theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
David Nice
Monday, 07 April 2025
When Vladimir Jurowski returns to what used to be “his” London Philharmonic Orchestra, you’d better jump. I would have done on Wednesday had I been able to get to his heady mix of...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 06 April 2025
Stereo Instrumental Music was recorded in July 1976 and originally issued only on cassette. The release was organised by what was credited as the “Sun Shine Music Shop,” an...
Graham Rickson
Sunday, 06 April 2025
Akira Kurosawa described his 1961 hit Yojimbo as a tale of “rivalry on both sides, and both sides are equally bad… we are weakly caught in the middle and it is impossible to...
David Nice
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Igor Levit is a master of the unorthodox marathon, one he was happy to share last night with 24-year-old Austrian Lukas Sternath, his student in Hanover. Not only did Sternath get...
Aleks Sierz
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today’s world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you can satirize daily life by exaggerating its latent...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Many know that the actor Richard Burton began life as a miner’s son called Richard Jenkins. Not so many are aware of the...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Vox Feminae: music by Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bemba, Hieryonymus Kapsberger... Les Kapsber’girls/Albane...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Mike Scott is The Waterboys. Launched by wide-eyed 1980s folk-rock, and “The Whole of the Moon”, he’s long since roamed into...
Graham Fuller
Friday, 04 April 2025
Horror comes in many forms. In writer-director Jed Hart’s feature debut Restless, it’s visited on middle-aged nurse Nicky (...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 04 April 2025
A year ago Guy Ritchie brought us the Netflix series The Gentlemen, and now here he is on Paramount+ with his latest romp...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 04 April 2025
The best way to experience Ed Atkins’ exhibition at Tate Britain is to start at the end by watching Nurses Come and Go, But...
Markie Robson-Scott
Friday, 04 April 2025
An Irish adaptation of Garcia Di Gregorio’s acclaimed 2008 film Mid-August Lunch, director Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers is...
Tim Cumming
Friday, 04 April 2025
I saw the Miki Berenyi Trio play a warmly received sold out set at the Lexington last autumn, at which many of the songs now...
Gary Naylor
Thursday, 03 April 2025
It’s a greater accolade than a Nobel Prize for Literature – one’s very own adjective. There’s a select few: Shakespearean;...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 03 April 2025
Pigsx7 have hardly got a reputation for penning tender and soulful ballads, but Death Hilarious is a particularly aggressive...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
That friend you have who hates musicals – probably male, probably straight, probably not seen one since The Sound of Music...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
“Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” The Aesop-ian maxim roughly applies to Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl) in...
Robert Beale
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
It’s quite ironic that the Royal Northern College of Music should have invited, as director of this, Britten’s avowedly...
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga
The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit
Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites
film
Mr Burton review - modest film about the birth of an extraordinary talent
Harry Lawtey and Toby Jones excel as the future Richard Burton and his mentor
Restless review - curse of the noisy neighbours
Assured comedy-drama about an ordinary Englishwoman turned vigilante
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: Ibex Band - Stereo Instrumental Music
Ethiopian jazz album from 1976 which resists easy categorisation
Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper
An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead
classical
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealed
Schumann rarity equals Beethoven and Schubert in perfectly executed programme
Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundaries in Prokofiev and Shostakovich
Master pianist shines the spotlight on star protégé in another unique programme
Classical CDs: Big bands, beasts and birdcalls
Italian songs, Viennese chamber music and an enterprising guitar quartet
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
Tales of Apollo and Hercules, London Handel Festival review - compelling elements, but a failed experiment
Conceptually the two cantatas just don't work together
theatre
Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and absurdly joyful
Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning bright
Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful performance
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess
Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many
dance
Balanchine: Three Signature Works, Royal Ballet review - exuberant, joyful, exhilarating
A triumphant triple bill
Romeo and Juliet, Royal Ballet review - Shakespeare without the words, with music to die for
Kenneth MacMillan's first and best-loved masterpiece turns 60
comedy
Harry Hill, Wilton's Music Hall review - madcap comic on terrific form
Utterly daft mix of new material and favourite old characters
Books
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind
Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Our Species is on the Edge of Extinction review - survival instincts
A science writer looks to the stars for a way to dodge our impending doom
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
latest comments
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...
Very illuminating and evocative assessment of an...
The memoir is engaging and perceptive, catching...
I think he got coverage on RTE Lyric FM. It takes...
Well, Biss is at least a reasonably well known...
One of the greatest experiences of my life. Muti...
Finally, someone with some taste. This movie was...
I saw Nureyev and Fonteyn dance this wonderful...