Charlotte Higgins
 | Charlotte Higgins is the chief arts writer of the Guardian. One of Britain’s foremost commentators on culture, she contributes to the news, features, op-ed, literary and arts sections of the paper, writes a regularly Wednesday arts column in G2, keeps an influential arts weblog at www.guardian.co.uk/charlottehiggins and can be found in the Twittersphere at www.twitter.com/chiggi |
In 2004 Charlotte moved to the Guardian’s newsroom to become arts correspondent, reporting from as far afield as Venezuela, China and the Occupied Territories.
Charlotte’s other great love is the classics, and she is the author of two books: Latin Love Lessons, and It’s All Greek to Me (both Short Books). In her spare time she plays the violin, and is an enthusiastic but rather bad chamber musician.
Charlotte is the Chair of Judges for the PRS Foundation's New Music Award 2010. For more information on the New Music Award and the other judges on the panel, visit: www.prsfoundation.co.uk/nma
Here's what Charlotte has been listening to/reading/watching:
For all my love of music, I’m an irregular listener to my CD collection and out of a vague reluctance to amass consumer goods, haven’t quite got round to an iPod. So what I’m listening to at any given moment tends to relate to what I’m hearing live – and what I’m playing.
Schumann: Piano Quintet
One piece we are gradually getting better at in my chamber group is Schumann’s Piano Quintet. It’s such a vivid piece – and the slow movement is just fantastic, with that wonderful viola tune. The feverish fugues of the final movement are just hilarious to play. I had the good luck to see the Mark Morris company perform their extraordinary work V, which is set to this music, at Sadler’s Wells recently. Morris is a musician’s choreographer – his pieces operate on one level as a highly intelligent visual commentary on the scores he works with. The company is still on tour in Britain, though alas not repeating this particular piece when they perform at Snape Maltings Concert Hall on 20-21 November: www.markmorrisdancegroup.org/performances/537
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
The other piece that seems to keep cropping up at the moment is Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – partly because it forms half of English National Opera’s current double bill with Bluebeard’s Castle. Though I didn’t care for the dance aspect of Rite (from Irish company Fabulous Beast) it was great to hear the ENO orchestra perform this under Edward Gardner – they really are sounding terrific at the moment. The Rite of Spring is also the basis of a fascinating installation created by the Philharmonia Orchestra, called re-rite. Using film and sound, this multi-room experience allows you to wander through rooms, each devoted to a different orchestral section, and feel something of what it is like to be a player. You can also don headphones to hear conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s commentary as he conducts the piece (I gather it will tour to Leicester in due course). The Rite of Spring would certainly accompany me to a desert island. The most illuminating version I’ve heard was under Pierre Boulez, the most devastatingly intense under Valery Gergiev. And I also heard it at the Proms under Simon Rattle a few years back, when someone’s mobile phone went off during the opening bassoon solo. Rattle stopped the orchestra, and began again, his face like thunder.
Arnold Bennett: Riceyman Steps
I’m re-reading Arnold Bennett’s Riceyman Steps at the moment – I’m a Potteries girl and Bennett is a Potteries writer, though this novel, oddly enough, is set near where I live in London. He’s criminally underrated. This book really gets under the grimy skin of the city.
Recent discoveries in the blogosphere are two composer's blogs – by John Adams (www.earbox.com/posts) and Nico Muhly (http://nicomuhly.com/news). Both are quite priceless, for different reasons.
As for TV – I’m gripped by the stylish, dramatic and impeccably written True Blood.