The RA Summer Exhibition, with its whiff of the London season, the cocktail party and the 19th-century Paris salon, is always a bit of an oddity, and all the better for it, IMHO.
‘Mrs Pollock’ breaks free of her husband’s shadow in a vibrant burst of colour and energy
Lee Krasner: Living Colour so good you would not know it was done by a woman – Hans Hofman For too long the artist Lee Krasner (1908-1984) lived in the overbearing shadow of her alcoholic husband, Jackson Pollock, in both life and death. Yet when they met in 1941, she was already developing a significant…
Leonardo da Vinci. A Life in Notebooks
Study of Fetus in the Womb circa 1511 Part artist, part scientist, Da Vinci embodies the Renaissance man par excellence. Luckily for us, the workings of his inner mind in painting, sculpture, anatomy, military engineering and cartography have all been recorded in the notebooks he kept throughout his life. One of these notebooks made…
The Power of Music and Birdsong
Southwark Cathedral and London Bridge surrounded by fields around 1548 Man has always been enraptured by birdsong. The nightingale’s song is not only a thing of rare beauty but a complex affair. Naturalists have likened the nightingale’s musical talents to that of a jazz musician, who is able to improvise on several instruments at…
Bach Evolution at the Royal Albert Hall
Whether it is through a flawless performance, a modern reinterpretation or a violent destruction, Bach continues to fascinate musicians and listeners
Stepping inside Stanley Kubrick’s Mind
Kirk Douglas and Stanley Kubrick on the ‘Paths of Glory’ set. There are many talented people in this world, but there are few creatives who are really able to produce magic, whether we be talking literature, film, art or music. The ‘magic’ I am talking about is the tingling experience you get when presented with…
RISE: a sparkling debut disc from a vibrant young performer
I first encountered saxophonist Jess Gillam at a private party given by a friend of mine. Still just a young teenager, she burst on to the stage in a gold-sequinned mini dress and black DMs, and proceeded to play an unaccompanied, foot-tapping saxophone solo with all the energy, commitment and confidence of a seasoned professional…
Exquisite intimacy, fluency and warmth: Sarah Beth Briggs plays Schumann and Brahms
With her latest disc Sarah Beth Briggs pays tribute to her beloved teacher through the music that was central to her studies with Matthews and their joint musical passions: two sets of late Brahms piano pieces (opp 117 and 118), and Schumann’s Papillons and his popular Kinderszenen
A sonic sculptural wrapping: Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet at Tate Modern
Everything about this experience was right. The venue, which broke with the austere standards of classical concerts venues, and allowed everyone to come, and go. The spontaneous audience: musicians, curious wanderers or simple art and music lovers. The performers: amateurs and professionals gathered around a communal sense of honesty and authenticity. And of course, the music.
Munch’s Scream Revisited at the British Museum
The Sick Child by Edvard Munch 1885 You wouldn’t wish Edvard Munch’s childhood on your worst enemy. Munch was brought up in Kristiania (as Oslo then was) in a strict Lutheran family in the second half of the 19th century. Aged five, Munch lost his mother to TB and nearly succumbed to the same…
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