For American pianist Jonathan Biss, Beethoven has been a near-constant companion for almost his entire life. He has been playing and writing about the 32 Piano Sonatas and has spent nearly ten years recording Beethoven’s sonatas. Now he is performing all the sonatas over a nine-month period, with concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall and in…
Author: ArtMuseLondon
ArtMuseLondon is a site for reviews of art exhibitions and music in London, and general cultural musings, written by people with a keen interest and an honest, accessible approach.
‘Memories of Bonn’ – composer Keith Burstein introduces his homage to Beethoven
Guest post by Keith Burstein ‘Memories of Bonn’ came to be written as a result of Vladimir Ashkenazy – a great friend and mentor – asking me, in 2016, to write a short symphonic poem for him to conduct. The performance is about to take place, on 25th March, but after Maestro Ashkenazy suddenly retired…
A kind of blue: Léon Spilliaert at the RA
Last year the disquieting images of Felix Vallotton filled the Sackler Gallderies of the Royal Academy of Arts (read ArtMuseLondon’s review here). This spring, another little-known artist, Belgian Léon Spilliaert is represented, in this the first major exhibition of his work in the UK. Like Vallotton world, Spilliaert’s is unsettling, but for different reasons. Plagued…
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk at the V&A
Kimono: from Kyoto to Catwalk – a magnificent celebration of the timelessness, universality and enduring appeal of the kimono
Hockney at his most intimate and honest
David Hockney: Drawing from Life – a magnificent, intimate overview of Hockney’s oeuvre and imagination as a master draughtsman and also a meditation on friendship, change and the ageing process
French Impressions at the British Museum
The British Museum’s new French Impressions show was several floors up in room 90, around the back of the museum. I’ve become quite accustomed to coming here for the BM’s print shows, for, for one thing, the BM benefits from an impressive print archive – admired the world over. The last exhibition I attended here,…
A Remarkable Meditation on Masculinity at the Barbican
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography at the Barbican is an exploration of male identity from the 1960s to the present day! The subject is vast and quite complex, and being the Barbican, it’s a big show, taking up two levels of floor space and showcasing three hundred artworks from celebrity photographers such as Richard Avedon and…
Lustrous line-up of singers for ENO’s Luisa Miller
Verdi is a fascinating composer. He notched up twenty-five operas during his long and largely successful career and also managed to live to the grand old age of eighty-seven. It’s quite an achievement when you think how many composers, worn out from the effort of composing and staging operas, suffered poor health and died…
Maliphant Works at the Coronet
In the modern dance world, the dancer and choreographer, Russell Maliphant, is a name which commands huge respect. Ballet fans still remember his very successful pairing with star dancer, Sylvie Guillem in Push, filmed at Sadler’s Wells. It still is compelling viewing on youtube https://bit.ly/2SxRJVj . Since that time, Maliphant has won many awards for…
Visions: Cyril Scott Piano Works
For many pianists, our first encounter with the music of Cyril Scott is through his exotic, languorous piece Lotus Land. This was also Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze’s first introduction to Scott’s piano music, through one of her teachers at Tbilisi Conservatory. Scott’s music is rarely performed today, though Lotus Land remains a perennial favourite at…
