theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 29 April 2024
As he approaches his 70th birthday, Masaaki Suzuki has not just travelled into pastures new but proved himself thoroughly at home in them. The founder-director (in 1990) of Bach...
Jane Edwardes
Monday, 29 April 2024
Small scale shows, nurtured in offbeat places, are becoming all the rage in the West End. Red Pitch, Operation Mincemeat, For Black Boys… have already made their mark, and now...
Sarah Kent
Monday, 29 April 2024
In 1903, Wassily Kandinsky painted a figure in a blue cloak galloping across a landscape on a white horse. Several years later the name of the painting, The Blue Rider (der Blaue...
Guy Oddy
Monday, 29 April 2024
On Friday evening, dance veterans Orbital touched down in Birmingham to celebrate two of the most significant and acclaimed albums in rave culture. These discs may both be over 30...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 29 April 2024
An appearance on Taskmaster and the publication of her acclaimed memoir Strong Female Character have helped propel Fern Brady into the comedy big time – and now comes the accolade...
Kieron Tyler
Monday, 29 April 2024
The Lemon Twigs aren’t shy about telegraphing their inspirations. A Dream is all we Know, their swift follow-up to last May’s Everything Harmony, is stuffed with references. “...
David Nice
Sunday, 28 April 2024
Four years embracing pandemic, genocide and rapid environmental degradation predicted by Wagner’s grand myth have passed...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 28 April 2024
Edinburgh’s Rezillos were booked to play Middlesbrough’s Rock Garden on Wednesday 14 September 1977. “I Can’t Stand my Baby...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 27 April 2024
The last of the old maestros is standing tall. Marco Bellocchio was a Marxist firebrand when he made his iconoclastic debut...
Gary Naylor
Saturday, 27 April 2024
Cricket has always been a lens through which to examine the legacy of the British Empire. In the 1930s, the infamous...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 27 April 2024
Chopin: Études op.10 & op.25 Yunchan Lim (Decca)Chopin Nicolas van Poucke (Night Dreamer)I’m reviewing these two...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 27 April 2024
Justice are a couple of super-suave rock star analogues. Leathers and aviators, yes, but with a very Parisian insouciance....
Justine Elias
Friday, 26 April 2024
Earthrise, the 1968 Apollo 8 photograph of our small island of a planet, taken from the Moon’s surface, transformed our...
Cheri Amour
Friday, 26 April 2024
The thing with Annie Clark, better known as the triple-Grammy-winning iconoclast St Vincent, is that much like an actual...
Mark Sheerin
Thursday, 25 April 2024
With a troubled gaze and a lived-in face, the portrait of artist Alberto Giacometti on a withdrawn Swiss banknote is strange...
Rachel Halliburton
Thursday, 25 April 2024
The French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca confesses that – like so many classical musicians – he was at a loss during...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 25 April 2024
In director Pat Collins’s lyrical adaptation of John McGahern’s last novel, with cinematography by Richard Kendrick, the...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 25 April 2024
This album came with an absolutely enormous promo campaign. As well as actual advertising there were “Audience With…” events...
David Nice
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Advice to young musicians, as given at several “how to market your career” seminars: don’t begin a biography with “one of...
disc of the day
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know
When self-assurance trumps unashamedly showcasing influences
tv
Blue Lights Series 2, BBC One review - still our best cop show despite a slacker structure
The engaging Belfast cops are less tightly focused this time around
Baby Reindeer, Netflix review - a misery memoir disturbingly presented
Richard Gadd's double traumas are a difficult watch but ultimately inspiring
Anthracite, Netflix review - murderous mysteries in the French Alps
Who can unravel the ghastly secrets of the town of Lévionna?
film
theartsdesk Q&A: Marco Bellocchio - the last maestro
Italian cinema's vigorous grand old man discusses Kidnapped, conversion, anarchy and faith in cinema
I.S.S. review - sci-fi with a sting in the tail
The imperilled space station isn't the worst place to be
That They May Face The Rising Sun review - lyrical adaptation of John McGahern's novel
Pat Collins extracts the magic of country life in the west of Ireland in his third feature film
new music
Orbital, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - the techno titans celebrate their rave years in style
The 'Green' and 'Brown' albums get a full airing to an ecstatic crowd
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know
When self-assurance trumps unashamedly showcasing influences
Music Reissues Weekly: Warsaw - Middlesbrough 14th September 1977, Joy Division - Manchester 28th September 1979
Thrilling live document of one of Britain’s greatest bands
classical
Queyras, Philharmonia, Suzuki, RFH review - Romantic journeys
Japan's Bach maestro flourishes in fresh fields
Classical CDs: Swans, hamlets and bossa nova
A promising young pianist's debut disc, plus Finnish mythology and a trio of neglected British composers
Christian Pierre La Marca, Yaman Okur, St Martin-in-The-Fields review - engagingly subversive pairing falls short
A collaboration between a cellist and a breakdancer doesn't achieve lift off
opera
Götterdämmerung, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - outside looking and listening in, always with fascination
Every orchestral phrase and colour perfect, vocal drama often a notch below
Simon Boccanegra, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - thrilling, magnificent exploration
Verdi’s original version of the opera brought to exciting life
Aci by the River, London Handel Festival, Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse review - myths for the #MeToo age
Star singers shine in a Handel rarity
theatre
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), Criterion Theatre review - rueful and funny musical gets West End upgrade
A Brit and a New Yorker struggle to find common ground in lively new British musical
Testmatch, Orange Tree Theatre review - Raj rage, old and new, flares in cricket dramedy
Winning performances cannot overcome a scattergun approach to a ragbag of issues
Banging Denmark, Finborough Theatre review - lively but confusing comedy of modern manners
Superb cast deliver Van Badham's anti-incel barbs and feminist wit with gusto
dance
All You Need Is Death review - a future folk horror classic
Irish folkies seek a cursed ancient song in Paul Duane's impressive fiction debut
MacMillan Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - out of mothballs, three vintage works to marvel at
Less-known pieces spanning the career of a great choreographer underline his greatness
Carmen, English National Ballet review - lots of energy, even violence, but nothing new to say
Johan Inger's take on Carmen tries but fails to make a point about male violence
comedy
Jonathan Pie, Duke of York's Theatre review - spoof political reporter takes no prisoners
Tom Walker in a bravura display
Spencer Jones: Making Friends, Soho Theatre review - award-winning comedian mines his post-lockdown escape to the country
If big chickens scare you, this is your thing!
Books
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review - a view from the boundaries
Enjoyable journey through the byways of how lines on maps have shaped the modern world
Lisa Kaltenegger: Alien Earths review - a whole new world
Kaltenegger's traverses space in her thoughtful exploration of the search for life among the stars
Heather McCalden: The Observable Universe review - reflections from a damaged life
An artist pens a genre-spanning work of tender inconclusiveness
visual arts
Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, Tate Modern review - a missed opportunity
Wonderful paintings, but only half the story
Eye to Eye: Homage to Ernst Scheidegger, MASI Lugano review - era-defining artist portraits
One of Switzerland's greatest photographers celebrated with a major retrospective
Stephen review - a breathtakingly good first feature by a multi-media artist
Melanie Manchot's debut is strikingly intelligent and compelling
latest comments
Saw this wonderful opera last night in Cheltenham...
Couldn't agree more. THIS is the one to see to...
I watched it yesterday and it made feel like "Oh...
I saw this today at The Curve, why any theatre...
Y'all be giving out 100's like hotcakes, do y'all...
Seen in Oxford 9th April. I agree entirely...
Gee thanks, Richard... but the truth is, only...
I tried to warn you...