The Oxford Times | Music / Books

Brothers rise to the occasion

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:02:45 +0000

Tom and Henry Herbert, The Fabulous Baker Brothers, are so busy it’s almost impossible to pin them down.

The Noughties by Ben Masters

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:10:00 +0000

The Noughties by Ben Masters (Hamish Hamilton, £12.99)

The Days of Our Vanity

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:10:00 +0000

Musician Richard Leigh Harris spent nearly 30 years in Oxford composing, performing, teaching and lecturing — and reviewing for The Oxford Times.

Preview of Oxford Trobadors, Holywell Music Room

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:47:58 +0000

Anyone who saw the Oxford Trobadors at the Holywell Music Room last year will want to catch them in action again next week.

Summertown Choral Society: St Andrew's Church

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:49:37 +0000

It takes more than a bit of snow to deter Oxford audiences, and Summertown Choral Society must have been relieved on Saturday night to see St Andrew’s Church more or less full for their performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass, despite increasingly treacherous conditions.

Signalman's Twilight

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:12:12 +0000

Adrian Vaughan started work as a railway porter at Challow, then became a signalman in 1962, moving to Uffington.

Oxford Then and Now

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:10:28 +0000

Commercial redevelopment was already towering over the 17th-century heart of Oxford by 1907, as demonstrated in Oxford Then and Now.

Preview of Alfred Brendel masterclass

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:04:46 +0000

Legendary pianist Alfred Brendel will be in Oxford this month for two events which may be the last opportunities we have to hear him play in public.

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Anyone who has ever taken the guided tour of Blenheim Palace will remember the life-size statue of Queen Anne, beautifully carved out of a solid piece of Carrara marble by Jean Michael Rysbrack, gazing regally down the 180 feet of the Long Library.

Nigel Kennedy: The New Theatre, Oxford

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:08:19 +0000

On the penultimate date of his UK Tour, acclaimed composer and performer Nigel Kennedy brought Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and his own creation The Four Elements to The New Theatre. The concert was certainly one of two halves. Pre-interval, Kennedy — sporting a surprising hairstyle and similarly extraordinary garb, of chain-covered trousers and over-sized rumpled shirt — supported by his Orchestra of Life, reinvented The Four Seasons. Kennedy, who could easily be described as a violin-wielding vagrant, guided his orchestra through the classic not with a baton, but with a series of wild hand gestures and enthusiastic nods, before breaking into unexpected electric violin solos. This particular rendition is known as ‘The Kennedy re-write’, and while definitely entertaining it would be perhaps more favoured by fans of Kennedy than fans of Vivaldi.