Buzz
Jasper Rees
In their recommendations of the best of this year's BBC Proms, theartsdesk's music writers have been thunderously silent on the only event that will excite a certain section of the audience demographic. I refer, of course, to what will no doubt become the traditional Doctor Who Prom. Or Proms.In 2008 the inaugural Prom featuring music from the flagship BBC One drama was so successful, drawing a sizeable audience on television as well as many junior first-timers to a classical concert, that this time round the ever-inclusive Proms boss Roger Wright has scheduled two of them. So Prom 10 on Read more ...
joe.muggs
“I'm moving to Berlin.” In artistic circles and especially those that include electronic musicians, over the past few years such a threat has become so commonplace as to be cliché. It's not without reason, though. For one, despite gentrification, Berlin has endless space (and empty industrial artistic “spaces”) and its cost of living is about a two-hundredth that of London. And just as importantly, it is more soaked in electronic music than anywhere else on the planet.From the Weimar Republic, through West Berlin's defiant isolation, the city thrived on decadent nightlife; electronic Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
The American Classical Orchestra is generously offering to lighten the gloom of Europeans trapped by the volcanic cloud in New York (although it's hardly the worst place for an enforced stopover). This Saturday the ACO performs the climactic concert of its 25th-anniversary season at the Big Apple's Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, and any stranded European nationals will be given a free ticket if they show their passport at the door.Concert preview on YouTube
It's a rumbustious bill. It opens with Handel's Coronation Anthems, which will be adorned by 60 dancers from the Conservatory Read more ...
sheila.johnston
Cheering news for Brits in Cannes (always assuming anyone is actually able to travel there this year). Originally rumoured to be in line for the Critics' Week, a young British filmmaker, Alicia Duffy, has now secured an even better berth: her first feature has been selected by the Directors' Fortnight, the prestigious parallel (and rival) event to the main competition.All Good Children is about two young Irish boys who move to rural France after the death of their mother and, we're told, "hypnotically plays out in the gap between childish fantasy and adult reality". Duffy's prize-winning Read more ...
Peter Culshaw
Joanna Wos (left, no relation to Jonathan Ross) put in a stellar performance last night singing in Gorecki's Third Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall with the LPO, singing the part made famous on the million-selling recording by Dawn Upshaw. To get there, she drove for three days and nights from Poland arriving yesterday afternoon. What a trouper. It would be unfair to judge her against Upshaw in the circumstances. But I will. She didn't quite have Upshaw's power, but she was splendidly expressive. She even reminded me, strangely, at times of Victoria de los Angeles. And the LPO seemed Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Despite his "interesting" haircut and fondness for the undeleted expletive, violinist Nigel Kennedy is a man of exceptional taste and discernment. While recording his new jazz album Shhh! at Rockfield studios, he took time out to hail theartsdesk and greet the 'desk's Adam Sweeting.This is a hectic year for Kennedy. He's currently playing a programme of J.S. Bach and Duke Ellington on a German tour with his newly-formed Orchestra of Life, comprising young musicians from Kennedy's adoptive home, Poland, and at the end of May he hosts a weekend of Polish music (and other activities) on London's Read more ...
sheila.johnston
New films by Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears and Sophie Fiennes figure in the line-up of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, which was announced at a press conference in Paris this morning. As expected, Leigh's Another Year will vie for the Palme d'Or, the only British film to be selected. Frears's Tamara Drewe, based on the Guardian comic strip, plays out of competition, as does Oliver Stone's Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps and Woody Allen's London-set You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Also out of competition, Fiennes's Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, a film about the artist Anselm Kiefer, gets Read more ...
David Nice
Britain's most exciting wunderkind conductor since Simon Rattle first emerged - and, no, I haven't forgotten Daniel Harding - has big plans for his first full season with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Robin Ticciati is one of the new-generation firebrands determined to change the face of concert planning, hoping to achieve wonders similar to what Vladimir Jurowski has already stage-managed with the LPO.So the SCO's 2010-11 season has some fireworks. Maybe the concert performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni isn't so much of a surprise, given the SCO's track record with Sir Charles Mackerras, Read more ...
sheila.johnston
Making movies has never been cheaper. Learning how to make them is another matter altogether. Film courses abound, but they invariably cost many times more than, say, Marc Price claims he spent on Colin, his £45 zombie flick. Mindful of this, the East End Film Festival is offering impecunious would-be producers a chance to learn the business for a mere tenner. Subsidised by Skillset, the one-day course takes place on 28 April and consists of "training, mentoring, peer review and networking". There are just 10 places, so hurry while stocks last. The application form can be downloaded here and Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
From Monday 12 April, retro channel History is airing a 10-part series called WWII Lost Films. It will present the story of the Second World War from the viewpoints of 12 Americans involved in the war effort, using a newly restored stash of rare and unseen colour footage.Providing a real-life counterpoint to the fictional saga The Pacific (showing on Sky Movies Premiere), the series draws on more than 3,000 hours of film culled from private collections and archives around the globe. The footage has been restored to HD quality and refurbished with Dolby-enhanced audio, with voice-overs Read more ...
David Nice
Those of us who shied away from the Manchester world premiere of Rufus Wainwright's first opera, Prima Donna, last year are biting our nails about the first London performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre on Monday. Fond as we are of some masterly songs on his albums, we wonder if he's boxing above his weight in indulging his love of opera... and in French, too (OK, he grew up speaking it, but even so, it's pretentious French for English-speaking audiences). This evening, Radio 3's In Tune featured an interview with our Rufus and a preview performance by top-notch soprano Janis Kelly of her Read more ...