Reviews
Uproar, Rafferty, Royal Welsh College, Cardiff review - colourful new inventions inspired by Ligeti
Sunday, 16 March 2025
There’s a lot to be said for the planning that clearly went into this concert by the Cardiff-based new music ensemble, Uproar. Starting with Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto, it added three new commissions for (more or less) the same band and a fourth, existing piece previously composed to go with the Ligeti.
Attacca Quartet, Kings Place review - bridging the centuries in sound
Sunday, 16 March 2025
Memorably described by Gramophone magazine as the “new kids on the classical block…with lavish pocket money”, Apple’s London-based label Platoon is busy cementing its street cred with an ongoing concert series at Kings Place.
Music Reissues Weekly: Norma Tanega - I Don'...
Sunday, 16 March 2025
After scoring a hit in 1966 with the distinctive folk-pop of her jazz-inclined debut single "Walkin' my Cat Named Dog," US singer-songwriter Norma...
Manchester Collective, RNCM review - exploring...
Saturday, 15 March 2025
Manchester Collective, now very much a part of the establishment world of new music, are still enlarging their territory. For this set, performed in...
Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human...
Saturday, 15 March 2025
Henry Gee’s previous book, A Brief History of Life on Earth, made an interestingly downbeat read for a title that won the UK’s science book prize. He...
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All Happy Families review - unhappy in their own way
Indie comedy-drama tackles toxic masculinity in the post-#MeToo era |
Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same
Belated debut album from the early Creation Records mainstays |
Black Bag review - lies, spies and unpleasant surprises
Steven Soderbergh's spy drama is cool, cynical and sometimes very funny |
Weather Girl, Soho Theatre review - the apocalypse as surreal black comedy
A Californian weather girl copes with fires inside and outside her head |
Clueless: The Musical, Trafalgar Studios review - a perfectly manicured update
KT Tunstall's new score brings bite and momentum to a high octane evening |
Bavouzet, BBCSO, Stasevska, Barbican review - ardent souls in mythic magic
Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček |
Sister Midnight review - the runaway bridegroom
Goats, vampirism and weird marriage in a madcap Mumbai |
The Habits, Hampstead Theatre review - who knows what adventures await?
New play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy |
Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, RFH review - anger unleashed, fantasy finessed in Prokofiev
Instant communication from Berlin-based pianist and Hungarian army of generals |
Farewell Mister Haffmann, Park Theatre review - French hit of confusing genre, with a real historical villain
Jean-Philippe Daguerre tries to mix a farcical comedy of manners with the Holocaust |
Jonathan Buckley: One Boat review - a shore thing
Buckley’s 13th novel is a powerful reflection on intimacy and grief |
A Form of Exile: Edward Said and Late Style, CLS, Wood, QEH review - baggy ferment of ideas and sounds
Superlative actors and musicians in an over-ambitious event running to three hours |
Edward II, RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford review - monarchs, murder and mayhem from Marlowe
Putsch in the palace brings down a king who chose the wrong person to love |
BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - an International Women's Day special
Spotlight on today’s composers and one of their sisters from the past |
Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After Merseybeat
Times changed, but the city which birthed The Beatles still came up with the goods |
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - from Russia, with tough love
Cellist, conductor and a great orchestra play Shostakovich for today |
Drive to Survive, Season 7, Netflix review - speed, scandal and skulduggery in the pitlane
The F1 documentary series is back on the pace |
Bonhoeffer review - flawed biopic of a saintly man of courage
This film about the pastor accused of conspiring in the Hitler assassination plot raises more questions than it answers |
Matt Forde, Touring review - politics, poo and Viagra
The personal and political collide |
Twiggy review - portrait of a supermodel who branched out
The face of 1966: Sadie Frost's documentary captures Twiggy's extraordinary versatility |
On Falling review - human cogs in a merciless machine
Mesmerising drama about a gig economy worker at the end of her tether |
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, ITV1 review - powerful dramatisation of the 1955 case that shocked the public
Lucy Boynton excels as the last woman to be executed in Britain |
Towards Zero, BBC One review - more entertaining parlour game than crime thriller
The latest Agatha Christie adaptation is well cast and lavishly done but a tad too sedate |
One Day When We Were Young, Park Theatre review - mini-marvel with a poignant punch
Perfectly judged performances enhance a subtle staging of Nick Payne's two-hander |
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Uproar, Rafferty, Royal Welsh College, Cardiff review - colo...
There’s a lot to be said for the planning that clearly went into this concert by the Cardiff-based new music ensemble, Uproar....
Attacca Quartet, Kings Place review - bridging the centuries...
Memorably described by Gramophone magazine as the “new kids on the classical block…with lavish pocket money”, Apple’s London-based label...
Music Reissues Weekly: Norma Tanega - I Don't Think It...
After scoring a hit in 1966 with the distinctive folk-pop of her jazz-inclined debut single "Walkin' my Cat Named Dog," US singer-songwriter Norma...
Manchester Collective, RNCM review - exploring new territory
Manchester Collective, now very much a part of the establishment world of new music, are still enlarging their territory. For this set, performed...
Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Ou...
Henry Gee’s previous book, A Brief History of Life on Earth, made an interestingly downbeat read for a title that won the UK...
All Happy Families review - unhappy in their own way
Director Haroula Rose’s gentle, good-hearted new comedy-drama All Happy Families takes its title from the famous first sentence...
Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The S...
“Sitting on a sofa, cigarettes and beer, ten years disappear…agreeing to agree, just to get along.” By going into the difficulties of...
Black Bag review - lies, spies and unpleasant surprises
Michael Fassbender recently starred in Paramount+’s rather laborious spy drama The Agency, but here he finds himself at the centre of a...
Weather Girl, Soho Theatre review - the apocalypse as surrea...
Can Francesca Moody do it again? Fleabag’s producer has brought Weather Girl to London, after a successful run at...