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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.

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Front Row: Benjamin Grosvenor performs for Front Row

07/09/2020

Benjamin Grosvenor performs for Front Row

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Benjamin Grosvenor performs for Front Row

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, Venice Film Festival, Understanding artworks.

News from the Venice Film Festival; Do you have to understand an artwork to enjoy it? Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor at The Proms.

The Venice Film Festival is currently underway, featuring films we’ll be seeing on our screens over the coming months. Jason Solomons is just back from the city and discusses the films to look out for and which to avoid!

In light of some of the critical reaction to Christopher Nolan's new film Tenet, which found the film to be confusing and difficult to follow, we ask how much do you have to understand a work of art, be it a film, a complex poem, a piece of atonal music to enjoy enjoy it? Novelist Louise Doughty, music scholar and critic Alexandra Coghlan and film critic Jason Solomons discuss.

When Benjamin Grosvenor first played at The Proms in 2011, he was just 19 and the youngest musician to give a solo recital. On Wednesday he’ll be back at London’s Royal Albert Hall performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #1 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra but under Covid 19 restrictions – a socially distanced orchestra and without an audience. Benjamin talks to Front Row about taking a break from the piano under lockdown, setting up his own music festival in Bromley, South London, Shostakovich and the thrill of playing live.  

Presenter: John Wilson 
Producer: Simon Richardson 
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

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Benjamin Grosvenor performs for Front Row

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