Mitsuko Uchida, Musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wigmore Hall
Exactly what constitutes “the End of Time” in Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Quartet for piano, violin, cello and clarinet? Not surely “the end of days” but rather the end of measured time; music unfettered, music of the spheres,…
Adams “El Nino”, Royal Festival Hall
During the momentous last century – so richly contextualised in the South Bank’s The Rest is Noise festival – there were two points at which factions within the musical establishment sought to step back, take stock, and…
American Psycho, Almeida Theatre
Having enjoyed privileged insight into the making of this musical with my audio podcast featuring composer Duncan Sheik’s original demos (check out Podcasts) and director Rupert Goold’s lively mind, this is not so much a review, more…
Candide, Menier Chocolate Factory
It’s one of theatre’s great ironies that turning Volaire’s bitter satire Candide into a musical proved every bit as taxing and fraught with disaster as the journey to a better life endured by the novella’s principal characters.…
Andrew Lippa, St. James Theatre
Ok, I’ll come clean (and this is hard, not to say shameful, for a musical theatre aficionado): Andrew Lippa had somehow passed me by; until now – until yesterday, to be precise. Don’t ask how come I…
The Magic Flute, English National Opera, London Coliseum (Review)
Out of the mouths of babes… the wise child that is Simon McBurney takes his cue from the “three young boys steeped in ancient learning” – a description he takes literally by transforming them into little old…
The Scottsboro Boys, Young Vic
John Kander and Fred Ebb – masters of the cabaret satire – delivered a sucker punch with this their last show together. The story of the Scottsboro nine shamefully redefined the sickness at the heart of American…
From Here to Eternity, Shaftesbury Theatre
“Love and pain is like peace and war – you want one you have the have the other.” It’s a line that pretty much sums up From Here to Eternity. The title of James Jones’ novel and…
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kavakos, Dindo, Chailly, Barbican (Review)
For the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s second residency at the Barbican Centre Riccardo Chailly pulled focus on an entirely new sounding Brahms. Gone were all those bad performance practices, bad habits, from the early 20th century, gone was…
The Rape of Lucretia, Glyndebourne Touring Opera (Review)
Lucretia is quite literally pulled from the earth like a living artefact – and to the earth she will return. But when we arrive at the contentious final moments of Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia and…
