Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Wes Montgomery - The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings
Sunday, 11 April 2021
Speaking to America’s Hit Parader magazine in August 1967, Frank Zappa said “If you want to learn how to play guitar, listen to Wes Montgomery.” The article was titled My Favorite Records and the head Mother was being featured shortly after the release of Absolutely Free, the second Mothers Of Invention alb
Night in Paradise review - lukewarm bloodbath
Sunday, 11 April 2021
Since launching his directing career in 2011 with The Showdown, Park Hoon-jung has established himself as a promising devotee of the bloody gangster genre. The pandemic may have slowed the South Korean director’s momentum, as the producers were forced to release the film belatedly on Netflix.
Sequin in a Blue Room review - soullessness and...
Saturday, 10 April 2021
Sequin is the screen name for the questing 16-year-old at the slowly awakening heart of Sequin in a Blue Room, a 2019 Australian film only now...
The Seven Deadly Sins / Mahagonny Songspiel,...
Saturday, 10 April 2021
There are so many good ideas, so much talented hard work from the singers of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and two dancers, such a...
Castalian Quartet, Stoller Hall, Manchester...
Friday, 09 April 2021
The Polyphonic Concert Club is a collective of musicians – including Isata Kanneh-Mason and I Fagiolini – offering recorded chamber recitals released...
Sound of Metal review - hidden depths behind the decibels
Absorbing story of hard choices and self-knowledge |
This is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist, Netflix - the last word (for now)
Three decades on and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum mystery is still hot |
Undine review - respecting the nymph
A captivating if unexpected mythic romance from director Christian Petzold |
Intruder, Channel 5 review - implausible but watchable
The death of a home invader opens a can of worms |
Andrea Bajani: If You Kept a Record of Sins review - where blame, grief and discovery meet
Irresistibly spare narrative reckons with a mother’s death in Romania |
Loyiso Gola, Netflix review - South African muses on race, religion and friendship
Reflections that make you stop and think |
Romeo and Juliet, National Theatre online review - a triumphant hybrid
Simon Godwin's debut film is part dressed-down rehearsal, part cinematic flourish |
Queen Elizabeth and the Spy in the Palace, Channel 4 review - how the Fourth Man burrowed deep into the British Establishment
Did Anthony Blunt uncover secrets which threatened the survival of the house of Windsor? |
Wilderness review – 'what comes after besotted?'
Improvisatory filmmaking underpinned by a magical jazz soundtrack |
Messiah highlights, English National Opera, BBC Two review – short-cut sorrow and redemption
Fine performances: but why this brutally truncated Handel? |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker (2010➝2020)
Box-set makeover of one of the last decade or so’s greatest albums |
Bach St John Passions from Oxford and Stockholm online review – theatrical drive from Gardiner, interiority under Harding
Fine young English Evangelist and Christ versus Gerhaher, Hallenberg and others |
Living Newspaper, Edition 3, Royal Court online review – bleak news, sharp words
Third instalment of the irreverent series takes on Boris, star signs, and casual sexism |
Godzilla vs. Kong review - let battle commence (again)
CGI monsters have more character development than the humans who share the screen |
The Drifters review - lovers-on-the-run with little moral depth
Sloppy mash up of New Wave, Tarantino and post-Brexit issues |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 63: KMFDM, Laurie Anderson, Seratones, The Telescopes, Black Sabbath, Conrad Schnitzler and more
The biggest bumper crop of vinyl record reviews out there |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, SHAKE Festival livestream review - a star turn from Luisa Omielan makes this 'Bottom's Dream'
Jenny Caron Hall's production, with sister Rebecca starring, offers 'mechanical' treats |
Ibragimova, Davies, Sampson, Arcangelo, Wigmore Hall online review – baroque masterpieces played with verve
Violin concertos that bustle contrast with a dark and moving Stabat Mater |
The Mauritanian review – moving 9/11 drama
Lawyers for Guantanamo detainee find that justice and the War on Terror don't mix |
Tenebrae, Short, Wigmore Hall online review - reflections for Holy Week
Rich and clear singing in a programme of Schütz, Bach and Reger |
Will Page: Tarzan Economics - a 'rockonomist' writes
A lively book with a music industry slant |
Working From Home online review - Johnny Vegas and Jason Byrne in a strong line-up
Livestreamed variety evening is terrific fun |
Album: Ryley Walker - Course In Fable
The musically aware singer-songwriter at his most assured, most direct |
L'heure espagnole, Grange Park Opera online review - seduction and sandwiches in 60 minutes
Ravel takes a Kensington lunchbreak, in an operatic updating for the YouTube generation |
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Reissue CDs Weekly: Wes Montgomery - The NDR Hamburg Studio...
Speaking to America’s Hit Parader magazine in August 1967...
Night in Paradise review - lukewarm bloodbath
Since launching his directing career in 2011 with The Showdown, Park Hoon-jung has established himself as a promising devotee of the...
DVD/Blu-ray: Catch Us If You Can
Catch Us If You Can, the 1965 road movie starring Barbara Ferris and the eponymous drummer and guiding force of the Dave Clark Five,...
Sequin in a Blue Room review - soullessness and sex in Sydne...
Sequin is the screen name for the questing 16-year...
The Seven Deadly Sins / Mahagonny Songspiel, Royal Opera onl...
There are so many good ideas, so much talented hard work from the singers of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and two dancers, such a...
Album: Alan Vega - Mutator
If there’s someone who could claim to have proved Arnold Schoenberg’s pithy phrase “If it is art, it is not for all” it was Alan Vega. His and...