When I first heard cellist-composer Jo Quail perform – back in 2013, in a solo support slot – it was immediately clear that she occupied a genre all her own. A kindred spirit, for sure, with other musicians active in the dark folk / neoclassical / what-you-will underground – especially fellow ‘loopers’ (like Matt Howden,…
Category: women artists
Songs to remember: Mary Bevan & Joseph Middleton, ‘Elegy’
‘Elegy’ is a heartfelt, thoughtfully-programmed recital disc that – aside from being a beautiful listen – also shows us something of art’s quieter powers: that living inside music, allowing it to respond to you as much as the reverse, can summon its healing qualities. Bevan began to assemble this collection of songs following the death…
Through roots: an African Concert Series update (and more)
This is a public service announcement! – an all-purpose post rounding up some recent African Concert Series activity, with a look ahead to some events and releases to come. The latest African Concert Series day at Wigmore Hall took place on 19 July this year. As ever, pianist and curator Rebeca Omordia assembled a remarkable…
Self taut: Barbara Hepworth ‘Strings’, Piano Nobile
I managed to see this exquisite exhibition with only a few days to spare: it closes on 2 May. If you are in the right place at the right time – Holland Park, London – I urge you to go if you can. For those of you who cannot get there, here is a brief…
No limit: Barb Jungr and her Trio, ‘Hallelujah on Desolation Row’
While Barb Jungr has interpreted a range of songs by both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen throughout her career, this marvellous new release is only her second album to bring them together as ‘twindred spirits’ of sorts. The first, ‘Hard Rain’, is an essential, blistering listen, focusing on the politics in the poetry. However, this…
Retrospecstive 2024: Adrian Ainsworth’s albums of the year
Time again for my annual labour of love, rounding up my favourite releases of the past year. As usual, I’ve ranged across genres as freely as I can in the time and space available – so I sincerely hope you will browse through the selections and find something intriguing. A bit of housekeeping. Where possible,…
Dying inside: ‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’, English National Opera, London
‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’ is described as an “opera project”, the brainchild of performance artist Marina Abramović. The timing is ideal – English National Opera (ENO) describes the piece as “celebratory”, as we approach the centenary of Callas’s birth on 2 December; while Abramović is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the…
Moving images: ‘Yevonde – Life and Colour’, National Portrait Gallery, London
‘Madame Yevonde’ (born Yevonde Philone Cumbers) was a professional photographer whose versatile, pioneering career – lasting some 60 years until her death in 1975 at the age of 82 – reflected the relentless pace of change during the twentieth century. When visiting this major exhibition devoted to her work, it feels like walking through several…
Unbound: Mahan Esfahani & Carolyn Sampson on disc and in recital
For any listener, there’s a special kind of excitement reserved for when favourite artists – those you’ve been following separately for some time, collected their records and so forth – suddenly collaborate. Examples that spring to my mind include ‘The Marble Downs’, a masterpiece made by one of the UK’s greatest (and much missed, certainly…
Self-portrait: Berthe Morisot – ‘Shaping Impressionism’, Dulwich Picture Gallery
As this fascinating exhibition points out in its opening text panel, Berthe Morisot (1841-95) was an active participant in the Impressionist movement, fully-appreciated and successful in her lifetime. She presented her work in all but one of the major Impressionist exhibitions, missing only 1879, after giving birth to her daughter a few months earlier. There…
ARTMUSELONDON 