Features & Interviews
Music books to end lockdown: Sam Lee, Hawkwind, Dylan, Richard Thompson, and the Electric Muses
Friday, 14 May 2021
It won’t be long now before concert halls and back rooms, arts centres and festival grounds fill with people again, and live music, undistanced, unmasked, and in your face, comes back to us.
Christa Ludwig, 1928-2021: a selective tribute
Friday, 07 May 2021
I only saw Christa Ludwig twice live in concert, but those appearances epitomise her incredible dramatic and vocal rage as well as her peerless artistry in everything she did. The first event was Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Charles Spencer at the Southbank Centre, at a time when it was less common for women to take on the role of the heavy-hearted wayfarer: the intensity still resonates.
Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson
Thursday, 06 May 2021
Nearly a year has passed since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police on 25 May. Nearly 200 have passed since the birth of “blackface...
First Person: Boris Giltburg on lockdown...
Monday, 03 May 2021
About a year ago, in a distant pre-pandemic world, I remember walking down Edgware Road one cold London evening. I was heading towards Jaques Samuel...
First Person: composer and Renaissance man Tunde...
Wednesday, 28 April 2021
In this era when there is so much talk and discussion around crossing musical boundaries, diversity in music and inter-disciplinary work it seems...
Helen McCrory: 'If there's one interesting thing about acting it's trying to lose your ego'
Three encounters with the great actor who has died at the age of 52 |
The Royal Ballet - variations on a comeback
How one major ballet company survived to dance another day |
The Master Musicians of Joujouka review - a 4000 year-old rock'n'roll band
Healing music from the Rif Mountains of Morocco |
Filmmaker Darius Marder: 'Deafness is a culture. That's not being PC'
Writer and director on Sound of Metal's long journey from concept to award nominations |
Extract: TV by Susan Bordo
On 75 years of changing TV, changing habits and the relationship between TV and Trump |
First Person: violinist Abigail Young on getting back to her Japanese orchestra in Covid year
Leader of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa on the trials of returning to what she loves |
Extract from Sauntering: Writers Walk Europe, introduced and edited by Duncan Minshull
An ode to leisurely aimlessness |
First Person: Anna Lucia Richter on Monteverdi and a transition from soprano to mezzo
A last gift from the pre-Covid era followed by surprises in a time of pandemic |
theartsdesk Q&A: Daryl Hall
Legendary singer-songwriter talks recording, vaccines and reaching a billion streams |
First Person: Clare Norburn on how she came to write her ambitious Zoom-era drama, 'Love in the Lockdown'
Writer-producer Clare Norburn elaborates upon her self-isolation online play |
‘The Healing Power of Music’: composer Nigel Hess on great-aunt Myra’s wartime concerts
Parallels between lockdown solace and a great Dame's National Gallery events |
Britney Spears (1998-present): The Video Special
Britney on video: 23 years of salacious self-objectification and hyper-kitsch |
Disc of the Day 10th Anniversary: the level playing field
Ten years of record reviews show how sometimes deranged variety works in our (and the records') favour |
Reviewing music off-piste: reflections on working beyond the comfort zone
The joy of adventure on unfamiliar ground |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 4: singers speak out
Top tenor Nicky Spence introduces five other distinguished voices on the visa debacle |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 3: violinist Sara Deborah Struntz-Timossi
Another previously free-ranging player adds her voice to individual stories featured here |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 2: violinist Victoria Sayles
First sequel to pianist Sophia Rahman's assembly of musical voices on the visa situation |
'The total confusion about post-Brexit rules adds to the distress': classical musicians speak out
Ten players and administrators on the fallout in government restrictions to EU touring |
'Having to establish a real conversation with the audience is a good challenge': Raffaello Morales on a possible musical future
Pioneer of a rare 2020 success story, the Fidelio Orchestra Cafe, on adapting to change |
Book extract: Fat by Hanne Blank
The multiple personalities of a public enemy, sexual fetish and essential organ |
Dame Fanny Waterman (1920-2020) - some recollections, with love and affection
The Leeds International Piano Competition's Artstic Director remembers its founder |
First Person: conductor Johannes Vogel on Beethoven’s Ninth as re-orchestrated by Mahler
The importance of celebrating the anniversary year’s end with a bang |
First Person(s): soprano Susan Bullock and baritone William Dazeley on filming Britten’s Owen Wingrave
Grange Park Opera makes the most of Covid restrictions by producing a TV opera |
Filmmaker Frank Marshall: 'People don’t understand what geniuses The Bee Gees were'
Director of the new Bee Gees documentary discusses the brothers' legacy in music |
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