‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton

28 November 2025

Having really enjoyed Stuart Turton’s remarkable novel ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ (reviewed here in April 2019) - a murder mystery in which the narrator appears to be reliving the day of the murder, each time inhabiting the body of a different person - I was keen to read more by Stuart Turton. I have now finished reading his 2020 novel ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ - a brilliant historical epic set in 1634 on a Dutch East India Company sailing ship on a journey from Batavia back to Amsterdam. It’s a wonderfully entertaining mix of detective fiction, thriller, period drama and ghost story - a bit more conventional in narrative structure than ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ but just as inventive and with a similarly well-drawn cast. It reminded me of Matthew Kneale’s marvellous comic historical novel ‘English Passengers’, 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ by David Mitchell (reviewed here in August 2011) and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ is a long book that gripped me throughout and seemed to whizz by. More Stuart Turton please! 

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

18 November 2025

I have been a member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra for 25 years but last Saturday’s concert was special for me as it was the first concert programme I was involved in choosing. I joined the orchestra’s programming committee in August 2024 to help to decide the repertoire for our 2025-26 season. As we approached the first concert of the season I was surprised how responsible I felt. In particular I had pushed for the inclusion of the ‘Sunrise Orchestral Suite’ by the Finnish composer Ida Moberg - which had been suggested by a member of the orchestra and I had really enjoyed listening to. Rehearsing the suite over the past 10 weeks I began to worry that it wasn’t quite as strong as I had thought, but it provided a beautiful opening to the concert and seemed to go down well with our audience at the Spinney Theatre in Northampton. 

Peter Donohoe, who joined us to play the Bliss Piano Concerto, has been one of the UK’s best known pianists since winning the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1982. I played the Grieg Piano Concerto with him as a member of the Didsbury Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in 1983. So it was fascinating to discover that his first performance of the Grieg Concerto was in the Spinney Theatre in 1977 - the year it opened. The last time Peter Donohoe played with NSO was in our 125th anniversary concert at the Derngate in June 2019 when he performed Tchaikovsky’s ‘Piano Concerto No 2’. I remember the final movement as a frenetic romp with Peter Donohoe racing the orchestra to a thrilling finish. Sir Arthur Bliss is now best remembered for his music for the 1936 science fiction film ‘Things to Come’. His Piano Concerto was premiered in 1939 in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. It was dedicated “to the people of the United States of America” and shows significant American influence, including echoes of Gershwin and Korngold, as well as a touch of Stravinsky and some recognisable appearances of the march theme from ‘Things to Come’. It is a spectacular showpiece concerto with two muscular outer movements and a beautifully delicate slow movement. Peter Donohoe gave a stunning performance and our conductor John Gibbons did a brilliant job of holding this complex piece together. There were excellent duets with the piano from Corinne Malitskie (‘cello), Richard Smith (violin) and Keith Crompton (timpani). It was wonderful to hear, after the concert, that Andrew Burn, Chair of the Bliss Trust, was astonished by the quality of the orchestra. As an encore Peter Donohoe treated us to the ‘Intermezzo in A major op.118 no.2’ by Brahms - an achingly beautiful performance that moved many of us to tears. 

We completed the concert with Dvořák’s ‘Symphony No 8’, which I have always adored as it was one of the first symphonies I played on joining the Didsbury Symphony Orchestra in my teens. I can still remember our conductor telling us, definitively, that the third movement of the symphony is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Whether or not you agree, the confidence of his statement made a big impression on me as a teenager. It was lovely to rediscover this gorgeous symphony - a great way to show off the wonderful NSO ‘cello section (though the haunting opening unison theme in the first movement is played by the horns, 1st clarinet and 1st bassoon as well as the ‘cellos). And there were many perfect flute solos throughout the piece by Graham Tear who always seems to make the most intricate passages sound easy. It was a really enjoyable concert and felt like one we will fondly remember for a long time. 

The Postal Museum

14 November 2025

For the majority of the seven years I worked for Making Music our office was in Rosebery Avenue in London, just a few hundred yards from the massive Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office. Despite walking past the building every day it was only last weekend, more than 20 years later, that I got around to visiting the Postal Museum. The museum houses a fascinating and entertaining exhibition which walks you through the history of the UK postal service - from 1516 when Henry VIII established a ‘Master of the Posts’ to the present day. I realised I have now reached an age when I spend too much of my time in museums exclaiming “I remember having one of those”! But the main attraction at the Postal Museum is the opportunity to ride in the tiny Mail Rail train under central London. London's Hidden Postal Railway runs for 6.5 miles from Paddington to Whitechapel. It opened in 1927 and only ceased being used in 2003. Now you can squeeze into new passenger carriages and travel around one loop of the railway line, passing through narrow tunnels and disused station platforms, accompanied by an audio-visual history of the service. It’s an eerie and intriguing experience - a mixture of ghost train, theme park ride and archeological dig. 

'The Captive' by Ned Beauman writing as Kit Burgoyne

6 November 2025

Ned Beauman is one of my favourite contemporary authors: I have enjoyed all his novels, with ‘The Teleportation Accident’ (reviewed here in July 2013) and ‘Madness is Better Than Defeat’ (reviewed here in October 2017) my particular favourites. I was intrigued to discover that Ned Beauman’s new novel ‘The Captive’ is written under the pseudonym Kit Burgoyne. Reviews have suggested that this signals a shift of genre into fantasy/horror but I found ‘The Captive’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Sam Stafford) remarkably similar in tone to Beauman’s earlier novels. It was wonderful to rediscover his very careful, precise, and incredibly funny writing. I’m not sure I would describe ‘The Captive’ as horror: though there is some rather graphic satanic violence, the book feels more like a thriller - its kidnap plot gripping from the opening scene. The gradual introduction of supernatural elements to an otherwise accurately described present-day London reminded me of the magical realism of David Mitchell’s brilliant novel 'The Bone Clocks' (reviewed here in October 2014). The plot to expose and topple a mysterious, evil family who seem to control all of Britain’s public services reminded me of ‘What a Carve Up’ by Jonathan Coe. But despite these multiple elements, I think ‘The Captive’ is actually Ned Beauman’s most straightforward novel - a scary pacy thriller with a linear narrative that doesn’t outstay its welcome and comes to a proper conclusion. 

'Mrs Warren's Profession' by George Bernard Shaw

29 October 2025

This year we’ve made two visits to Shaw's Corner - the house where George Bernard Shaw lived in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire - at Easter and on the weekend of the playwright's birthday in July when we saw an open-air production of his play 'Arms and the Man' (reviewed here in August 2025. This Monday we were at the Odeon in Milton Keynes to see a NT Live recording of Dominic Cooke’s new production of ‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’ at the National Theatre in London. Shaw wrote more than 60 plays and only a handful are still regularly performed but ‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’ has struggled for performances since it was written in 1893 - not receiving its first public performance in England until 1925. This is because of its subject matter which explores the links between sex and society. The new National Theatre production stars Imelda Staunton as Mrs Warren and her real-life daughter Bessie Carter as Mrs Warren’s daughter Vivie. It’s a fascinating play. Initially the relationships between the characters feel confusingly odd, with the suggestion of something going on beneath the surface of the dialogue reminding me of the style of much more recent plays by Sam Shepard, Caryl Churchill and Edward Albee. But as the reasons for their behaviour towards each other becomes clearer it turns into a compelling series of arguments about morality, exploitation, and women’s rights which genuinely manages to make strong cases for opposing points of view. Imelda Staunton was wonderful but this was Bessie Carter’s play and she was brilliant. Our only disappointment was that this play that struggled for performances for so long hadn’t reached a larger audience: we were the only two people in the Odeon to see it.

'Born With Teeth' by Liz Duffy Adams

24 October 2025

In 2016 the Guardian reported new evidence, based on computational analysis, that Christopher Marlowe collaborated with William Shakespeare on parts of the Henry VI trilogy of plays - a collaboration subsequently endorsed by the New Oxford Shakespeare imprint of Oxford University Press which now also credits Marlowe. Liz Duffy Adams’ new play ‘Born With Teeth’, which we saw at Wyndham’s Theatre in London on Saturday, imagines Shakespeare and Marlowe working together on the Henry VI plays. It’s an entertaining and intriguing two-hander which, in this Royal Shakespeare Company production, directed by Daniel Evans, provides a star vehicle for two very successful TV actors, Ncuti Gatwa (as Kit Marlowe) and Edward Bluemel (as Shakespeare). Both actors entirely justify their casting with impressive stage performances, showing (across three short acts) the shift in power in the relationship between the two playwrights. The script is clever, witty and often very funny - using contemporary English in a period setting to make the interactions between the two writers believable and relevant. But, even at just 90 minutes without an interval, the play feels too long for its material. It’s an interesting thought-experiment which might have made a really strong 60 minute fringe play but doesn’t have enough content to sustain itself but is worth seeing for the performances by Gatwa and Bluemel. And it helped with my ongoing game of Doctor Who bingo: Ncuti Gatwa is the fifth Doctor I have seen on stage (following Peter Davison, David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker, since you ask!). 

'Clown Town' by Mick Herron

24 October 2025

It was wonderful to return to the world of Jackson Lamb and the Slow Horses in Mick Herron’s new spy novel in the Slough House series, ‘Clown Town’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Sean Barrett. The previous book, ‘Bad Actors’ (reviewed here in June 2024) felt like the climax of the series, so I was intrigued to see where ‘Clown Town’ would take us. As usual the book starts with a confusing violent opening scene involving unfamiliar characters. This is followed by a perambulation around the offices of Slough House - MI5's dumping ground for disgraced operatives - to slowly reintroduce us to each member of the team. After several chapters of what seems like entertaining but trivial sub-plots you begin to wonder when the main story is going to start, only to realise that the collision between those sub-plots is going to be the main story. Mick Herron frequently plays with the reader - keeping us hanging on for ages towards the end of the book before finally revealing who died in the big set-piece confrontation. But he also manages to create a cast of hopeless, helpless losers who are surprisingly likeable and sympathetic. 

Bologna

17 October 2025

We had a wonderful holiday in Bologna - the culinary capital of Italy and the location of the oldest university in the Western world, founded in 1088. It is a beautiful and very distinctive city, with most of the buildings conforming to a colour palette of warm tones of yellow, red and orange, and miles and miles of porticoes (wide arched covered pedestrian walkways) - more than any other city in the world. If you are visiting Bologna I would recommend reading John Grisham's 2005 novel 'The Broker' while you are there. It's a gripping thriller and its descriptions of Bologna - and the experience of learning to speak Italian - were the perfect companion to our holiday. We were lucky to see a Bologna Festival concert by the MDI String Quartet in the magnificent Oratorio di San Filippo Neri - one of the grandest places I have ever seen a classical concert. We had day trips, by train, to Milan, Ravenna and Venice. Milan was nicer than we were expecting with some stunning buildings, particularly the Castello Sforzesco. The town of Ravenna was a little less picturesque than we had imagined but its famous Byzantine mosaics were amazing. And it was wonderful to return to Venice, 24 years after our previous visit, and to manage to find the little hotel where we had stayed all those years ago. You can see a selection of my holiday photos at: https://culturaloutlook.blogspot.com/search/label/Bologna2025 

'Top Hat' by Irving Berlin

1 October 2025

Last Friday we were at Milton Keynes Theatre to see the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Irving Berlin's 'Top Hat'. The show is based on the 1935 film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, adapted for the stage in 2011 by Matthew White and Howard Jacques, and is directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall (who was also responsible for the glorious Barbican production of 'Anything Goes' by Cole Porter, reviewed here in September 2021). It's a feast of Irving Berlin songs, including 'Puttin' On the Ritz', 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' and 'Cheek To Cheek' as well as 'Top Hat, White Tie and Tails'. There is nothing more joyous than an old-fashioned tap-dance musical and the big dance numbers are brilliantly performed by a large cast, squeezed onto a relatively small stage. Phillip Attmore (as Jerry Travers) is a stunning dancer - incredible in the fast tap numbers but equally graceful in the ballroom dances. The prototype romcom plot is typically slight and forgettable, and the book is desperately in need of a modern rewrite, but you can just wallow in the beautiful costumes, stylish set (by Peter McKintosh) and an amazing display of dancing. 

'Measure for Measure' by William Shakespeare

23 September 2025

'Measure for Measure' - which we saw at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last Saturday - has never been one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, but I seem to have been gradually warming to it. I think I had seen it three times before and my comments here on two previous RSC productions (in January 2012 and July 2019) suggest my growing understanding and appreciation of the play. Emily Burns' new RSC production is the best of the lot. Not only does it give the play a contemporary setting (with a great set by Frankie Bradshaw), the production made me realise what a modern play it is - despite having been written around 1603. It has a different feel to most Shakespeare plays: the language is less poetic, more realistic, and it consists mainly of a series of claustrophobic two-hander scenes. Watching it on Saturday we could almost have been at the National Theatre or the Royal Court at the premiere of a new play about power, misogyny and corruption. 'Measure for Measure' is a dark tale but this version made the narrative clearer than I remembered it, allowing you to focus on the parallels between the behaviour of Angelo and the Duke and their modern equivalents. (The play starts with a montage of recent news footage featuring Bill Clinton, Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock et al). The play was cleaner and clearer for its very sparing (and effective) use of music. And the introduction of hand-held video cameras projecting live-feeds onto two giant screens heightened the climax of the final scene by showing us close-ups of the main characters' reactions. The principals - Adam James as the Duke, Tom Mothersdale as Angelo and Isis Hainsworth as Isabella - were all excellent. It was a really impressive production.  

‘Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark’ by Gwenifer Raymond

19 September 2025

‘Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark’ is the new album by the Welsh guitarist and banjo player Gwenifer Raymond. It's a fascinating set of solo instrumental tunes that features compelling rhythms, hypnotically repetitious lines and some impressive fast picking. The tunes include echoes of Appalachian mountain music, some nods to slide guitar and a range of moods. She creates a fascinating sound world in which it's often easy to forget that the music is being generated by a single player. It's a lovely, unusual and engaging album. You can listen to the title track here.

‘The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley’ by Sean Lusk

12 September 2025

‘The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley’ by Sean Lusk (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Bert Seymour and Clare Corbett) is a captivating, curious, charming historical novel. Set in the mid-18th century it has the language and feel of a novel of that period, though with some more contemporary themes (it was published in 2022). I loved encountering the story of the Cloudesley family with no idea where it was going to take me so I won’t say too much about the plot but Sean Lusk creates a likeable ensemble of Dickensian characters before taking them off on an international adventure. Alongside the realistic period detail there is a Victorian steampunk feel to the clockmaker’s amazing automata that form an important strand of the plot. The book also reminded me of Andrew Miller’s brilliant period novel ‘Now We Shall Be Entirely Free’ which is set in the early 18th century (reviewed here in April 2020). ‘The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley’ is incredibly enjoyable, surprising, thrilling and beautifully written. Highly recommended.

'Inter Alia' by Suzie Miller

12 September 2025

Suzie Miller’s remarkable one-woman play 'Prima Facie' (reviewed here in August 2022) was a captivating, compelling masterclass in dramatic storytelling, featuring an extraordinary solo performance by Jodie Comer. Last Saturday we were at the Vue cinema in Bedford to see the NT Live screening of Suzie Miller’s new play at the National Theatre in London, ‘Inter Alia’, which reunites her with director Justin Martin. ‘Inter Alia’ stars Rosamund Pike as a London Crown Court Judge, juggling the challenges of being a working mother when a shocking event threatens her and her family. It’s a clever, thoughtful play, with Rosamund Pike both narrating and playing her part in the story, and it raises important questions about modern masculinity and motherhood. But, although this is not a one-woman play, otherwise it felt too much like a repetition of the ‘Prima Facie’ formula. ‘Inter Alia’ was brilliantly acted, inventive, thought-provoking and moving: if I hadn’t seen ‘Prima Facie’ I might have been similarly blown away by it. But, for me, it didn’t quite match the devastating power of the earlier play.

'You Call That A Career? - Memoirs of a Festival Organiser' by Steve Heap

3 September 2025

My first job in the arts, in 1996, was at The British Federation of Festivals - the national umbrella body for amateur competitive festivals of music, dance and speech. In the office at Festivals House in Macclesfield we often got phone calls from people who actually needed one of the other two national organisations supporting festivals. Our rule of thumb was to redirect callers interested in the larger professional arts festivals (such as the Edinburgh International Festival or the Brighton Festival) to the The British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA) and anyone calling about "a festival in a field" was referred to "the lovely Steve Heap" at the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), then based in Aylesbury on the offices of Steve's company Mrs Casey Music. I'm not sure when I first met Steve but I clearly remember, in my next job at Making Music (the National Federation of Music Societies), how distraught my folk music-loving colleague Caroline Wright was in 2004 when Steve retired as Director of the legendary Sidmouth Folk Festival after 18 years, marking the end of a glorious era. When I became Chief Executive of Creative Lives (formerly known as the Voluntary Arts Network) in 2005 Steve was already a strong supporter of the organisation and I have had the pleasure of working with him on many occasions over the years. Last year Steve retired as AFO General Secretary, 35 years after setting up the association. And this summer he published his book 'You Call That A Career? - Memoirs of a Festival Organiser' which I have just finished reading. It was fascinating to learn about Steve's childhood in Rawtenstall, his early experiences as a folk singer, drummer and actor and his extensive achievements as festival organiser, promoter, record label owner, visiting lecturer and activist. The book even explains who Mrs Casey was. Steve's voice sings clearly from the pages of the book which is, like its writer, kind, funny, passionate, generous and humble. You can buy a copy from www.mrscasey.co.uk  

NSO Play Weekend - Shostakovich 'Symphony No 4'

1 September 2025

Shortly after I joined Northampton Symphony Orchestra (NSO), in 2000, the orchestra ran a great one-day workshop with members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 'An Alpine Symphony' by Richard Strauss. I have since taken part in several similar workshops organised by Milton Keynes Sinfonia (reviewed here). These 'play-days' provide the opportunity to tackle a work that the orchestra would not normally be able to perform in a concert - because of its scale, complexity and the additional players needed. They are also very sociable occasions, bringing together the orchestra and guest players to practice, eat together and chat, usually finishing with a full performance of the piece. 

 

Last weekend the NSO ran its first Play Weekend - a two-day workshop on Dimitri Shostakovich's 'Symphony No 4' - for which we gathered a massive orchestra of 120 people. Like most of my NSO colleagues I have played the much more famous 5th Symphony several times (most recently with NSO, reviewed here in November 2016) and a few of Shostakovich's other symphonies but I had never even heard the 4th before. In 1936, when Shostakovich's opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' (described by Pravda as “muddle instead of music”) was banned, apparently at Stalin's behest, the composer assumed it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to surrender his life. His 'Symphony No 4', which was then in rehearsal for its first performance, was quickly withdrawn. Instead Shostakovich produced 'Symphony No 5', subtitled ‘A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism’ - a stunningly powerful symphony that appeared to conform to the Soviet state's requirements for triumphalist music (though with many cleverly concealed elements that provide a cynical sting in the tail). The 4th Symphony didn't receive its premiere until 1961. [The Origin Story podcast recently produced an episode on 'Shostakovich and Stalin – The Composer and the Dictator' which gives an overview of Shostakovich’s life in a clear, accessible way - reviewed here in August 2025.]

 

'Symphony No 4' is a long, complex piece. At first it feels brutal, angry, strident and quite difficult to listen to. But as I have got to know it better over the past few weeks it has really grown on me. It's a fascinating work full of contrasts and contradictions, with moments of gentle beauty, lyricism and playfulness alongside its terrifying sheer power. Beginning to appreciate its homage to the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, and Shostakovich's reverence for JS Bach, helped me make more sense of its structure and themes. Above all, you need to think about the context of Stalin's Soviet Union to understand both the angst and the occasional whimsy of the music and I was grateful to have read 'The Noise of Time' by Julian Barnes (reviewed here in March 2016) which outlines how Shostakovich found himself a reluctant collaborator with Stalin's regime.

 

The NSO Play Weekend attracted guest musicians from far afield, including players from Newcastle, Norwich and Shrewsbury and one of my fellow horn players who was visiting the UK from Kentucky. It was wonderful to be part of a powerful section of 9 horn players. It was also lovely to see several former NSO members rejoining us for the weekend. I found it a really enjoyable experience - a great mixture of challenging music-making, alongside excellent food and a very friendly atmosphere. Congratulations to everyone involved in organising the weekend - a huge and complicated event which was ingeniously designed and went incredibly smoothly. 

 

There were so many outstanding performances across the orchestra it would be risky to try to name them all for fear of missing some. I particularly enjoyed the 'ticking clock' percussion at the end of the middle movement, the great use of duetting tubas, and the double sets of timpani at the climax of the last movement. But the standout for me was our principal bassoon Sian Bunker, returning to the orchestra after a break, who sounded fantastic in the symphony's many bassoon solos.

 

Our full performance of the symphony on Sunday afternoon felt truly epic and emotional. Being part of such a huge collective endeavour - as one member of a team of 120 people - was very special. NSO Conductor John Gibbons expertly guided us through an impressive rendition of the piece which may have included a few mistakes but avoided any major pitfalls and held together well through its full 65 minutes. Afterwards many of the wind and brass players admitted they were holding their breath while the strings played the impossibly challenging lengthy frantic fugue passage, but it went amazingly well - a real triumph of concentration and counting.

 

The climax of the final movement was a thrilling moment of brilliance but its quiet surrender to the gentle melancholic ending of the symphony was truly stunning. In 'The Noise of Time' Julian Barnes talks about Shostakovich's use of the musical instruction 'morendo' (dying away), pointing out that "few composers finish their lives with a major chord played fortissimo". The long silence that John Gibbons held, following the final quiet chord of the 4th Symphony, was poignant and devastating. I felt proud of what we had achieved, in awe of Shostakovich and utterly exhausted. I can't wait for the next NSO Play Weekend.

 

 

Edinburgh Festivals 2025

29 August 2025

We had a great time at the Edinburgh Festivals last week, seeing 21 shows across a wide variety of genres, topics and venues. There were many highlights but I'll just mention a few favourites:

'Down to Chance' is a great piece of fringe theatre from the Cornwall-based theatre company Maybe You Like It. A two-hander with Ellie Jay Cooper (also the writer) and Robert Merriam playing multiple roles, it tells the story of the Great Earthquake that hit Anchorage, Alaska, on Good Friday 1964. The earthquake took out all communications apart from the local radio station, where female reporter Genie Chance was left in sole charge, broadcasting through the night to reunite missing people and coordinate the volunteer efforts. A gripping true story, entertainingly told.

'Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence' by West Australian company Crash Theatre Co. and House of Oz reimagines the Scottish play as the story of a high school netball team. ‘Mac’ is determined to become captain of the team, even if it means dispensing with her teammates by murdering their reputations. It's great fun, and very silly, but the occasional actual Shakespearean speeches are surprisingly moving.
'The Queen Is Mad' is a musical/chamber opera, by Amy Clare Tasker and Tom James McGrath, about Joanna, elder sister of Catherine of Aragon and daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, who inherited the thrones of Castile and Aragon but was prevented from ruling either by her father, her husband and her son who imprisoned her, claiming she was mad. It's beautifully sung by a cast of three, featuring Maria Coyne as Joanna, and a fascinating piece of history.  

We were very lucky to see the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon, at the Usher Hall, playing Shostakovich's 5th Symphony from memory. Memorising this titanic work for a huge orchestra is an incredible feat but it's not just a party trick. The whole orchestra standing, without any music stands, and moving with the music, was an amazing sight. And it sounded fresh and incredibly exciting. They had played the symphony at The Proms in London a few days before and it's well worth watching on BBC iPlayer, but it only gives you a flavour of the live experience. It was a thrilling performance. 

'Origin Story: Shostakovich and Stalin – The Composer and the Dictator'

15 August 2025

2025 is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. I’m currently preparing to take part in a Northampton Symphony Orchestra weekend workshop at the end of August which will see an orchestra of nearly 120 players tackling Shostakovich’s massive ‘Symphony No 4’. And next week I’m going to see the Aurora Orchestra performing Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No 5’ (from memory) at the Edinburgh International Festival. So I’ve been reading a lot about Shostakovich and the extraordinary challenges he faced as a composer in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. I particularly enjoyed a recent episode of the ‘Origin Story’ podcast on ‘Shostakovich and Stalin – The Composer and the Dictator’. Presenters Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt give an overview of Shostakovich’s life in a clear, accessible way which doesn’t require much knowledge of classical music. They refer to Julian Barnes’ novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (which I reviewed here in March 2016) and Armando Iannucci’s 2017 film ‘The Death of Stalin’. They also tell the incredible tale of the first performance of Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No 7’ in the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall during the siege of Leningrad in 1942, which I learned about when I played the Leningrad Symphony with Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2013 (reviewed here in November 2013). You can listen to the podcast here.
 

'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' by Jack Thorne

6 August 2025

On Saturday we were at the Palace Theatre in London's West End to see 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' - Jack Thorne's mammoth theatrical realisation of 'what happened next' to Harry, Ron and Hermione, based on an original story by Jack Thorne, J. K. Rowling, and John Tiffany. Split into two full-length plays (each around 2 hours 40 minutes long) it requires a significant commitment. One review called it "not so much a play as a weekend mini-break, a theatrical experience that lasts longer than some relationships". We saw both parts on the same day (with a meal in between) and returned to the same seats in the evening to see almost all of our neighbours had done the same. I liked that the stage show was a conventional play - not a musical, no need to break the fourth wall or make it a play about putting on a Harry Potter play etc. And the magic was stunningly realised without any digital technology or projection, just old fashioned stage effects which created some wondrous 'wow' moments. John Tiffany's production has a large cast who are all very strong. Excellent movement choreographed by Stephen Hoggett and a clever set by Christine Jones combine to create beautiful balletic scenes around two sets of staircases on wheels which swirl around the stage causing characters to just miss each other. The plays have an incredibly complicated plot which does require knowledge of the Harry Potter books - particularly 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. But it was actually surprisingly easy to follow and was a very enjoyable and entertaining tale with some unexpected twists. 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' has been running in London for nine years and it was interesting to see that the audience seemed to be mostly adults. There was one lovely moment towards the end of the evening when a particularly serious and poignant scene involving two parents discussing their concern for their son ended with the couple movingly parting with a kiss, prompting a young voice in a row just behind us to loudly exclaim "eww!" causing great laughter around us - and confusion across the rest of the auditorium.  

Tom Robinson

6 August 2025

On Friday we were at Esquires - a small live music venue in Bedford - to see the Tom Robinson Band. We've seen Tom Robinson so many times that we don't just know all the songs, we know all the stories he tells about them and have to restrain ourselves from spoiling the punchlines. But we still love seeing him perform and Tom and the band (including excellent new drummer Siân Monaghan) were on top form last weekend. It always surprises us how many people cheer when he asks if there is anyone in the crowd who hasn't seen him before. It's wonderful to see him continuing to grow his fanbase at the age of 75. And each time we see him I am reminded what a good songwriter Tom Robinson is, and what an extensive back catalogue of songs he has to draw on. 

'The Winter's Tale' by William Shakespeare

1 August 2025

On Saturday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see the new RSC production of 'The Winter's Tale', directed by Yaël Farber, with Bertie Carvel as Leontes. Soutra Gilmour's stark set features a large dominant moon overhead, constantly changing its colour and features, and a shallow trench of water around the three edges of the stage through which many of the characters paddle. It is also the first time I have seen a stage with two separate revolves. This is a thoughtful, serious production that explores the classical and folkloric origins of Shakespeare's story. Trevor Fox plays 'Time The Thief' - an additional ever-present background character who contributes songs and poetry to the play, as well as giving Time's speech at the start of Act 4 (to explain that 16 years have passed) and playing Autolycus. While this was a clever device it did make the scenes with Autolycus - which usually provide great comic relief - less funny. Overall this is a high quality production but I felt it didn't always manage to convey the complexities of the plot clearly enough. 'The Winter's Tale' can be a slightly awkward disjointed play of two halves but I think it works best with a more playful approach - such as Edward Halls's glorious Propeller production which we saw in Canterbury many years ago (reviewed here in April 2012) which featured singing sheep (‘The Bleatles’) and beatboxing shepherds.