Norway
Occupied, Sky ArtsThursday, 14 January 2016
Even the most glazed-eyed Europhile must have begun to notice that the EU's righteous halo is dimming a tiny bit. Against a backdrop of currency chaos and uncontrolled immigration, issues of sovereignty and national self-determination are... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 15Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Is language a barrier to international recognition? Is English necessary to make waves worldwide? Musicians from the African continent and South America regularly perform in their native tongue beyond the borders of their home countries. But often... Read more... |
Little Eyolf, Almeida TheatreFriday, 27 November 2015
Greek family smashups at the Almeida now yield to northern agony sagas, less bloody but potentially just as harrowing. In Little Eyolf the 66-year-old Ibsen dissected a failed marriage as ruthlessly as Euripides, Strindberg or Bergman, who... Read more... |
Morgen und Abend, Royal OperaSaturday, 14 November 2015
It’s never funny like Ligeti’s Le grand macabre, though it touches on that joke apocalypse’s more nebulous soundscapes. Nor is it obviously dynamic like David Sawer’s From Morning to Midnight, with which its title is not to be confused (there are no... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Edward GardnerSaturday, 31 October 2015
It’s odd seeing the whole of Edward Gardner, as upright as a guardsman until a passionate passage unleashes a repertoire of fierce jabs, deft feints and rapid thrusts. For nine years Gardner's main post was on the podium in the pit of the London... Read more... |
CD: Dungen - Allas SakMonday, 28 September 2015
From its title-track opening cut to the final moments of its closer “Sova”, Allas Sak is recognisably a Dungen album. The musical dynamic between the Swedish quartet’s members and their collective sound is so distinctive that they effectively... Read more... |
The Image of Melancholy, Eike, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseMonday, 21 September 2015
“Sounds a bit depressing,” said several friends when I urged them to attend the theatrical incarnation of The Image of Melancholy, inspirational violinist Bjarte Eike’s award-winning CD with his stunning Norwegian-based group Barokksolistene.... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 14Monday, 17 August 2015
Don’t be fooled by the header picture. Despite the relaxed poses, Iceland’s Pink Street Boys are amongst the angriest, loudest, most unhinged bands on the planet right now. Hits #1, their debut vinyl album – which follows distorted-sounding, lower-... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: From heritage to art nowWednesday, 22 July 2015
Things you might know about Oslo: it’s expensive and the cost of a beer, wine, dinner for two – whatever your tourist yardstick – might make your hair stand on end (the cost of living is currently second only to Singapore city, according to a 2014... Read more... |
10 Questions for Pianist Leif Ove AndsnesMonday, 20 July 2015
Though perhaps not quite the "long strange trip" once hymned by the Grateful Dead, Leif Ove Andsnes's Beethoven Journey has been a marathon undertaking. It has spanned four years, during which the Norwegian pianist and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Førdefestivalen: Music and the midnight sunSunday, 12 July 2015
The first thing that strikes you at 3am is the light, that strange disembodied glow of Norway’s midsummer midnight sun casting its rays over a landscape soaked in fantasy proportions – sheer glacial drops of greenstone, sweet-water fjords... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Bergen 2: Leif Ove Andsnes curatesMonday, 08 June 2015
If this were only the usual international festival – and it’s still a big “only” where Bergen’s flagship fortnight of theatre, dance, art and music is concerned – it might not be easy to justify swanning off to one of the most beautifully situated... Read more... |
