Preview
David Nice
Time to face the elephant in the room. Five of the six set-ups listed below are free to access; one is not. While big organisations like the Met – despite not paying its artists or staff since lockdown – and the London Symphony Orchestra can use their generous archive releases to plead for funds, the fact remains that classical musicians are penniless right now, and find themselves staring at blank calendars which will in some cases extend way into 2021. Diminishing pleasures in from-home films don’t pay; middle-range groups and institutions already face at the very least a much-reduced 2021- Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Way into lockdown now and, as the music world adjusts, so what artists are attempting becomes, in some cases, more sophisticated. In others, many impressively make the most of whatever tech they have to hand. Either way it’s always fascinating to check in on the best that’s out there. Below is this week’s pick. Dive in!Foals’ FBC TransmissionsLast Friday Brit Award-winning alt-rockers Foals launched Foals Broadcast Corp Transmissions, a weekly series of short films that will be appearing over 12 weeks on YouTube. Foals are currently poised to become that rare thing, a stadium-level outfit who Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Midway through another week of lockdown, here's a cross section of small good things to keep the eyes and ears entertained. There's some lively stuff here for the old grey matter to chew on. Take a look. Dive in!Neil Young Fireside SessionsNeil Young’s website, neilyoungarchives.com, is densely populated, counter-intuitively designed and fiddly, but, for fans and others willing to persist, the great American singers-songwriter and proto-grunge rocker offers up a plethora of material in his two online “Hearse Theater” screening spaces (set up to look like cinemas). Screen 2 offers a Read more ...
David Nice
Inventiveness waxes ever stronger, it seems, in quarantine, as do the number of faces and instrumental sounds gathered together at any one time. As the branches diversify, embracing pre-filmed concert and opera, solo and multiple livestreams from home, it made sense not to try and yoke all this together, and to give individual slots to each happening, from two innovative opera productions to a fabulous young cellist playing in his back garden. Opera North's Orchestra plays '2001' plusOrchestral get-togethers online have yielded some fascinating results, including the Lahti Symphony Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
As we unwillingly become used to lockdown, most of us are regularly looking for juicy tidbits to pass the time online, so here's another selection that should be well worth a look. Dive in.Sea Change Goes OnlineSea Change Festival, run from Totnes record shop Drift and usually based in Devon across a weekend in August, will be running a virtual edition this weekend. The five year old event, which has garnered a reputation for imaginative, independent curation, offers two days of live sets from Billy Bragg, Midlake, Metronomy, The Breeders, dame of folk, Shirley Collins, extraordinary Texan Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Another week of lockdown so another fresh and lively update on what’s out there, including an interactive orchestra experience, DJ sets, and a concert in your own living room. Dive in!One World: Together at Home – Curated by Lady GagaThe big event in popular music this week is, without doubt, this epic from-their-homes broadcast organized by Global Citizen, the Global Poverty Project’s New York festival arm, and the World Health Organization, in support of frontline healthcare workers. Put together by Lady Gaga, it features an American-leaning who’s who of music stars – Pharrell Williams, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
This morning the largest annual, curated multi-arts festival in England launched and announced its programme of events. With Guest Director, British and Ethiopian poet-playwright-broadcaster Lemn Sissay, MBE, at the helm, Brighton Festival 2020 is themed as Imagine Nation and runs May 2-24. For the seventh year running, theartsdesk will be a major media partner, showcasing preview interviews and reviewing the best of the festival.No longer restricted solely to the city of Brighton & Hove itself, the Festival now takes place across the region with over 120 events, including 17 premieres, Read more ...
theartsdesk
It's been much the same trajectory over the past few years for many of us: look through the Proms prospectus, feel a bit disappointed that there isn't more of the rich and rare, be won round when it comes to the performances. After all, you're probably never going to get better than Martha Argerich in Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, Bruckner's Seventh Symphony from the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by 90-year-old Bernard Haitink in his last official UK concert, or Semyon Bychkov taking charge of the Czech Philharmonic in Shostakovich.Always remember, too, that for many it will be a first Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The striking cover for the Brighton Festival 2019 programme shouts out loud who this year’s Guest Director is. Silhouetted in flowers, in stunning artwork by Simon Prades, is the unmistakeable profile of Malian musician Rokia Traoré. Taking place between 4th and 26th May at a host of south coast venues, this year’s Festival, which launched its schedule of events this morning, looks to be a multi-faceted extravaganza with true international reach. Once again, theartsdesk is proud to be a media partner.“I set out to bring new voices to the city to tell their stories,” Traoré explained, “ Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
In the ever-expanding field of broadcast, it’s easy to get lost in the deluge of product raining down from swaggering global providers who sometimes seem to have more money than critical acumen. How gratifying, then, that some of the best of British TV over this past year has been carefully nurtured and home-grown in Wales, where writers, actors and producers have been punching well above their weight, as well as introducing international viewers to the musical lilt of the Welsh language and doing a sterling sales job for the Welsh tourist board.Thus among our h 100 nominees are Ed Talfan, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
One of the banes of music culture is over-categorisation. It always has been. The statement that there are only two types of music, good and bad, has been apocryphally attributed to a wide range of figureheads – most especially Louis Armstrong – but whoever said it first, the reason it keeps popping back up is there’s a truth to it. The music nominees for this year’s Hospital Club h 100 Awards reflect a satisfying public swerve away from niche listening, away from those who would isolate via genre and background, a move towards opening all out to all, which can only be a healthy development. Read more ...
Keaton Henson
This Friday, July 20, sees the world premiere of Six Lethargies, a composition by the singer-songwriter Keaton Henson, created collaboratively with various artists, including the Britten Sinfonia who’ll be performing it. Henson, who has six acclaimed albums to his name and is also a successful visual artist, created the work over three years around the theme of anxiety and depression. By way of research, as well as drawing on his personal experiences in the area of mental health, he met with neuroscientists and music theorists, eventually bringing an immersive installation element to the Read more ...