Classical Music: Prokofiev Symphony No 5
The first movement sees Prokofiev in a reflective mood. The lush strings intertwine with flaring brass before returning to calmness and ending on a triumphant note. It was a pure coincidence, surely, but during its first performance, Russian forces were crossing the Vistula and entering Nazi Germany. The end of the war was only a few months away.
Classical Music:Painted Light
This CD stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but the surprise was enjoyable. The Solem Quartet has chosen an interesting concept for its first recording on the Delphian label, and in doing so, it has created a stunningly atmospheric disc.
Children's Poem Of The Week: Suitcase Poem By Michael Rosen
Suitcase Poem I’m a suitcase in the attic all year I’m a suitcase stuffed full of gear I’m a suitcase crammed in a hold I’m a suitcase freezing cold. Well yes … I may be a suitcase but I want to be free I want to go to the beach and swim in the sea I want to go to the mountains and learn how to ski I want to hear music dance and shout You leave me in the room when you go out.
Driftwood: Maureen Fry And the Angel Of The North By Rachel Joyce
Harold Fry lived in our office at school for a while and introduced himself to all of us in turn as his book was passed from eager hand to eager hand. Queenie quickly followed.
Classical Music: César Franck Piano Works
Franck was a virtuosic pianist, which Lazar, who has fully immersed himself in the composer's world, mirrors with a deft technique.
The Nutcracker, Northern Ballet, And A Controversy
A mini-picket on the door of Leeds Grand is not the usual reception we might expect as Northern Ballet's Nutcracker returns this winter. Like a true perennial, the ballet itself pops with colour, joy, vivacity, and downright goodness.
Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 1st December 2023
Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week.
A Top Notch Farce: Noises Off
The promotional material describes a ‘riotous double bill’, and it is not wrong. The performance was exactly what was described on the tin, so to speak. This is a traditional British farce with many misunderstandings, numerous comings and goings and as ever, a scantily clad female.
From The Lips Of Children - Dick Whittington At Harrogate
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Back by popular demand, our budding journalists from Brackenfield School visited Dick Whittington at Harrogate Theatre for their annual pantomime trip. This is what they thought... We were accompanied to this thoroughly entertaining performance of Dick Whittington by over 100 school children from Brackenfield School. OH YES, WE WERE!
Poem Of The Week: Hostess Trolley By Keith Hutson
I make no apology for including an old favourite as this week’s Poem of the Week. Keith Hutson’s poetry is an extension of the life he once lived. As an experienced comedy writer and old hand in the theatre industry, he has a natural sympathy with comics and entertainers of a certain historical vintage, their predecessors in Music Hall and on the early twentieth century stage.
Classical Music: Bob Chilcott Christmas Oratorio
Christmas, for many, is a magical time, especially when it comes to the musical feast offered by the season. It is also a time when the spirit of participation becomes ever-present, a sentiment that has not been lost on Bob Chilcott.
Classical Music: Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (Complete Ballet)
Conductor John Wilson spent his lockdown reconstructing a fractured score, which contained numerous errors and omissions. With his work on Hollywood film scores, he seems to be making a speciality of this type of remodelling.
Classical Music: Weinberg 12
John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic, who also gave its première in the BBC studios in Manchester on May 15, 2019, capture the intensity and conviction with resonant low strings and the excellence of the muted brass section. It has a mysterious feel to it before climaxing in a spirited conclusion.
Film: Killers Of The Flower Moon
Every time a new film arrives in cinemas it can be an event of many differing descriptions, feelings and definitions. Although, seeing a new Martin Scorsese film released is an event that is in a category all of its own, and once again, one of the very greatest filmmakers to ever live has delivered something truly special.
Newcastle Is Peru: The Barber Of Seville In Bradford
With the collective sentiments so thoroughly slapped and tickled, and the audience washed-up in a tide of goodwill, it would be both pointless and churlish to find fault in Thursday’s premiere of The Barber of Seville at Bradford’s St George’s Hall.
Review: The Woman In Me - Britney Spears
When Britney Spears appeared at the Open-Air Theatre in Scarborough in 2018 the experience was rather like watching a clockwork doll that had been wound up and sprung into action; the performance was almost robotic with little emotion and hardly any communication with her audience.
Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 24th November 2023
Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week.
Yorke Dance Project Presents California Connections: Three Pioneering Women
Yorke Dance Project, the contemporary ballet company run by Yolande Yorke-Edgell, gave its world première of a new mixed bill called California Connections: Three Pioneering Women, at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds last night before embarking on a UK tour in autumn 2023 and spring 2024. California Connections: Three Pioneering Women is a warm…
West Coast Folk Festival Comes To Blackpool This January
Coming to Blackpool's Winter Gardens this January, The UK West Coast Folk Festival 2024 is set to bring 33 acts across 3 stages to the iconic seaside resort, topped off by a rare headline set from the legendary guitarist Richard Thompson.
Classical Music: Haydn Piano Sonatas
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is adept at performing the music of whichever composer he has chosen to showcase. His attention to detail and exceptional skill in delving into the minutiae of each score, coupled with his fabulous knack for bringing out the nuances, mean he delivers perceptive and captivating performances.
Vital Spark Commissioned Work To Showcase At Sydney Opera House
A landmark piece of work, commissioned as part of Vital Spark by The Spark Arts for Children, is to be presented at the Sydney Opera House as part of an international tour. Aakash Odedra’s Company’s Little Murmur, a dance theatre performance for schools, originally premiered at Belgrave Library in the artistic director’s hometown of Leicester as part of The Spark Festival.
Beckview Studios
Beckview Studios is an independent Yorkshire based centre for recording and music production and has recently undergone expansion and a move to a new studio on the Yorkshire Coast.
Eeh, By Gum, It’s Rossini, But Don't Worry About It, Yer Daft 'Apeth'
Ey up, ow do. ‘Ave tha heard that, as part of the inaugural Bradford Opera Festival, there’s to be the premiere of Yorkshire poet, playwright, and broadcaster Ian McMillian’s new adaptation into the Yorkshire dialect of Rossini’s comical masterpiece The Barber of Seville?
Masque Of Might: New Climate-Change Themed Opera To Stream On Operavision
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Opera North’s “brilliantly bonkers” (The Times) production of climate-change themed opera Masque of Might will be streamed online for free this December.
Renowned director Sir David Pountney has assembled the opera from the music of Henry Purcell to create an entirely new work, which received its world premiere in Leeds in October 2023.
Langcliffe Singers & Settle Orchestra: Brahms - A German Requiem In Skipton
It is a testament to the power and authority of the combined forces of Langcliffe Singers and Settle Orchestra that they should persuade a confirmed Baroque enthusiast to recalibrate his compass.
World Music: Koum Tara Baraaim El-louz
It is an engaging sound that compels the listener to get up and dance. This is my first encounter with Koum Tara, and I was taken with the pulse and the mix of different types of instrumentation associated with the region. The different cultural styles are subtle, with a freshness and inventiveness that have been creatively blended.
Chicken Girl
In this year’s round of short film festivals, a new talent is beginning to make her mark with a ten minute comedy, Chicken Girl, which is entertaining audiences in the North of England and abroad. Written, directed and starring Em Humble, the film is a tragicomedy about a young woman’s obsession with chickens and golden eggs.
Film: Saw X
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In the wake of many recent horror franchise re-awakenings (Halloween trilogy, Candyman, Scream 2022 and Scream VI, Chucky TV series) Saw X marks perhaps the most unexpected of all.
Poem Of The Week: The Starfish By Isabel Galleymore
The Starfish creeps like expired meat – fizzy-skinned, pentamerously-legged, her underfur of sucking feet shivers upon an immobile mussel whose navy mackintosh is zipped against the anchor of this fat paw, this seemingly soft nutcracker who exerts such pressure until the mussel’s jaw drops a single millimeter.
Classical Music: Postcards From Italy
This haunting disc conveys different emotions created through different evocative sounds and moods and a wonderfully atmospheric light touch from Roma Sinfonietta, which accompany with rhythmic precision, never intruding as Albonetti’s sax delivers a rich tapestry of colour. The strings are powerful in providing a cushion for the sax to rest on, some lovely pizzicato, and Michelangelo Carbonara’s contribution on piano is a beautiful addition as is Vincenzo Bolognese's expressive violin