Covid may have put an abrupt halt to cultural life but the response shows the sector is part of national recoveryIn March 2020, live classical music and much of cultural life worldwide came to an abrupt halt overnight. Since then, we have seen the grad…
New year arts: Observer critics pick the culture to get us through to spring
From live music to glass sculpture, game-changing performances to fitness podcasts… our writers on cultural treats to light up the months aheadKathryn Hunter appears in The Chairs, Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist apocalypse drama, translated, adapted and di…
Fiona Maddocks’s best classical music of 2021
Conductors came and went, while the return of live performances – from the Albert Hall to urban sheds and rustic glades – felt like a gift as never beforeSusannah Clapp’s best theatre of 2021Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full hereWe hope…
Angela Hewitt review – trademark clarity and controlled expressive focus
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, CardiffThe pianist’s lyrical programme of Messiaen, Mozart and Chopin revealed colours and drama that one might not always associate with HewittFor Olivier Messiaen, Sundays were sacrosanct. For more than six dec…
The week in classical: Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta; La traviata – review
Queen Elizabeth Hall; Royal Opera House, LondonThe singular violin-cello duo turn music into exhilarating conversation. And the father of all Germonts dazzles at Covent GardenSkirts flowing, instruments held aloft, feet jingling in bell slippers, stamp…
From The Addams Family 2 to Andy Warhol: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment
Whether it is a live gig, a new film or a game to play at home, our critics have your plans for this week coveredThe Addams Family 2Out nowHaving started life as a comic strip, the Addamses have come full circle with their latest incarnation in an anim…
‘The strangeness seeped into the music’: how Iceland’s midnight sun inspired Jezabels’ Heather Shannon
The Australian musician talks about creating her aching, jagged new album of solo piano compositions in the wake of chemotherapyAt the beginning of 2016 Heather Shannon of the Jezabels felt as though “someone had pumped cement into [my] veins”. Her ova…
Víkingur Ólafsson review – manicured Mozart of pearly purity
Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonThe Icelandic pianist’s Mozart-centred recital revealed only slowly its sense of purpose and personality, but there were glimpses of intense, personal playing Admirers of Víkingur Ólafsson who were unable to get to his Lond…
Nigel Kennedy on his Classic FM fight: ‘Hendrix is like Beethoven, Vivaldi is more Des O’Connor’
Fresh from a bust-up with ‘Jurassic FM’ over playing Hendrix, the violinist talks about musical snobbery, going on strike and his lifelong regret at turning Duke Ellington downThroughout his career, Nigel Kennedy has had run-ins with what he calls the …
‘Spiritual medicine’: orchestra helps people with dementia write music
Suburb where Shameless was filmed is now home to Manchester Camerata, which is intent on serving the communityOn paper, it may seem like an odd pairing: the Manchester Camerata, one of Europe’s most renowned orchestras, and Gorton, the tough Manchester…