wed 23/04/2025

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...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It’s easy to see metaphors about the status of modern Georgia, once again threatened by the Russian boot, in its recent artistic output. So while there are no overt political...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Greg Davies doesn’t spare himself in his new show, Full Fat Legend, his first tour in seven years after having been busy being mean to celebrities on Taskmaster on Channel 4, and...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 21 April 2025
In a programme note for the St John Passion at the Barbican, the Academy of Ancient Music’s chief executive called their Easter performances of Bach’s compressed gospel tragedy a...
Ibi Keita
Monday, 21 April 2025
Sweden’s most gloriously unhinged export is back, and Viagr Aboys might just be Viagra Boys at their most fun, feral and fully realised. This album doesn’t try to out-clever the...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 20 April 2025
It would have been hard to pick up a copy of the album credited to and titled 1001 Est Crémazie in 1975. Just 500 copies were pressed. It didn’t reach shops but was circulated...
David Nice
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Never make your mind up too soon about any large-scale work by a genius. Back in 2010, I had my doubts about James MacMillan...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 19 April 2025
As well as generating a ceaseless stream of albums, whether live, studio or culled from his copious archives, Neil Young has...
Christopher Gray
Saturday, 19 April 2025
When I arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in April 2023, it was a daunting prospect to be taking over the reins of a...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 19 April 2025
 Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO)Here are three orchestral suites taken...
Kieron Tyler
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 18 April 2025
As if penguins didn’t have enough to fret about with impending tariffs on exporting guano to America, here comes Steve...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 18 April 2025
A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV...
Markie Robson-Scott
Friday, 18 April 2025
“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 18 April 2025
In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes...
Bernard Hughes
Thursday, 17 April 2025
The name Arthur Bliss always summoned up for me the image of a fuddy-duddy old buffer writing boring music. But as I’ve...
Tim Cumming
Thursday, 17 April 2025
For lovers of British folk from the 1970s on, Peter Knight is a potent force – renowned for his years with Steeleye Span, in...
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Or words to that effect. This quote...
Bernard Hughes
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
The London Choral Sinfonia are a very impressive group, a professional choir who are churning out terrific recordings at a...

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★★★ NEIL YOUNG: COASTAL Young's first post-Covid tour, documented by Daryl Hannah

★★★★ DONOHOE, RPO, BRABBINS, CADOGAN HALL Rarely heard British piano concerto

★ GHOSTS, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH Ibsen screams into 2025 in this perfect reimagining

★★★★★ THE FORSYTHE PROGRAMME, ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET Brains, beauty & bravura

★★★★ GIGSPANNER BIG BAND - TURNSTONE Third album from British folk’s biggest big band

disc of the day

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Louder, weirder and all the way in

The future of Arts Journalism

 

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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

film

April review - powerfully acted portrait of a conflicted doctor in eastern Georgia

Dea Kukumbegashvili's second film is stylistically striking and emotionally raw

Neil Young: Coastal review - the old campaigner gets back on the trail

Young's first post-Covid tour documented by Daryl Hannah

The Penguin Lessons review - Steve Coogan and his flippered friend

P-p-p-pick up a penguin... few surprises in this boarding school comedy set in Argentina during the coup

new music

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Louder, weirder and all the way in

Music Reissues Weekly: 1001 Est Crémazie

Privately pressed Canadian jazz album resurfaces for its 50th anniversary

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing

classical

Bach St John Passion, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - conscience against conformism

In an age of hate-fuelled pile-ons, Bach's gospel tragedy strikes even deeper

MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine Christ

Young Irish baritone pulls focus in blazing performance of a 21st century classic

First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'

A showcase for contemporary choral works appropriate to this time

opera

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Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist

Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war

theatre

Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you up
Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigenia in Splott
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, but little drama
New play about a sibling’s death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender
Shanghai Dolls, Kiln Theatre review - fascinating slice of history inadequately told
Amy Ng's take on two Chinese titans needs more dramatic ballast

dance

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The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura

Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game

Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness

A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre

comedy

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Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes

Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy

Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare

Observations on what it is to be a bloke today

Books

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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

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