features & interviews

Best of 2025: Film

theartsdesk |

SASKIA BARON
1 One Battle After Another
2. Sinners
3 It was Just an Accident
4  Palestine 36
5  Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
6  April
7 Motherboard
8 Holy Cow
9 The Brutalist
10 Pillion
 

First Person: Kerem Hasan on the transformative experience of conducting Jake Heggie's 'Dead Man Walking'

Kerem Hasan |

There is a scene in the second act of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking in which the man condemned to death, Joseph De Rocher, with his spiritual advisor Sister Helen Prejean in tow, have a devastating interaction with his mother.  A final, inconsolable goodbye before De Rocher is processed for his impending execution. 

Bizet in 150th anniversary year: rich and rare French offerings from Palazzetto Bru Zane

David Nice
Georges Bizet was born on this day in 1838. He died at the tragically early age of 36, 150 years ago, and the anniversary year has brought forth for…

First Person: clarinettist Oliver Pashley on the new horizons of The Hermes Experiment's latest album

Oliver Pashley
“Why the name?” and “Why the instruments?” are the two most common things we get asked about our group. As a member of The Hermes Experiment, a…

First Person: Manchester Camerata's Head of Artistic Planning Clara Marshall Cawley on questioning the status quo

Clara Marshall Cawley
Over the past decade, Manchester Camerata has gained a reputation for continually innovating and redefining what an orchestra can do. But what does…

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Robert Redford (1936-2025)

James Saynor
The star was more admired within the screen trade than by the critics

First Person: Musician ALA.NI on how thoughts of empire and reparation influenced a song

ALA.NI
She usually sings about affairs of the heart - 'TIEF' is different, explains the star

Interview: Quinteto Astor Piazzolla on playing in London and why Mick Jagger's a fan

Rachel Halliburton
Music Director Julián Vat and pianist Matias Feigin compare notes on Piazzolla

Sir Brian Clarke (1953-2025) - a personal tribute

Mark Kidel
Remembering an artist with a gift for the transcendent

The Road to Patagonia review - journey to the end of the world

Hugh Barnes
In search of love and the meaning of life on the boho surf trail

First Person: country singer Tami Neilson on the superpower of sisterhood

Tami Neilson
The Canadian-born, New Zealand-based artist on how women have empowered her career

Alfred Brendel 1931-2025 - a personal tribute

Mark Kidel
A master of feeling and intellect

10 Questions for musician Michael Gira

Guy Oddy
Experimental rock titan on never retiring, meeting his idols and Swans’ new album

'Classic-era prog’s Olympian pinnacle': Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' returns in their restored Pompeii concert film and as Nick Mason's band's vinyl hit

Graham Fuller
The band's legendary track from 1971 resurfaces not once, but twice

First Person: young cellist Zlatomir Fung on operatic fantasies old and new

Zlatomir Fung
Fresh takes on Janáček's 'Jenůfa' and Bizet's 'Carmen' are on the menu

First Person: rising folk star Amelia Coburn on her French inspiration

Amelia Coburn
The Middlesbrough singer-songwriter on the background story to her latest single

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

Christopher Gray
A showcase for contemporary choral works appropriate to this time

First Person: singer-songwriter David Gray on how the songs on his new album came to him

David Gray
One of this century's most successful British singers still finds magic in the act of creation

Oscars 2025: long day's journey into 'Anora'

Matt Wolf
'Anora' creator Sean Baker wins four trophies in a night full of firsts - and a second trophy for Adrien Brody

First Person: writer Lauren Mooney on bringing bodies together in the new Royal Court play, 'More Life'

Lauren Mooney
Kandinsky Theatre co-creator on a new play tethering technology to existence

David Lynch: In Dreams (1946-2025)

Nick Hasted
The director, who has died aged 78, rewired cinema with nightmare logic, an underground ethos and weird, wondrous innocence

Best of 2024: Books

theartsdesk
As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us

Best of 2024: Film

theartsdesk
theartsdesk's movie critics pick their favourites from the last 12 months

First Person: cellist Matthew Barley on composing and recording his 'Light Stories'

Matthew Barley
Conceived a year ago, a short but intense musical journey

First Person: singer-songwriter Sam Amidon on working in Dingle with Teaċ Daṁsa on 'Nobodaddy'

Sam Amidon
Michael Keegan-Dolan’s mind-boggling total work of art arrives at Sadlers Wells this week

First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertos

Alec Frank-Gemmill
On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist

'His ideal worlds embraced me with their light and love': violinist Irène Duval on the music of Fauré

Irène Duval
On the centenary of the great French composer's death, a fine interpreter pays homage

Documentary highlights from the 2024 London Film Festival

Saskia Baron
A close look at insightful new non-fiction films about single motherhood, visionary photographers, scam artists, legacies of colonialism, and more

First Person: Bob Riley on Manchester Camerata's championship of a Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia

Bob Riley
Making a difference out of the musical ghetto

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