mon 17/03/2025

Reviews

Uproar, Rafferty, Royal Welsh College, Cardiff review - colourful new inventions inspired by Ligeti

Stephen Walsh

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

Alexandra Coghlan

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'...

Kieron Tyler

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...

Robert Beale

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...

Jon Turney

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...

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

All Happy Families review - unhappy in their own way

John Carvill

Indie comedy-drama tackles toxic masculinity in the post-#MeToo era

Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same

Kieron Tyler

Belated debut album from the early Creation Records mainstays

Black Bag review - lies, spies and unpleasant surprises

Adam Sweeting

Steven Soderbergh's spy drama is cool, cynical and sometimes very funny

Weather Girl, Soho Theatre review - the apocalypse as surreal black comedy

Helen Hawkins

A Californian weather girl copes with fires inside and outside her head

Clueless: The Musical, Trafalgar Studios review - a perfectly manicured update

Rachel Halliburton

KT Tunstall's new score brings bite and momentum to a high octane evening

Bavouzet, BBCSO, Stasevska, Barbican review - ardent souls in mythic magic

David Nice

Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček

Sister Midnight review - the runaway bridegroom

James Saynor

Goats, vampirism and weird marriage in a madcap Mumbai

The Habits, Hampstead Theatre review - who knows what adventures await?

Aleks Sierz

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

David Nice

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

Helen Hawkins

Jean-Philippe Daguerre tries to mix a farcical comedy of manners with the Holocaust

Jonathan Buckley: One Boat review - a shore thing

Leila Greening

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

David Nice

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

Gary Naylor

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

Robert Beale

Spotlight on today’s composers and one of their sisters from the past

Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After Merseybeat

Kieron Tyler

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

Boyd Tonkin

Cellist, conductor and a great orchestra play Shostakovich for today

Drive to Survive, Season 7, Netflix review - speed, scandal and skulduggery in the pitlane

Adam Sweeting

The F1 documentary series is back on the pace

Bonhoeffer review - flawed biopic of a saintly man of courage

Sebastian Scotney

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

Veronica Lee

The personal and political collide

Twiggy review - portrait of a supermodel who branched out

Markie Robson-Scott

The face of 1966: Sadie Frost's documentary captures Twiggy's extraordinary versatility

On Falling review - human cogs in a merciless machine

Graham Fuller

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

Adam Sweeting

Lucy Boynton excels as the last woman to be executed in Britain

Towards Zero, BBC One review - more entertaining parlour game than crime thriller

Helen Hawkins

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

Helen Hawkins

Perfectly judged performances enhance a subtle staging of Nick Payne's two-hander

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

latest in today

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

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...