Arts

I think I've found the new Alfred Brendel

21 June 2014 8:00 am

Can you tell how intelligent a musician is by listening to him play? Last year I discovered a recording of…

Idealists and chums: Joshua James (Arkady) and Seth Numrich (Bazarov)

Did Turgenev foresee Russia’s Stalinist future?

21 June 2014 8:00 am

Fans of Chekhov have to endure both feast and famine. Feast because his works are revived everywhere. Famine because he…

Inspired and springing draughtsmanship: ‘Femme dans la nuit’, 18 April 1945, by Jean Miró

The painter who channelled the forces of gravity

21 June 2014 8:00 am

Tragically, Ian Welsh (1944–2014) did not live to see this exhibition of his latest work. Diagnosed with terminal cancer on…

The song that fought apartheid

21 June 2014 8:00 am

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Mannenberg, the seminal album by the Cape Townian jazz pianist…

Anthem of hope

19 June 2014 1:00 pm

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Mannenberg, the seminal album by the Cape Townian jazz pianist…

Anthem of hope

19 June 2014 1:00 pm

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Mannenberg, the seminal album by the Cape Townian jazz pianist…

Inspired messiness

19 June 2014 1:00 pm

Can you tell how intelligent a musician is by listening to him play? Last year I discovered a recording of…

Inspired messiness

19 June 2014 1:00 pm

Can you tell how intelligent a musician is by listening to him play? Last year I discovered a recording of…

Le Corbusier’s design for the Maison Dom-ino of 1914, built for the first time, in front of the Central Pavilion at the Biennale Gardens, by a team from the Architectural Association in London

Modernism's dreams – and nightmares – at the Venice Architectural Biennale

14 June 2014 8:00 am

Roderick Conway Morris is edified and entertained by the Venice Architectural Biennale

Fretting about marriage: Sarah Gadon (Elizabeth) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Dido)

Belle has everything going for it – except for a decent soundtrack or script or plot or acting

14 June 2014 8:00 am

Belle is based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a sea captain and…

‘Prince Pig’s Courtship’ by Paula Rego

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition offers up the good, the bad and the ugly – and a sore neck

14 June 2014 8:00 am

One of the great traditions of the RA’s Summer Exhibition has always been that each work submitted was seen in…

When Mondrian was off the grid

14 June 2014 8:00 am

I find it easy to forget that Piet Mondrian is a Dutch artist. The linear, gridlocked works he is famed…

The busyness of it all is tiring: it feels like not just one West End musical, but several crammed together on to the same stage

Terry Gilliam turns to eye-watering excess for his staging of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini

14 June 2014 8:00 am

Operas about artists are not rare. However — perhaps for obvious reasons — those artists tend to be musicians, singers,…

The Globe's larf-a-minute Antony and Cleopatra

14 June 2014 8:00 am

It’s hilarious. It’s also annoying that it’s so hilarious. Jonathan Munby’s earthy and glamorous production of Antony and Cleopatra goes…

Has any band of the past 20 years been as consistently irritating as Coldplay?

14 June 2014 8:00 am

It’s a long time, a very, very long time, since I bought a Coldplay album. Has any band of the…

We need something less evil than Britain's Got Talent. How about public executions?

14 June 2014 8:00 am

You know what the world needs most right now? What it needs is five good-looking-ish, talented-ish blokes dressed in a…

The London Library

New wonders among old shelves at the London Library

14 June 2014 8:00 am

The Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre and the London Library (above) are buildings of varied character and rich…

Tough love

12 June 2014 1:00 pm

The Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre and the London Library (above) are buildings of varied character and rich…

The London Library

Tough love

12 June 2014 1:00 pm

The Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre and the London Library (above) are buildings of varied character and rich…

Hopkins to the rescue

12 June 2014 1:00 pm

It’s a long time, a very, very long time, since I bought a Coldplay album. Has any band of the…

Hopkins to the rescue

12 June 2014 1:00 pm

It’s a long time, a very, very long time, since I bought a Coldplay album. Has any band of the…

Nicola Benedetti: ‘I feel entirely fortunate practically all the time’

Nicola Benedetti interview: Bruch, boyfriends and Scottish independence

7 June 2014 9:00 am

Matthew Stadlen talks to the violinist Nicola Benedetti about what drew her to Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy

Why it's good to remember that Bach could be a tedious old windbag

7 June 2014 9:00 am

When I was first learning about classical music, 50 years ago, the scene was more streamlined than it is now.…

Different stages of suffering: ‘Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)’ , 2014, by Bill Viola

It took 11 years to bring Bill Viola to St Paul’s Cathedral – but it was worth it

7 June 2014 9:00 am

Deans are a strange breed. Growing up in the Church of England, I met a wide range, their cultural tastes…

‘Coventry Cathedral’, 1940, by John Piper

Kenneth Clark wasn’t happy simply popularising art, he liked to collect it and shape it too

7 June 2014 9:00 am

Earlier this year, I sat down and watched Kenneth Clark’s groundbreaking TV series Civilisation. I vaguely remember when it was…