Reviews
Berezovsky, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Järvi, Royal Festival Hall
Saturday, 25 May 2013
In 1980, an orchestra and conductor then hardly known in Britain came to the Royal Festival Hall. I went to hear Elisabeth Söderström in Strauss’s Four Last Songs; I left stunned by an unorthodox Sibelius Second Symphony and above all by one of the encores, Cantus to the Memory of Benjamin Britten by one Arvo Pärt. Thirty three years later Neeme Järvi, now indisputably one of the great master conductors and at the helm of a Swiss orchestra rather than the Swedes he’d then conducted (the...
Neko Case/Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Village Underground, London
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Neko Case wasn't about to launch a Yeah Yeah Yeahs-style pre-emptive strike aimed at the Village Underground's amateur camera-wielders. She doesn't mind the odd photograph, she said; just don't try to film her. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable. Didn't we all use to just remember?She's 23 now, with the sort of voice that can instantly hush the chattiest Shoreditch crowdAly Spaltro (below right), the songwriter better known as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, remembers. It's in her songs, and in...
Raven Girl, Royal Ballet/ Witch-Hunt, Bern...
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Ballet is telling stories again. Last night Wayne McGregor’s debut as a narrator followed hot on the heels of Cathy Marston’s Witch-Hunt for Bern...
Classical CDs Weekly: Frank Martin, Mei Yi Foo,...
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Frank Martin: Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel Orchestre de la Haute École de Musique de Genève/Gábor Takács-Nagy (Claves)Prokofiev’s three-act...
Lohengrin, Welsh National Opera, Wales Millennium...
Friday, 24 May 2013
What is one to make of Lohengrin, Wagner’s last “opera” (as opposed to music drama), in this day and age? Is it a medieval romance, like Weber’s...
The Tudors Season, BBC Two
Friday, 24 May 2013
Mantel goes head to head with Starkey as Henry VIII executes everyone all over again for our pleasure |
The Hangover Part III
Friday, 24 May 2013
Subdued finale for the laddish franchise |
Metro: Last Light
Friday, 24 May 2013
The dark, the mutants and the other survivors – fear rules this bleak first-person shooter |
To Kill A Mockingbird, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Thursday, 23 May 2013
London ain't Alabama, but Harper Lee's attack on racial intolerance still resonates |
Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Passion and politics as country's great polymath tours a powerful new album with a powerful new band |
Rob Newman, Little Angel Theatre
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Not quite rock 'n' roll, but I like it |
Disgraced, Bush Theatre
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examines cultural identity with insight and intelligence |
Something in the Air
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Olivier Assayas recalls his heady, heavy days as a soixante-huitard |
The Kite Runner, Theatre Royal Brighton
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
A story-centric stage adaption of Khaled Hosseini's sentimental best-seller |
The King of Marvin Gardens
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Melancholy meets irrational optimism in Bob Rafelson's New Hollywood classic |
Relatively Speaking, Wyndham's Theatre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Early Ayckbourn play fizzes anew 46 years on |
Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek |
Limbo, Southbank Centre
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
London Wonderground's erotic circus bumps and grinds |
Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artist Gregory Euclide paints live, on stage |
Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Her obsession with death and decay was leavened by a wicked sense of humour |
Case Histories, BBC One
Monday, 20 May 2013
The brooding private detective is back |
Falstaff, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Monday, 20 May 2013
Comedy is king in a Falstaff revival which is consistently enjoyable but could be a little less nice |
The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four
Monday, 20 May 2013
The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld |
Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Strauss's opera reluctantly enters the Battle of Britain courtesy of a young German director |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Easy listening and continental European intellectualism combine on the early albums from pop’s wilful auteur |
Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
Sunday, 19 May 2013
New play about tragic Welsh diva Dorothy Squires misses the real story |
Mariele Neudecker, Regency Town House, Brighton
Sunday, 19 May 2013
The German artist plays with notions of the Romantic sublime |
CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop |
The Liability
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Brit crime caper hits new lows, despite strong cast |
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To Kill A Mockingbird, Regent’s Park Open Air Thea...
London ain't Alabama, but Harper Lee's attack on racial intoleran...
Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall
Passion and politics as country's great polymath tours a powerful new...
The Tudors Season, BBC Two
Mantel goes head to head with Starkey as Henry VIII executes everyone all o...
Disgraced, Bush Theatre
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examines cultural identity with insight and in...
Lohengrin, Welsh National Opera, Wales Millennium...
WNO in their element in wide-stage Wagner marred by vocal problems