Latest news with #Philharmonia
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Thrilling: Garsington's Queen of Spades reviewed
Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades is one of those operas that under-promises on paper but over-delivers on stage. It's hard to summarise the plot in a way that makes it sound theatrical, even if you've read Pushkin's novella, and I've never found a recording that really hits the spot. And yet, time and again, in the theatre: wham! It goes up like a petrol bomb. With a good production and performers, Tchaikovsky hurls you out at the far end feeling almost hungover – head swimming, and wondering where those three hours went. The cast and staging at Garsington are very, very good. True, you'd expect great things from any production that can afford to cast Roderick Williams (Yeletsky) and Robert Hayward (Tomsky) in what are essentially supporting roles, and the director is Jack Furness, who at his best (like his Garsington Rusalka in 2022) has been responsible for some of the most compelling British opera of the past decade. Furness is on top form here, delivering multilayered storytelling underpinned by subtle characterisation. He has an eye for spectacle, as well as the tiny details that speaks volumes. The Philharmonia is the orchestra, and while they haven't always brought their A-game to Garsington, they've typically responded well to the festival's artistic director Douglas Boyd. Good news: he's conducting The Queen of Spades, and from the first notes – the clarinet's question in the silence; that hot-breathed surge of string tone – it's as tense as a guilty conscience. Cue baleful brass chords, aching woodwinds and those quiet, nagging ostinatos which mean that like the opera's anti-hero Herman (Aaron Cawley), we never really get to relax.
The Guardian
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Sinners to Étoile: a complete guide to this week's entertainment
SinnersOut now Michael B Jordan plays twins, Smoke and Stack, who return home to Mississippi during the prohibition era with the aim of setting up a juke joint. Ryan Coogler's supernatural horror also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O'Connell and Wunmi Mosaku. WarfareOut now Starring D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis and Joseph Quinn, this real-time thriller is based on US marines' memories of a mission in Iraq. And it's from an intriguing pair of directors: Alex Garland, one of the most brilliant of current film-makers, and Ray Mendoza, a former US Navy Seal who took part in the sortie. Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien StoryOut now The Irish author, who died last year, is the compelling subject of this documentary portrait, which features final interviews with O'Brien, a writer who counted Paul McCartney, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda and Laurence Olivier among her friends. A feminist icon ahead of her time, but unlucky in love, she is tremendously likable. The Penguin LessonsOut now British teacher Tom Mitchell, who taught at a boys' boarding school in Argentina in the 1970s, was inspired to write an autobiography about an oil-soaked penguin he saved from a beach. This is the big-screen adaptation, starring the ever versatile Steve Coogan (as Mitchell, not the penguin). Catherine Bray Greentea Peng25 April to 9 May; tour starts Birmingham The south London musician, who has showcased her brand of psychedelic neo-soul and R&B on two albums, including last month's Tell Dem It's Sunny, takes to the road. Despite the warmth of that title, expect some chilly home truths hammered home via the likes of One Foot. Michael Cragg Kaytranada23 to 27 April; tour starts Manchester Producer, DJ and artist Kaytranada brings his sweat-soaked Timeless tour to the UK in support of last summer's third album. While there are plenty of bangers in his discography, fingers crossed he leaves space for his viral bootleg remix of Beyoncé's Cuff It. MC Multitudes Southbank Centre, London, 23 April to 3 May The centre's attempt to attract new audiences to its orchestral concerts is a series of encounters between resident ensembles and performers from across the arts. Collaborations include the Philharmonia and visual artist William Kentridge, and Chineke! Orchestra with George the Poet. Andrew Clements Georgia Mancio and Alan BroadbentSeven Arts, Leeds, 24 April; Sheffield Jazz, 25 April, touring to 4 May The quietly eloquent chemistry of UK singer Georgia Mancio's connection with Grammy-winning New York pianist Alan Broadbent is rarely heard live. They join forces on this UK tour, launching their new album, A Story Left Untold. John Fordham Helen ChadwickLeeds Art Gallery, to 4 November This powerful artist of desire, mortality and the flesh was ahead of her time. Chadwick anticipated and perhaps inspired later sensationalist artists with her photographs and installations that involved everything from urinating in snow to revelling in meat. This survey includes her surrealistic Viral Landscapes and metaphysical project Of Mutability. Tracey Emin and JMW TurnerTurner Contemporary, Margate, to 19 April 2026 Margate's greatest living artist projects a poem for JMW Turner on to the outside of Turner Contemporary on his birthday (23 April). Inside, you can further explore Turner's Margate connection with a special showing through 2025 of his painting Waves Breaking on a Lee Shore at Margate (Study for Rockets and Blue Lights). Antony GormleyWhite Cube Mason's Yard, London, 23 April to 8 June In the 1970s, a young artist started making casts of his own body in lead. The eerie sculptures that resulted – looking like nothing else, but with haunting echoes of statues, forensic records and mummified remains – are resurrected here. Gormley's macabre monuments to his own being are still his best works. The Power of TreesShirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, London, to 14 September Trees, green lungs of planet Earth, are explored in art and culture in this show in a gallery surrounded by Kew's rare collected woodlands. Eija-Liisa Ahtila shows an artwork about a 30-metre spruce in her native Finland. Her preparatory works are also here, among other newly commissioned botanical illustrations. Jonathan Jones Dee AllumAlma Tavern and Theatre, Bristol, 19 April; touring to 21 May The BBC New Comedy award finalist takes her acclaimed Edinburgh show of last year on tour. Deadname covers aspects of Allum's gender transition, from her girlfriend's unerring support to the HR worker who was unable to process the news. Rachel Aroesti Moving Parts: Newcastle puppetry festivalVarious venues, 19 to 27 April Newcastle upon Tyne's annual puppetry festival returns. Strange and beautiful creatures emerge from paper, clay, wood and everyday objects for this year's lineup, which includes puppet Olympics, cabarets and expert workshops. Kate Wyver When the Cloud Catches ColoursBarbican, London, 24 to 26 April Part of Queer East, a festival celebrating LGBTQ+ work from east and south-east Asia, this verbatim play slides into the lives of Qing and E, two queer Singaporeans in their 50s. KW Richard Chappell DanceSterts Arts & Environment Centre, Liskeard, 21 April The newly reopened theatre on the edge of Bodmin Moor plays host to indoor and outdoor performances from Devon-based Richard Chappell Dance. They including Land Empathy, inspired by the challenges of the climate crisis. Lyndsey Winship Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion ÉtoilePrime Video, 24 April The creators of Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel return with a smart, sharp series about two struggling ballet companies – one in Paris, one in New York – who swap principals in the hope it will revive their fortunes. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Luke Kirby and Simon Callow star. FakeITVX, 20 April From Sweet Bobby to Inventing Anna, scamming stories remain at the heart of the zeitgeist. This Australian series, whose tale of a journalist (Nine Perfect Strangers' Asher Keddie) falling for a handsome conman is adapted from writer Stephanie Wood's memoir and mines the subject in a psychologically subtle yet still terrifying fashion. Joe Lycett's United States of BirminghamNow & Sky Max, 22 April, 9pm In the battle against London-centricity, comedians such as Lycett are a gift: the 36-year-old has made his beloved Brum a bedrock of his output. In this series, the standup aims to promote the city by visiting its US namesakes (there are 18) to bond with locals and invite some of them back home. I, Jack WrightU&Alibi, 23 April, 9pm This new series from Unforgotten creator Chris Lang is the latest addition to the dynasty drama genre. When rich patriarch Jack (Trevor Eve) dies, his wife and children (Daniel Rigby, John Simm) are flabbergasted by his will – but there are more shocks to come when his cause of death is revealed. RA Fatal Fury: City of the WolvesOut 24 April; PC, PS5, Xbox The classic fighting game series from genre stalwart SNK has been absent for more than 20 years, but now it's back with a raucous new art style, ridiculous special moves and a cast that includes Chun-Li from Street Fighter and, um, Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal. We're not kidding. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33Out 24 April; PC, PS5, Xbox A classic turn-based role-playing adventure inspired by the French belle époque in which your lusciously clothed heroes must stop a demi-god named the Paintress from bringing death to countless innocents. It boasts an interesting semi-real-time combat system and a turn-of-the-century Europe feel. Keith Stuart Julien Baker & Torres – Send a Prayer My Way Out now After first discussing a collaboration back in 2016, American singer-songwriters Julien Baker and Torres, AKA Mackenzie Scott, finally make good on their promise via this 12-track country album. Dirt is a gritty, dustbowl sketch, while the lighter Sugar in the Tank rhapsodises about love over a skipping melody. Tunde Adebimpe – Thee Black BoltzOut now With his art-rock band TV on the Radio continuing to tour intermittently, frontman Adebimpe – who is also an actor – has found the time for this debut solo album. Channelling a more expansive electronic sound, songs such as Drop and Magnetic showcase Adebimpe's high-wire voice to excellent effect. Beirut – A Study of Losses Out now This seventh album from the New Mexico folk band is their most ambitious to date. Across 18 songs, frontman Zach Condon muses on the disappearance of everything from extinct animal species to lost literary treasures. Covering chamber pop, choral music and ambient, it's a multilayered opus ripe for discovery. Keri Hilson – We Need to Talk Out now The R&B practitioner, and hitmaker for the likes of Britney, Usher and Mary J Blige, returns with her first album in nearly 15 years. On this follow-up to No Boys Allowed, Hilson showcases her silky voice on the sultry Bae, while Method Man adds some grit to Searchin'. MC Studio RadicalsPodcast Taking a trip behind the mixing desk, this fascinating series profiles the producers and engineers creating some of modern music's most influential tracks. Episodes include Björk collaborator Marta Salogni and electronic pioneer Suzanne Ciani. Troubadour of the CaucasusRadio 3, 20 April, 7.15pm Lucy Ash's feature on the life and legacy of Ukrainian film director Sergei Parajanov is a tribute to art's power over authoritarianism. We hear the impact of his experimental work, which landed him in a Soviet prison. George CollierYouTube Musician Collier's videos seem simple on the surface: providing transcriptions of live performances. Yet within his scores of everything from Coldplay gigs to viral Instagram clips, he reveals the hidden genius behind their improvisational artistry. Ammar Kalia
The Guardian
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Järvi conducts Tüür and Stravinsky's The Firebird review – brutality and balance from the Philharmonia
Erkki-Sven Tüür's new cello concerto opens with a mighty thrum and concludes with the orchestra dissolving magically into the ether. Subtitled Labyrinths of Life, it's a typically colourful and occasionally brutal journey that wends its unbroken way through movements labelled Dark and Deep to attain an uneasy truce in a finale entitled Light. The Estonian composer's second cello concerto, a Philharmonia co-commission, was here receiving its UK premiere with its original soloist Nicolas Altstaedt. Complex and densely scored, it demands a virtuoso technique as the harried cellist ranges from the instrument's snarling lowest register to the most perilous of heights. Calling for a substantial orchestra, including a skilfully deployed battery of exotic percussion, the work is an intricately balanced marriage of equals. The Philharmonia, conducted with notable clarity by Tüür's fellow countryman Paavo Järvi, was kept on its toes, fragmentary ideas ricocheting back and forth like musical bullets. Altstaedt's sinewy tone was only occasionally lost in the orchestral swell. The cadenza, a physical tour de force, saw him striking and stroking the strings with bow and fingers, while slapping and tapping out a tattoo on the instrument's body and neck. A slightly lopsided programme coupled the 30-minute concerto with Stravinsky's equally substantial Petrushka, while the totality of the second half comprised the same composer's 23-minute Firebird Suite. Järvi, an old hand at both, adopted a precise, undemonstrative approach, knowing instinctively when to intervene and when to give the orchestra its head. Petrushka, given here in the pared-back 1947 revision, was a little foursquare at first, but the orchestra soon loosened its stays, tossing off a string of whirling dances with ripely characterful solo contributions (the contrabassoon got an audible chuckle for a fabulously vulgar subterranean fart). Trumpet, bassoon and flute covered themselves in glory in flirtatious episodes between the Ballerina and the Moor. The second half saw Järvi teasing out some breathtaking pianissimos. Skittering variations for The Firebird were followed by a wistful rondo for the enchanted princesses. Helter-skelter syncopations threatened to derail the Infernal Dance, but the players recovered, tumbling exhausted into a gossamer lullaby before rebuilding to an ecstatic apotheosis.
