New Music CDs Round-Up 5

Critics' favourites for January - with Vampire Weekend as the Stinker of the Month

January's most riveting CDs found by our critics includes those by Malian master-musicians Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté, an Italian surrealist, an Algerian rocker, British Big Band jazz, Northern chamber folk and some sparky veterans releasing their best stuff for decades including Sade, Massive Attack and Peter Gabriel. The CD of the month is by Vinicio Capossela. Stinker: the over-rated Vampire Weekend. Reviewers this month are Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Peter Quinn, Robert Sandall, Graeme Thomson, Sue Steward, Peter Culshaw, Russ Coffey and Joe Muggs.

Classical Music CDs Round-Up 4

Gems include bumper Chopin set, Bruckner 8, an unknown Polish composer

Heading up this month's classical selection is a 16-CD budget box set of the complete works of Frédéric Chopin, issued to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the consumptive Pole's birth. Plus we review a rare piano concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a disc of even rarer string orchestra works by the post-war Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz, a fresh coupling of the Debussy and Ravel string quartets, a new version of Bruckner's mighty Eighth from the French-Canadian wunderkind Yannick Nézet-Séguin and two sets of historic recordings conducted by "Glorious John" Barbirolli.

DVDs Round-Up 3

The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Antichrist, Harry Potter and much more

 There's a strong distaff presence in theartsdesk's third DVD round-up. The headline film is Kathryn Bigelow's superb war thrillerThe Hurt Locker, currently mopping up awards in the US and a hot favourite for the Oscars. Also in the mix: Audrey Tautou as the redoubtable doyenne of French fashion in Anne Fontaine's Coco Before Chanel and Julie Christie in Sally Potter's avant-garde 1983 debut feature The Gold Diggers. Fear not, however: a robust testosterone level is maintained by Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, by the hit stag-party comedy The Hangover and by Antichrist, Lars von Trier's "misogynist" (according to some) psychodrama. Harry Potter is the star of our box set of the month. The selection was made by Anne Billson, Ryan Gilbey, Sheila Johnston and Jasper Rees.

New Music CDs: Favourites of 2009

Top tunes of the last year including Muse, Lady Gaga, xx, Tom Russell and Oumou Sangare

theartsdesk's critics look back fondly on their favourites of 2009. An eclectic selection full of eccentricities, our favourite music from the past year varies from the pop strangeness of Lady Gaga and Muse to "world-mariachi" from Tom Russell, West African grooviness from Oumou Sangare, electronica from Tim Exile, jazz from Branford Marsalis, Brazilian seduction from Céu as well as a couple of old warhorses on top form: Tom Waits and Neil Young. We've made it easier for you to purchase our recommendations: all you need to do is click on the link at the end of each review.

Art 2009: Best and Worst

Picasso, Wallinger, Richter, Calle and Sacred Spanish art win - Hirst's the turkey

2009 hasn’t been a vintage year for art, exactly - no queue-round-the-block showstoppers, if that’s your type of thing. Nonetheless the year was nicely topped and tailed by some memorable, and quietly seductive shows. My top five are Picasso, Mark Wallinger, Gerhard Richter, Sophie Calle and The Sacred Made Real.

Dance DVDs Round-Up 1

Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo in supreme form, The Red Shoes, and Fred 'n' Ginger

The improvement in ballet film from video to DVD has been colossal and welcome. The audio experience too has improved by leaps and bounds as it is more and more geared towards computers with earphones, rather than dodgy TVs. Hand in hand with technological advances has come a long-overdue new openness to recording by the Royal Ballet, which is now catching up with other leading world companies in considerable style. Here theartsdesk reviews significant new ballet DVDs plus some Christmas dance treats. Our reviewers are Ismene Brown and David Nice.

Classical Music CDs Round-Up 3

The pick of the latest Classical CDs

Our pick of the latest Classical CDs ranges from Tchaikovsky's first and final symphonies to Greek-themed songs by Schubert, by way of late Stravinsky ballets, rare Roussel, a complete Sibelius cycle, cross-over music for recorder and a Superman Symphony. Our reviewers this month are Edward Seckerson, Graham Rickson and Ismene Brown.

New Music CDs Round-Up 3

Tom Waits, Kraftwerk, Miles Davis and the Pope battle it out for our critics' affections.

This round-up of the freshest new music and most well-ripened classics we could find in November features everything from Miles Davis to Kraftwerk, Norah Jones to the actual Pope, via Toms Petty and Waits, Dubstep and related bass-driven electronica from Portugal, Angola, Denmark and Tanzania, and the soundtrack to Life On Earth.  Our reviewers this month are Robert Sandall, Peter Culshaw, Adam Sweeting, Joe Muggs, Thomas H Green, Howard Male and Marcus O'Dair.

Comedy DVDs Round-Up 1

The latest releases

November’s comedy releases come just in time for the festive season - those stockings won’t fill themselves, you know. From feelgood humour to thoughtful (and very funny, too) discourses of race, sex and class, there's a comedy turn recorded live to suit all tastes. There are some crackers available and here’s a selection of the best on offer.

DVDs Round-Up 2

Gus Van Sant, Sacha Baron Cohen, Shane Meadows and David Bowie's boy: this month's new releases sifted and sorted

This month's survey of the latest films released on DVD assesses the work of directors old and new, male and female. Cinema's great early romantic Frank Borzage is available in a box set. The work of French auteur Claire Denis and American maverick Gus Van Sant are assessed. There is also an Austro-Hungarian flavour, with Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno on the one hand and Márta Mészáros's classic 1984 study of communism, Diary for My Children, on the other.

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