Barbican
Sonny Rollins, BarbicanSunday, 21 November 2010
"Being asked to introduce this artist”, began the compere, “is like being asked to introduce God." Fans of Eric Clapton, of course, might beg to differ. But in jazz terms, Sonny Rollins, self-proclaimed “saxophone colossus”, has indisputably been on... Read more... |
Mustonen, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallSaturday, 20 November 2010
Because it was the capricious Finn who got us going and provided us with the evening's only chunks of nourishment. His performance of Rodion Shchedrin's Fourth Piano Concerto was joyous and thrilling. I wasn't expecting a great deal from Shchedrin... Read more... |
Shun-kin, Complicite, Barbican TheatreSaturday, 06 November 2010
Complicite’s Shun-kin delivers sex and violence aplenty. A warped, wilfully kinky fusion of the two lies at the core of the play and its central relationship – sexy, edgy material with just the right degree of poetry to help smooth its way across... Read more... |
Bostridge, Europa Galante, BarbicanSaturday, 30 October 2010
We have good days and we have bad days. Ian Bostridge, at last night’s concert at the Barbican, was not having one of his better ones. But time and CD releases wait for no man, and so he gamely ploughed through his programme of music written for... Read more... |
Q&A Special: The Late Merce CunninghamTuesday, 26 October 2010
Tonight the company dedicated to the greatest radical of modern dance, Merce Cunningham, opens its farewell tour to London, a valedictory odyssey that will end next year. Last year Cunningham died, aged 90. He had just premiered a work called Nearly... Read more... |
Fashion Gallery: Future Beauty - 30 Years of Japanese Fashion, Barbican GalleryThursday, 21 October 2010
Exhibitions about fashion tend to divide the public. Those passionately interested in fashion go to them; everybody else doesn’t. There’s a prevailing view that we already hear enough about top models, superstar designers and their attendant... Read more... |
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, BarbicanFriday, 08 October 2010
Elgar and Delius are two geniuses who only ever composed themselves - the first drawing heavily on psychology and physiognomy, the second drenching his country visions in painful nostalgia. So it made good sense to have man and nature side by side... Read more... |
Tony Allen, BarbicanWednesday, 06 October 2010
Happy Birthday, Tony! Last night the great Nigerian musician celebrated the fact that he has spent 70 years on the planet, with 52 of those years exploring – as no other drummer has explored – the humble kit drum (or drum kit if you prefer). This... Read more... |
Connolly, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bělohlávek, BarbicanSaturday, 02 October 2010
As experienced Wagnerian Jiří Bělohlávek came on to launch the BBCSO's new season in mid-air with the Tristan Prelude, I wondered whether the world's finest interpreter of Isolde's serving maid Brangäne, lustrous mezzo Sarah Connolly, was waiting to... Read more... |
Mullova, London Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons, Barbican HallFriday, 01 October 2010
This season's LSO artist-in-focus, violinist Viktoria Mullova, is an incorrigible off-roader. The rougher the terrain the better. Early, modern, rock, folk: she'll absorb their shocks, vault their bumps, relish their pitfalls and come out without so... Read more... |
Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, BarbicanThursday, 30 September 2010
After only a couple of songs there are shouts from the audience to turn Mulatu up. But these people have missed the point. The clue is in the name of the instrument he's playing: the vibraphone, or vibes for short. The word "vibe" has long been... Read more... |
Les Misérables, BarbicanFriday, 24 September 2010
It's the Mousetrap of musicals, the wholly unstoppable show and, to mark its 25th anniversary this year (the 30th, if you date it back to the initial French concept album and Paris production), it will be staged in London at three different venues.... Read more... |
