Igor Toronyi-Lalic

1 week ago | spectator.co.uk | Igor Toronyi-Lalic

So, in the end, it was long but not that long. Twelve hours, compared to the 20 hours-plus many of us had been anticipating. The fastest on record? Very possibly. Igor Levit had started Satie’s Vexations at just after 10am on Thursday 24 April, and completed repeat number 840 of this niggly little bastard of a phrase around 10.30pm, preventing any kind of mass sleepover at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

1 month ago | spectator.com.au | Igor Toronyi-Lalic

‘When you’re not offensive in life, you obtain absolutely nothing,’ declares a twinkly-eyed Pierre Boulez in one of the archive films that the Barbican were screening to celebrate the composer’s centenary. What a joy to be reminded of the young Boulez – the unashamed elitist, the unbeatable snob. Not even allies such as Schoenberg (too trad) and Messiaen (‘vulgar’) were safe from his tongue.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Igor Toronyi-Lalic

Text size Small Medium Large Line Spacing Compact Normal Spacious Comments ‘When you’re not offensive in life, you obtain absolutely nothing,’ declares a twinkly-eyed Pierre Boulez in one of the archive films that the Barbican were screening to celebrate the composer’s centenary. What a joy to be reminded of the young Boulez – the unashamed elitist, the unbeatable snob. Not even allies such as Schoenberg (too trad) and Messiaen (‘vulgar’) were safe from his tongue. To Boulez, pop music wasn’t...

Aug 28, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Igor Toronyi-Lalic

Let Cinema Go To Its Ruin: The Cinema of Marguerite DurasICA The most important thing to know about the filmmaker and writer Marguerite Duras is that she was a total drunk. ‘I became an alcoholic as soon as I started to drink,’ she wrote, proudly. ‘And left everyone else behind.’It’s not something any of the academics who’d been drafted in to introduce each film in the ICA’s exhaustive Duras season thought to mention, even in passing.

Aug 28, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Igor Toronyi-Lalic

Text size Line Spacing Comments Share Share Igor Toronyi-Lalic In praise of one of the great avant-garde trolls of cinema Linkedin Messenger Email Let Cinema Go To Its Ruin: The Cinema of Marguerite Duras ICA The most important thing to know about the filmmaker and writer Marguerite Duras is that she was a total drunk. ‘I became an alcoholic as soon as I started to drink,’ she wrote, proudly. ‘And left everyone else behind.’ It’s not something any of the academics who’d been drafted in to...