Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Cheltenham Music Festival ★★★☆☆ The Cheltenham Music Festival may have waned somewhat since its glory days over the last millennium, but it still delivers a great programme of brilliant young artists and compelling premieres. The focus for the 2024 edition was on local boy Gustav Holst, known to millions for his… Read More »
City break Basel, Europe’s best crossroads city, is just a short tram ride from both Germany and France. Everyone staying in a hotel or hostel here is entitled to free public transport – your booking counts as your ticket from the airport from the moment you arrive. Basel is not only a great place for… Read More »
In 1957, on a family vacation, Bill Viola fell into a lake. He was six years old. Sixty years later, Viola, who died at the age of 73, recalled the incident. “When I went into the water, I didn’t hold my float and I sank right to the bottom,” he said. “I experienced weightlessness and… Read More »
Since my first unaccompanied train journey (I was 14 and clearly looking for the high life, having travelled with two friends to Wigan to watch my football team Wrexham), I have witnessed the end of smoking on platforms, the end of trains with slamming doors and the dreaded Pacer carriages, the influx of chain coffee… Read More »
The volcanic event that began on La Palma, Canary Islands, on September 19, 2021, could be described as a slow burn. There were no shattering explosions, no incandescent rocks hurled miles into the sky, no pyroclastic flows, where superheated pumice and gas sluiced downhill at deadly speeds. After a week of terrifying earthquakes, lava gushed… Read More »
What a combative week of theatre it was. Three broadly political plays that proceeded more by talk than physical action, punching, reproaching and arguing. With various effects. Polishing and poking (there are plenty of these), Slave Game It arrives in London on Broadway, setting Broadway alight. In the weeks before its opening night, its writer… Read More »
In Norfolk and Suffolk’s Broads national park, there are 124 miles of unlocked, navigable waterways ripe for boat exploration – Britain’s largest protected wetland. Unfortunately, what kept popping up on my computer screen when I was looking for a suitable boat to spend a long weekend on was a much larger four-figure figure in pounds… Read More »
The best example of Martin Budinski’s playful maximalism; a feast of flowers that roam the walls, carpets and corridors, adding flavour to cocktails and enhancing the mood. Located on Rue Cadet, one of Paris’ most filmed streets, this fantastical, richly attired, sun-drenched hotel is a colourful oasis amid the city’s Haussmann grey. The result is… Read More »
Four leading experts will examine Pablo Picasso’s signature to determine whether previously unknown works are genuine prints and paintings by the artist or simply daring forgeries. A judge in Rome has appointed experts to rule in a sensational case in which an Italian businessman living in Britain claims ownership of a long-lost collection of 36… Read More »
In the ecology of the country house opera – privately funded, watched by dedicated but relatively small audiences – much remains hidden or invisible. Clothing optional and high ticket prices steal headlines, mostly negative. Their short season, which began in May, is coming to an end. (The older, larger, better-funded Glyndebourne operates somewhat differently, though… Read More »