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1 week ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Eureka’s second volume of Laurel and Hardy shorts catches the pair in 1928 on the cusp of their successful transition to the sound era, two of the 10 films originally released with synchronised sound effects and music. This works especially well in We Faw Down, though having another actor dub Stan’s laugh is disconcerting.
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1 week ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Jürg Frey: Voices EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble/James Weeks (Neu Records) A new CD from EXAUDI is a guaranteed treat for all the senses: the sound quality is always impeccable, the CD presentation a tactile pleasure. Heck, it even smells good (a mixture of new car and old bookshop).
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2 weeks ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
All We Imagine as Light focuses on the lives of three women in contemporary Mumbai; as shown by director Payal Kapadia, the city is arguably the film’s fourth major character. Kapadia eschews convention, her metropolis painted in muted colours with dark skies and heavy rain a constant.
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3 weeks ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO) Here are three orchestral suites taken from stage works by Thomas Adès, from different stages of his career, captured at live performances at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2018 and 2023. So not new recordings, but good to have these in one place to trace the composer’s career from prodigious breakthrough to acknowledged master.
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1 month ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Akira Kurosawa described his 1961 hit Yojimbo as a tale of “rivalry on both sides, and both sides are equally bad… we are weakly caught in the middle and it is impossible to choose between the evils”. Toshiro Mifune’s nameless rōnin pitches up a run-down village purely by chance, tossing a stick in the air at a fork in the road to choose which direction to take.
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1 month ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Vox Feminae: Works for voices, theorbo/tiorbino/ baroque guitar, bass viol, triple harp by Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bemba and Hieryonymus Kapsberge Les Kapsber’girls/Albane Imbs (Alpha) What a complete transformation from one album to the next. The last one, Vous-avez dit brunettes? – did you say brunettes – (Alpha, 2021) opened tongue-in-cheek with the bleating and bells of a flock of sheep, then launching into occasionally over-theatrical songs about shepherds, love or drinking.
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2 months ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
One of The Barnabáš Kos Case’s incidental pleasures lies in its relatively accurate depiction of orchestral life. Much of the action in Peter Solan’s 1964 Slovak black comedy (originally title: Prípad Barnabáš Kos) takes place in a rehearsal studio, one filled with real, non-miming musicians. Actor Milivoj Uzelac, playing one of the conductors, was also a composer and actually looks convincing on the podium.
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2 months ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Quartets Through a Time of Change: music by Ravel, Durey, Tailleferre and Milhaud Brother Tree Sound (First Hand Records) There are plenty – and I mean plenty – of recordings of the Ravel String Quartet, the majority, I would guess, paired with the Debussy Quartet, in what has become something of a programming cliché.
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2 months ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Snow Dance for the Dead: Choral Music by Seán Doherty New Dublin Voices/Bernie Sherlock (Voces8 Recordings) I have come across the choral music of Seán Doherty increasingly recently and always liked what I have heard. His music is imaginative, wide-ranging and original, and all these things are evident in his debut disc with New Dublin Voices, under their enterprising conductor Bernie Sherlock.
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2 months ago | 
theartsdesk.com | Graham Rickson
Snow Dance for the Dead: Choral Music by Seán Doherty New Dublin Voices/Bernie Sherlock (Voces8 Recordings) I have come across the choral music of Seán Doherty increasingly recently and always liked what I have heard. His music is imaginative, wide-ranging and original, and all these things are evident in his debut disc with New Dublin Voices, under their enterprising conductor Bernie Sherlock.
