30 h. ago John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London at the Proms – programming, performance and atmosphere align

John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London at the Proms – programming, performance and atmosphere align  Seen and Heard International

Politics

5 d. ago First cabinet minister enters race to become deputy Labour leader – UK politics live

Bridget Phillipson describes herself as ‘a proud working-class woman’ in statement announcing her bid to replace Angela RaynerWes Streeting, the health secretary, hasn’t just been on the Today programme this morning; he has been doing a media round, promoting the new NHS league tables for England, and in other interviews he has revealed more about why he is not committing to backing Bridget Phillipson for deputy leader at this point. (See 8.35am.)In an interview with Times Radio, Streeting said he would “certainly prefer the next deputy leader to be a woman”.[Phillipson] would definitely be a great deputy leader if she was chosen. There are other women in the race who I think would also be great deputy leaders. So I’m not endorsing anyone at this stage.Without being disrespectful to some brilliant women in London who are standing, like Emily Thornberry [whom] I’ve got a lot of respect for, I can well understand why lots of my colleagues are saying we should have a deputy leader from...

Politics

7 d. ago Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a varied programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie ColemanThis concert was to have been conducted by Simon Rattle – a mark of the esteem in which leading artists hold Chineke! Orchestra, the trailblazing British ensemble made up of a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. In the event, Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward put his own indelible stamp on a varied yet satisfying program.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s La Bamboula, a kaleidoscopic dance with roots in the West Indies, played to Chineke!’s strengths. The performed it with vigour and spirit, while Heyward kept its likable blend of late-Victorian tunefulness and proto-Hollywood glitz gossamer-light. You could see why Henry Wood programmed it at the Proms 16 times, making its subsequent 91-year absence inexplicable. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Trumpeter Alison Balsom to retire from performing after Last Night Of The Proms

Balsom will play the Hummel Trumpet Concerto in E flat major.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Hash court’ and high drama: how weed became the US Open’s new distraction

Subway rumble, rowdy crowds, celebrity cameos – and now pot smoke. Tennis’s loudest major is rubbing up against New York’s shifting culture around marijuanaThe US Open has always been the unruliest of tennis’s four grand slam tournaments, a place where the soundtrack is as much screeching trains, the roar of air traffic overhead and well-lubricated crowds as it is the thwack of racket on ball. Frances Tiafoe likes to call it “organized chaos”, the sort of life-affirming atmosphere that he says teases out his best performances. For some, it’s no stage at all but a blur of bass-heavy changeovers, revolving-door celebrity cameos and the ceaseless rattle of the nearby No 7 subway.In recent years, though, one distraction has cut through even the normalized bedlam that gives the tournament its character. Alongside the honey deuce cocktails and free-flowing Heineken, a different vice has threaded itself into the fortnight: the pungent and unmistakable odor of marijuana. It drifts across th...

Events

3 w. ago This was a train wreck. An absolute horror show of a performance from Rangers. The atmosphere at Ibrox turned toxic...

Given how unimpressive and unconvincing Rangers have been in these early weeks of the new season under Russell Martin, there was always a fear they might suffer a heavy beating at some point.

Events