While I’m still making the most of life in London… I thought I’d share my top ten highlights from the past year.
One is still on (beg, borrow or steal a ticket), one will come back in the Royal Ballet’s rep soon enough, and the Proms will be back just as long as our government don’t cancel the BBC.
I came to Kamasi Washington’s music a few years ago, when he brought The Epic to a late night Prom. I love his sound and the spirit of his music, and his second album, Heaven and Earth, is glorious. I loved getting to hear him and his band live again, including an epic drum conversation.
I was sold this concert as Peter Gregson playing his variations on Bach’s cello partitas (which, for the record, are ace) - but the opening act was Ólafsson, whose Bach album I’d just put on my phone, and his playing was magical. The opening bars literally left me breathless, the first piece with tears in my eyes. He’s a joy to listen to.
So good, I saw it twice.
This is probably my favourite MacMillan ballet, and this year I went to see two of my favourite ballerinas, Frankie Hayward and Beatriz Stix-Brunell dance Juliet. Both of them were utterly delightful in the role, but it’s fair to say that the rest of the cast in Hayward’s show were exceptional: especially Matty Ball and Marcelino Sambé as Tybalt and Mercutio. You can watch this cast in the new Ballet Boyz film (abbreviated) of the ballet, on the BBC on New Year’s Day. Do it.
The Four Quartets is my favourite poem, so of course I went to see a dance version of it. It was strange and challenging but often illuminating and a little bit wonderful, and I saw nothing else like it all year.
I spent about a month trying to work out what to write about this play but ended up not being able to make my thoughts cohere. It’s a fascinating play, and its conversation about faith and liberty and relationship magnetised me, and this production and cast were oh so wonderful, and I wish I had gone back to see it again.
I love Hugh Jackman, so I leapt at the chance to take a friend’s spare ticket for his show, which was utterly glorious and joyful. It was one of the most purely fun and good natured evenings I had all year. And he sang Oklahoma.
I hugely enjoy Public Service Broadcasting, and it was such a fun idea to have them perform their Race for Space album at the Proms to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. It was brilliantly staged and performed - and there were dancing astronauts.
I’ve enjoyed Pekka Kuusisto’s playing before (he performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at the Proms a few years ago), and this Sibelius concert was a delight. I loved the framing of both the violin concerto and the symphony within Finnish folk music, the performance of the violin concerto was dazzling, and the singalong encore enchanting.
No phones or cameras allowed inside the venue for this show, so here’s a photo of the outside of the Festival Hall. I don’t see a lot of live comedy, but I booked for Douglas on the strength of Nanette, and Hannah Gadsby did not disappoint. It was spectacularly constructed, and I will never get over the Mutant Ninja Turtles thing. My face ached with laughing by the end.
My final show of the year, and one of the two best pieces of theatre I saw. I had forgotten most of the book, but the show reminded me why I had hugely enjoyed it. I love Gaiman when he’s focused on imagination and storytelling - and here on memory as well. It’s wonderfully staged, and I properly jumped at one point. It’s on into the New Year, so GO.