Tao of Glass, Royal Exchange, Manchester review - brilliant, enchanting tales fascinate
Who would have thought that a one-narrator show, mainly about projects that never got off the ground, would turn out to be such a satisfying evening's entertainment?Phelim McDermott, writer, co-director and performer in Tao of Glass, is undoubtedly...
Elbow and New Order, Lucca Summer Festival review – a meeting of Mancunian minds?
Thirty-three years ago, at Manchester's Festival of the Tenth Summer, I fumed that New Order had been given top billing over The Smiths, much to the mirth of a couple of reviewers of this very parish. History has proved me wrong, obviously. So...
The Fountainhead, The Lowry, Salford review – marathon in Mancland
Ivo van Hove's reputation precedes his work as a rumble of thunder goes before a storm. The Manchester International Festival, intensely proud to have on board the man some see as the most original theatre director around, has presented the UK...
The Anvil, Royal, Purves, BBCPO, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - disturbing, baffling and moving
Two hundred years ago next month, an assembly of around 60,000 people gathered on St Peter's Fields in Manchester to protest about their lack of political representation. Speakers addressed the crowd, bands played and banners were carried.The local...
Chetham's Symphony Orchestra, Chetham's Chorus, Threlfall, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - a thrilling triumph
As end-of-term concerts go, Mahler's Eighth Symphony is a biggie. In fact it's hard to imagine any place of secondary education where they would even contemplate it.But for Chetham's School of Music, the "Symphony of a Thousand" was a doable task,...
Williams, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall Manchester review - vision before gloom
The BBC Philharmonic have given memorable accounts of Shostakovich's Symphony No 4 in Manchester before – notably conducted by Günther Herbig in 2010 and by John Storgårds in 2014 – but surely none as harrowingly grim as under Mark Wigglesworth this...
Ehnes, BBC Philharmonic, Wilson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - contrasts from the 1930s
John Wilson conducted Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester just over a year ago with great success, in a programme of music from the 1940s. This time it was the very different, troubled Fourth, and the context was...
The Pilgrim's Progress, RNCM, Manchester review – a theatrical triumph
The Royal Northern College of Music's spring opera is a theatrical triumph and musically very, very good. It's 27 years since they last presented what Vaughan Williams called his "morality" – that was a triumph too, and they made a CD of it which I...
Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story review - inside Sidebottom's head
Frank Sidebottom was a petulant, man-child showbiz trouper with a papier-mâché head. He was more spontaneously subversive than memories of his heyday rampaging round Nineties kids TV may suggest. As to the rigorously hidden man behind the mask, he...
CD: WH Lung - Incidental Music
Encountering a debut album this good is a rare thrill. Nonetheless, the case isn't made instantly – "Simpatico People", the opening track of W.H. Lung's Incidental Music, takes 127 seconds to bed in and the vocal arrives after another minute....
Oelze, Oakes, Gould, BBC Philharmonic, Gnann, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - trio of surprises
Best laid plans and all that … this concert was originally to have been conducted by the late Oliver Knussen, and of course things had to change after his death. In the end the more recently advertised Ryan Wigglesworth was unable to conduct either...
Hardenberger, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - new work trumpets a sun journey
The BBC Philharmonic and its chief guest conductor John Storgårds introduced their Manchester audience to two new things – possibly three – in this concert. One was a world premiere, and you can't get much newer than that. The other big item was a...