Southbank Centre
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealedMonday, 07 April 2025
When Vladimir Jurowski returns to what used to be “his” London Philharmonic Orchestra, you’d better jump. I would have done on Wednesday had I been able to get to his heady mix of Russian and Ukrainian rarities; luckily I could on Saturday night,... Read more... |
Verdi Requiem, Philharmonia, Muti, RFH review - new sparks from an old flameFriday, 28 March 2025
Forget, for a moment, the legend and the lustre. If you knew nothing about Riccardo Muti’s half-century of history with Verdi’s Messa da Requiem for the writer-patriot Alessandro Manzoni – he first gave it with the Philharmonia back in 1974 – and... Read more... |
Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, RFH review - anger unleashed, fantasy finessed in ProkofievWednesday, 12 March 2025
A showstopper for starters followed by dark depths, a quirky compilation after the interval: it’s what you might expect from Iván Fischer and his 42-year-old Budapest Festival Orchestra. All Prokofiev, too: the sort of thing we used to get from... Read more... |
A Form of Exile: Edward Said and Late Style, CLS, Wood, QEH review - baggy ferment of ideas and soundsMonday, 10 March 2025
You could plan an entire concert season around the theme of “late style”, its paradoxes and variations. For this one-off, many of us expected a concentrated mesh of Edward Said’s only-connect observations with a well-balanced musical programme,... Read more... |
Sidorova, Philharmonia, Alsop, Royal Festival Hall review - ladies of the danceSaturday, 15 February 2025
George Gershwin called one of his early classic songs, first created by Fred and Adele Astaire, “Fascinating Rhythm”. It was that mesmeric pull that propelled last night’s Royal Festival Hall Concert from the Philharmonia and its principal guest... Read more... |
Tiffin Youth Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Jurowski, RFH review - perfect detachment suits public statementsTuesday, 21 January 2025
When Vladimir Jurowski planned this typically unorthodox programme, he could not have known that a disaster even greater, long-term, than 9/11 was going to befall the USA two days after the concert. There is no bad time for a tricky commemoration of... Read more... |
Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme valediction forbidding mourningFriday, 22 November 2024
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 with the score in front of him, but also his supremely expressive right arm and hand, every finger... Read more... |
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, OAE, QEH review - forever youngThursday, 14 November 2024
Victims of their own success in the postwar era of well-recorded sound, the Brandenburg Concertos first arrived in the ears of listeners from my generation via glossy, plush and polished recordings by heavyweight orchestras of a sort that would have... Read more... |
Interview: Roy Haynes, Jazz Drumming Giant (1925-2024)Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Roy Haynes, who had begun to seem immortal, has died aged 99. In this extensive Arts Desk interview from 2011, one of the greatest jazz drummers ranges across his remarkable life with sharp intelligence and generous feeling.The man who played with... Read more... |
Documentary highlights from the 2024 London Film FestivalSaturday, 26 October 2024
One of the many pleasures of the London Film Festival is the chance to see high-quality documentaries on the big screen. If lucky, these films might get a brief, specialist cinema release, but all too often non-fiction features are destined for TV.... Read more... |
First Person: Tim Etchells on 40 years of making a noise with Forced EntertainmentThursday, 10 October 2024
Forced Entertainment is a theatre company based in Sheffield, touring original performances around the world. The core group of 6 artists has been working together for 40 years, often inviting others to collaborate on particular projects. From the... Read more... |
Andsnes, London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Gardner, RFH review - total clarity in classic-romantic and prophetic RachmaninovMonday, 30 September 2024
If there was ever a time for the inevitable "Rach Three” (piano concerto, not symphony) in the composer’s 150th anniversary year – and I confess I dodged other occasions – it might as well have come in the fresh and racy shape of Leif Ove... Read more... |
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