• Beethoven and Shostakovich from the LSO at the Barbican review ****

    London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda, Nikolai Lugansky (piano) Barbican Hall, 8th April 2018 Beethoven – Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58 Shostakovich  – Symphony No 8 in C minor, Op 65 I could be imagining it but the LSO seems to be notching up a gear, from its already high level, each time…

  • Andreas Gursky at the Hayward Gallery exhibition review ****

    Andreas Gursky Hayward Gallery, 4th April 2018 Odds are you have seen one of Andreas Gursky’s giant, hypnotic, immersive photographs. He charts the relationship between man and environment, fiddling with perspective, highlighting the repetition of our own industry and locating the beautiful and the ugly, often simultaneously. His viewpoint is oftendistant but his technique and…

  • Coraline at the Barbican Theatre review ****

    Coraline Barbican Theatre, 7th April 2018 Was I the only person in the audience who knew nothing about Neil Gaiman’s 2003 cult children’s fantasy novella from whence came Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera Coraline? It certainly felt like it. To be fair the provenance had dawned on me some time before the performance, but when I booked…

  • Laura van der Heijden and Petr Limonov at Wigmore Hall review ***

    Laura van der Heijden (cello), Petr Limonov (piano) Wigmore Hall, 2nd April 2018 Britten – Cello Sonata in C major, Op 65 Shostakovich – Cello Sonata in D minor Op 40 21st December 1960. Britten and Shostakovich are sharing a box at the Festival Hall. That’s right the two greatest composers of the twentieth century,…

  • Hope to Nope exhibition at the Design Museum review ****

    Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-2018 The Design Museum, 2nd April 2018 I have banged on before about how satisfying a trip to the Design Museum can be, for the building, (specifically that beautiful roof), the permanent collection and the exhibitions. Not cheap, though make yourself a child, student, pensioner or, better still, since…

  • Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic review ****

    Fanny and Alexander Old Vic Theatre, 4th April 2017 I WILL USE BLOCK CAPITAL FOR EMPHASIS AS WE SLIGHTLY UNHINGED KEYBOARD WARRIORS ARE WONT TO DO. FOR JUST £12 YOU CAN GO AND SEE ONE OF THE REMAINING PERFORMANCES OF FANNY AND ALEXANDER. That’s right. All seats for the last week of the run are…

  • Great Apes at the Arcola Theatre review ****

    Great Apes Arcola Theatre, 31st March 2018 I sort of lost track with Will Self the author after The Book of Dave. His sprawling, satirical fantasies with a lot of big words, unreliable narratives and narrators, drugs, mental dislocation, is never short of imagination and ideas, but aren’t always that easy, or pleasurable, to read.…

  • Vincent River at the Park Theatre review ****

    Vincent River Park Theatre, 29th March 2018 I wonder if the 2070s equivalents of the Finborough Theatre or the Orange Tree Theatre, will be lauded for their Philip Ridley revivals. Mr Ridley’s subject matter and idiom means he is a nailed on certainty to get multiple airings in today’s theatrical world. His art, his novels…

  • Rachel Podger and VOCES8 at Kings Place review ****

    Rachel Podger, VOCES8 – A Guardian Angel Kings Place, 28th March 2018 Orlando Gibbons – Drop, drop slow tears Plainchant – Pater Noster Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber – Rosary Sonata No 16 Passacaglia “A Guardian Angel” Jonathan Dove – into thy hands Nicola Matteis – Passaggio rotto, Fantasia, Movimento incognito (from Other Ayrs, Preludes, Allemandes,…

  • The Square film review *****

    The Square, 27th March 2018 Ruben Ostlund’s last feature, Force Majeure, is one of my favourite films of the last few years. Now we have The Square to set alongside it. Longer, more ambitious, a bit baggier in places, it once again deals with the nature of embarrassment. This time though there is a healthy…

At Home He Feels Like A Tourist