organ thunder!” is the sentiment a lot of us will associate with an orchestral concert featuring the king of instruments. The Hallé’s programme with Anna Lapwood as soloist (repeating, from her BBC Proms debut with them in 2021, the Saint-... Read more... |
Ohlsson, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a Rachmaninov specialMonday, 24 April 2023
Maybe he thought it was a relaxing way to celebrate his recent 75th birthday – maybe he just fancied a trip to Manchester to play with the BBC Philharmonic – either way there was something very special to hear in Garrick Ohlsson’s Rachmaninov Third... Read more... |
Chiejina, BBC Philharmonic, Collon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - something scenic, and something elseMonday, 03 April 2023
An evening of “scenic orchestral works”, according to the programme booklet, was on offer from the BBC Philharmonic on Saturday. Scenic was certainly true of the Seven Early Songs of Alban Berg and Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. But Tom Coult’s... Read more... |
Mansfield Park, RNCM, Manchester review - bringing out the bestWednesday, 29 March 2023
Mansfield Park was written to be a country house opera – that kind where you have a smallish number of performers, no chorus, and the “set” is simply the rooms and furnishings of a gracious residence from an age gone by.Accompaniment was originally... Read more... |
