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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Fiona Maddocks's rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7935 2141
Website: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
Breathtaking: Mark Padmore gave an outstanding performance
Coming relatively late to Lieder recitals, the tenor Mark Padmore has spent three years preparing to sing the great Schubert song cycles at Wigmore Hall — responding to a request from the hall’s new director, John Gilhooly, in his first piece of artistic scheduling.
All voice types tackle these masterpieces, famously Wunderlich, Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter and Schreier. The difference here is that Padmore has chosen a particular pianist for each work. He began with the Viennese Till Fellner, a fittingly youthful choice for Die schöne Müllerin, 20 songs about the naïve, fateful love of an apprentice miller for a pretty girl. As the cycle strode out in bold, impetuous major-key optimism, Fellner gave supple support, with firm left-hand delineation and surging right-hand effervescence, finding new, almost weightless textures for the music’s tumbling descent into despair.
Padmore characteristically plundered each poem for every last ounce of emotion from virile ecstasy to blank sorrow.
In the final Des Baches Wiegenlied (The Brook’s Lullaby), singer and pianist perfectly expressed the music’s caressing invitation to sink into the watery sleep of oblivion. It was breathtaking. Schubert couldn’t be better served.
May 21, Winterreise (Julius Drake), May 24, Schwanengesang (Roger Vignoles). On BBC Radio 3, 28 May, 4 June and 11 June.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
