The Best of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells I, II & III
Cadogan Hall
Monday 19th January 2026, 19:30
A13

I did the usual early arrival at the venue and was surprised to find the doors already open. Some light rain was forecast and I feared I would be waiting outside!

A glass of red and a bit of crowd watching ensued but I didn't get a second glass...

I had some expectations but sadly the performance was not what I had hoped for. In the interval I wrote:- "Strangely one dimensional... take theme, build it to crescendo, switch to another theme and repeat! The switches between instruments seemed banal on occasions!"

On reflection later I realised that it sounded like a collage with individual instruments being added on in the allotted spaces. There seemed little dialogue between the musicians even when the two guitarists were hamming up their parallel solos.

I have no doubt that the individual players were completely competent but the performance did not gel. There was one occasion when for a few bars it seemed as if something was completely out of tune. I was not able to identify what happened and did not see any particular issue or response among the players.

Towards the ends of both sets the lighting crew started ramping things up shining lights at the audience which I felt was inappropriate and did not reflect on an actual audience reaction.

And then... the voice over from the original recording of Tubular Bells sounded completely portentous in the concert setting. That was almost funny in hindsight!

Oh well, there will be other concerts to attend in the not too distant future but I was somewhat relieved that I had not spotted Sunday evenings performance at King's Place of Morton Feldman's 4 1/2 hour long piece 'For Philip Guston'!

Colin Currie Quartet
King's Place
Saturday 31st January 2026, 19:30
E10

I arrived to find the foyer area quite busy but this was due to a performance in Hall 2 which started at 7:00pm.

The first set culminated with the 'premiere' piece which was notable for the use of bows rather than mallets to sound some of the notes.

The second set started with the quartet on marimbas which was followed by the final piece, Drumming Part One by Steve Reich.

It was a stunning performance throughout and I was pleased to have seen Drumming, Part 1 again, possibly for the third time!

Set List

Andy Akiho - Pillar I
Andy Akiho - Pillar IV
Joe Duddell - This Place, These People (World Premiere, Kings Place commission)
Kevin Volans - Four Marimbas
Steve Reich - Drumming, Part I

Phaedra Ensemble
King's Place
Friday 20th March 2026, 19:30
E9

Colin Currie Group, Music of the Steve Martland Band
King's Place
Friday 17th April 2026, 19:30
E9

Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)
St Giles' Cripplegate
Mon 22 Jun 2026, 20:00,
Unreserved seating
Tyshawn Sorey, conductor & composer
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
Ruth Gibson, viola
BBC Singers,
GBSR Duo

The Barbican
Sunday 19 Jul 2026, 5:30pm B49
Pat Metheny Side-Eye III+
Chris Fishman (piano and keyboards)
Jermaine Paul (bass)
Joe Dyson (drums)