Album: Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz

★★★★ VIAGRA BOYS - WELFARE JAZZ Stockholm punks impress with heart and musical range on their second album

Stockholm punks impress with heart and musical range on their second album

Their PR cannot put the band name in the header of promotional emails, as they’ll go straight to the spam bin, but Swedish punk outfit Viagra Boys have, nonetheless, become a name to contend with. It’s their wild live persona that’s put them on the map but their second album raucously – and tenderly – demonstrates they also have the range and the songs to explode into something bigger.

Being A Human Person review - enter the surreal world of Roy Andersson

★★★★ BEING A HUMAN PERSON Enter the surreal world of Roy Andersson

A captivating documentary examining the Swedish auteur on the advent of his final film

It’s fair to say that the idiosyncratic, surrealist films of Roy Andersson are not everyone’s cup of tea. Whether you find his films impregnable or incisive, it’s impossible to argue with the artistic imprint the Swedish auteur has had on European cinema. Now at the age of 77, he has made his last film, About Endlessness.

A Little Night Music, Opera Holland Park review - wasn't it bliss?

★★★★ A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, OPERA HOLLAND PARK For one night, we were part of a full-on theatrical experience once again

For one night, we were part of a full-on theatrical experience once again

A lot of rain and untold bliss: those were the takeaways from Saturday night’s alfresco Opera Holland Park concert performance of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s eternally glorious 1973 musical, A Little Night Music.

Don Giovanni/Sibelius plus, Swedish RSO, Harding, livestream review - dark studio rituals

DON GIOVANNI/ SIBELIUS PLUS, SWEDISH RSO, HARDING Vivid Mozart style from top cast and conductor, but concepts work only fitfully

Vivid Mozart style from top cast and conductor, but concepts work only fitfully

"Touch her and you die," sings Masetto in telling Don Giovanni to keep away from his Zerlina. There's certainly trouble, though not instant death, when fingers briefly meet. Mozart's dark comedy has much in Da Ponte's text about hands-on business but only a few points where it's actually seen; love and sex don't really happen, though there are two skirmishes, one fatal.

Classical Music/Opera direct to home 11 - more phased returns to creative work

CLASSICAL MUSIC/OPERA DIRECT TO HOME 11 More phased returns to creative work

Sweden comes to musical life again, a small UK festival ponders and past glories shine

At last, it seems, one venerable British institution will be emulating what Scandinavian and Czech set-ups have been managing over the past month: live performances from an audience-less venue, though in sound only. In quickly reorganised scheduling along with BBC Radio 3, the Wigmore Hall features a host of its top regular artists in June lunchtime concerts.

Sondheim at 90 Songs: 5 - 'Every Day A Little Death'

SONDHEIM AT 90 SONGS: 5 - 'Every Day A Little Death'

A stinging duet from 'A Little Night Music' has a savagely funny power

“Whipped cream with knives” is how Harold Prince, who directed the Broadway premiere of A Little Night Music in 1973, famously described this particular Sondheim show. And nowhere is that borne out with more exquisite agony than in this duet between two unhappily married women.

Alice Boman, Union Chapel review - Swedish singer-songwriter confounds expectations

★★★ ALICE BOMAN, UNION CHAPEL Swedish singer-songwriter confounds expectations

A bumpier ride than the recent debut album ‘Dream On’

Judging by her debut album, Malmö singer-songwriter Alice Boman’s frosted-glass musical aesthetic has the odd hint of Mazzy Star and draws from the sound world created for Twin Peaks – a similar outlook to Gothenburg’s El Perro del Mar. Dream On is not the full story though. Boman’s first record was released in 2013 and, since then, she has issued another EP and a few singles.