Reviews
Music Reissues Weekly: Stefan Gnyś - Horizoning
Sunday, 24 November 2024
For most of Canada’s listening public, their country-man Stefan Gnyś – pronounced G'neesh – wasn’t a concern. The 300 copies of his 1969 single didn’t make it to shops. There was little promotion and limited radio play. Gnyś had paid RCA Limited Recording Services to press the seven-incher. Beyond this transaction, there was no record company involvement.
Wicked review - overly busy if beautifully sung cliffhanger
Saturday, 23 November 2024
"No one mourns the wicked," we're told during the immediately arresting beginning to Wicked, which concludes two hours 40 minutes later with the words, "to be continued" flashed up on the screen. Will filmgoers mourn that they have to wait an entire year to see the second part of this supercharged screen adaptation of the stage musical blockbuster that London and New York audiences can currently absorb in a single sitting?
Akram Khan, GIGENIS, Sadler’s Wells review - now...
Saturday, 23 November 2024
London-born Akram Khan has come a long way in a 35-year career. He performed as a young teen in Peter Brook’s production of The Mahabharata,...
Snow Leopard review - clunky visual effects mar a...
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Pema Tseden's final film Snow Leopard is a Chinese Tibetan-language drama that addresses wild animal preservation. It serves as a kind of allegory...
King James, Hampstead Theatre review - UK...
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Cleveland is probably the American city most like the one in which I grew up. Early into the icy embrace of post-industrialisation, not really on the...
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Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme valediction forbidding mourning
Nonagenarian conductor provides the flow, his players the passion, in Mahler's Ninth |
Hannah Scott, Worthing Pavilion Theatre Atrium review - filling an arctic venue with human warmth
Singer-songwriter brings moving, autobiographical songs to the freezing south coast |
A Christmas Carol, Old Vic review - tidings of discomfort and noise
This venue’s annual festive classic is joyous, but its writing is frankly patronising |
Mediha review - a brutalised Yazidi teen comes of age with a camera
A documentary frames the video diary of a Yazidi girl who suffered horrific abuse |
Perianes, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Payare, Barbican review - elegance and drama but not enough bite
Often dynamic Venezuelan conductor misses the darkness of the 'Symphonie fantastique' |
English Teacher, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow review - Mercury winners step up in size with style
The Leeds quartet's set was varied in genre but thrilling when punchy |
Kemah Bob, Soho Theatre review - Thailand, massage and mental health
Texan's full-length debut is a personal story |
[title of show], Southwark Playhouse review - two guys and two girls write about writing, delightfully
Revival of New York show lifts the spirits |
Album: Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
The flawless union of style and substance |
La Serenissima, Wigmore Hall review - an Italian menu to savour
Tasty Baroque discoveries, tastefully delivered |
Jon Fosse: Morning and Evening review - after thoughts
Damion Searls thoughtfully translates the wise words of 2023’s Nobel Prize winner |
Roman Rabinovich, Wigmore Hall review - full tone in four styles
Fascinating Haydn, Debussy and Schumann, odd Beethoven |
Wyn, Dwyer, McAteer, RSNO & Choirs, Diakun, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - ebullient but bitty
‘Carmina Burana’ is fun in parts, but Langer’s ‘Dong’ doesn’t flow |
Kenny Barron Trio, Ronnie Scott's review - a master of the cool
Eloquent story-telling from jazz giant |
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Chauhan, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - from grief to peace
Anna Clyne, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss tell us about loss, struggle and healing |
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat review - jazz-themed documentary on the 1960s Congo Crisis
Musicians played different roles in the struggles of the newly independent African country |
Gladiator II review - can lightning strike twice?
Sir Ridley Scott makes a big, bold return to the Roman Empire |
Music Reissues Weekly: Magazine - Real Life, Secondhand Daylight, The Correct Use of Soap
The first three albums from Howard Devoto’s post-punk marvels hit the shops again |
Bob Dylan, Royal Albert Hall review - cracked ritual from rock elder
A glorious mixture of mask and authenticity |
The Elixir of Love, English National Opera review - a tale of two halves
Flat first act, livelier second, singers not always helped by conductor and director |
Maddaddam, Royal Ballet review - superb dancing in a confusing frame
Wayne McGregor's version of Margaret Atwood's dystopia needs a clearer map |
ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime
Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope |
The Sound Voice Project, Linbury Theatre review - an art installation that has strayed into an opera house
A worthy project fails to ignite as art |
Joy review - the birth pangs of in vitro fertilisation
Subtle drama about the quest to give women a childbearing choice |
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Music Reissues Weekly: Stefan Gnyś - Horizoning
For most of Canada’s listening public, their country-man Stefan Gnyś – pronounced G'neesh – wasn’t a concern. The 300 copies of his 1969 single...
Wicked review - overly busy if beautifully sung cliffhanger
"No one mourns the wicked," we're told during the immediately arresting beginning to Wicked, which concludes two hours 40 minutes later...
Akram Khan, GIGENIS, Sadler’s Wells review - now 50, Khan re...
London-born Akram Khan has come a long way in a 35-year career. He performed as a young teen in Peter Brook’s production of The ...
Snow Leopard review - clunky visual effects mar a director...
Pema Tseden's final film Snow Leopard is a Chinese Tibetan-language drama that addresses wild animal preservation. It serves as a kind of...
King James, Hampstead Theatre review - UK premiere drains a...
Cleveland is probably the American city most like the one in which I grew up. Early into the icy embrace of post-industrialisation, not...
Album: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
The progress of Kim Deal has been one of the great delights of modern music. Much as one wishes Pixies well, they have never been the same without...
Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme val...
From a privileged position in the Festival Hall stalls, I could see 97-year old Herbert Blomstedt’s near-immobile back as he sat on a piano stool...
Hannah Scott, Worthing Pavilion Theatre Atrium review - fill...
London-based singer-songwriter Hannah Scott has warned her next song may reduce us to tears. It is, she says, inspired by events following the...