THE Schmoozenbergs are a Bristol based group of musicians with a lively passion for gypsy swing and jazz. Back for a second season with Take Art, Somerset’s enterprising arts charity, this quartet of supremely talented young men promised to recreate the swinging sounds of Paris in the 30s and 40s, bringing us irresistible rhythms and…
A PACKED Colston Hall enjoyed an insider’s look at Mozart’s three last symphonies before John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists played them “in earnest.” The atmosphere of a “classical” concert has undergone a sea change in recent years. While the rigorous conductor, who is also an organic farmer in Dorset, wouldn’t dream of some of the…
CHEF Philippa Davis spent a fun New Year cooking in a chalet in Val d’Isere, and despite the lack of snow she made sure there was no lack of cake … Cooking for ski parties is another one of those jobs, like the shooting ones, that allows you to be fairly liberal with the butter…
Liadov: Kikimora Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Kees Bakels: Conductor Valeriy Sokolov: Violin HAVING glutted on Strauss waltzes over the New Year, this concert saw the BSO returning to their usual business of providing reliably polished and stimulating performances of the classical repertoire. It was…
ANDY Ford is one of Bristol’s local heroes: so he is the obvious choice to host an evening of entertainment at the Hippodrome, echoing those other famous Sunday Nights in London’s West End, which helped launch ITV in the mid 1950s and have been revived many time right up to the present, always hosted by…
COINCIDENTALLY, I had just finished reading a glowing review in The Times of the musical Showboat, which has been revived at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, when the opportunity to see Call Mr. Robeson arose. Showboat features such timeless songs as Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man of Mine and Bill as well as Ol’ Man…
WE love to travel. It may be somewhere that is just a drive away, like Shropshire or Dumfries and Galloway. It may be Italy or France or Germany, where my son lives, or it may be somewhere in the US, where our holidays have taken us to places as diverse as Alaska, New Mexico, New…
by Simone Sekers “WHY do restaurants have to be so noisy these days?” The friend who asked this question is not normally a peevish person; she is the godmother of our daughter, and has been chosen as great-godmother by our grandchildren; we eat out with her a good deal. She has introduced us to Le…
THE festive season is a time for indulgence, and few things are more indulgent than truffles. Chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury was busy before Christmas cooking at parties from the Highlands to Holland Park, and among the delights she served up to her clients and their friends, was this delicious White Truffle and Butter Taglierini…
THE cast of the Glastonbury and Street Musical Comedy Society Peter Pan are flying high over the post Christmas lethargy to bring real fun and excitement to audiences at Strode Theatre. Who’d have thought a few years ago that the college campus theatre could have produced a show with not one flying actor but four,…