MANY arts events this year were explicitly linked to the Queen's
Diamond Jubilee, which concided with the 350th anniversary of the
1662 Book of Common Prayer. A new two-volume collection of anthems,
Choirbook for the Queen (Canterbury Press), from which
items are being sung in turn in the cathedrals of the UK, linked
the two, as did a special Prayer Book exhibition, "Royal Devotion",
at Lambeth Palace Library, building on the success of the King
James Bible exhibition there in 2011.
Other noted exhibitions included Graham Sutherland (Modern Art,
Oxford); ten British painters (Haunch of Venison, London); Titian
at the National Gallery; 850 years of Livery Company treasures at
the Guildhall, and "Gold, Power and Allure" at Goldsmiths' Hall;
"Foppa, Zenale and Luini" (Robilant & Voena, London); "Hajj"
and "Shakespeare: Staging the World" at the British Museum; tomb
treasures of Han China in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge;
"Bronze" (RA); "The Lost Prince" (National Portrait Gallery);
"Royal Manuscripts" in the British Library; Guercino (Sir Denis
Mahon Collection, Ashmolean, Oxford); "Picasso and Modern British
Art" (Tate Britain); Van Dyck (Dulwich Picture Gallery); John Piper
(Dorchester Abbey); the Pugin bicentenary programme in
Birmingham.
Contemporary shows included David Hockney (RA); John Kirby
(Walker Gallery, Liverpool); David Crouch (Southwell Minster);
Nigel Groom (Worcester Cathedral and St Mary's, Prestwich); Helen
Marshall and Ruth Dent (Rochester Cathedral); "Reaching Beyond" in
Bromley-by-Bow; Daniel Eltinger and Celia Paul (Chichester
Cathedral; Paul was also shown alongside works by Gwen John at
Pallant House); Roger Wagner and Mark Cazalet (Snape); 14 artists'
Stations (Discoed).
New commissions for churches included Roger Wagner's window for
Iffley Parish Church; Herman Heinze's sculpture Choir of
Survivors for the Coventry Cathedral ruins (below);
and glass doors by Mel Howse on a piscatorial theme for St Paul's,
Brighton.
The renovation and conservation of the old continued, most
conspicuously with the restoration of the great east window at York
Minster. The Auckland Castle Zurbarán paintings were bought by
Jonathan Ruffer to keep them in the north-east; Pieter Brueghel's
St John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the
Wilderness was sold for £1.61 million; Art Fund supported a
public appeal by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to buy
Poussin's Extreme Unction for almost £3.9 million.
Highlights in contemporary music included James MacMillan's
Gloria for Coventry Cathedral; and the world première of
his Since it was the Day of Preparation . . . (Edinburgh);
the UK première of Richard Causton's Blake work Twenty-Seven
Heavens; Rivers to the Sea by Joseph Phibbs and
Centuries of Meditation by Dobrinka Tabakova (Three
Choirs); Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium, a violin
concerto (Edinburgh); Jonathan Harvey's Welt Ethos, to a
text by the theologian Hans Küng, at the Royal Festival Hall; and
Martin How's RSCM Advent Cantata in Croydon.
Other notable musical events were Bliss's The
Beatitudes, originally commissioned for Coventry Cathedral in
1962, but heard in that building for the first time to mark its
50th anniversary; George Dyson's The Canterbury Pilgrims
and Berlioz's Te Deum (Three Choirs), and his
Requiem (Proms). Bernstein's Mass had its Proms
première; and the season also included John Ireland's These
Things Shall Be, Handel's Judas Maccabeus, Messiaen's
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, and Howells's
Hymnus Paradisi.
There was Gabrieli (400 years since his death), and
Charpentier's opera David et Jonathas, in Edinburgh; a
tour of country churches, "Music in Quiet Places"; the landmark but
bleak revival of Vaughan Williams's opera The Pilgrim's
Progress at the Coliseum in London (ENO); Szymanowski's
Stabat Mater (CBSO); Britten's Ceremony of Carols
choreographed by Richard Alston; Charles Wood's The Passion
according to St Mark (Farrant Singers, Salisbury); and a rare
chance to hear Carl Loewe's The Atonement of the New
Testament (Oxford Harmonic Society).
Michael Kiwanuka was named the BBC's Sound of 2012.
Drama and dance included Can We Talk About This? (DV8,
National Theatre and touring); The Preston Passion (BBC);
David Edgar's Written on the Heart (RSC); The
Beloved by Amir Nizar Zuabi (Bush, London); Life of
Christ (Wintershall); How Like An Angel (touring
cathedrals); Mike Bartlett's adaptation of Colin Welland's film
script for Chariots of Fire in London (transferred to the
Gielgud); the York Mystery Plays, their first large-scale
production since 2000; Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma
(National); Treasured, Jen Heyes's drama about the
Titanic, in Liverpool Cathedral; Damned by
Despair, Molina, adapted by Frank McGuinness (National
Theatre); a stage adaptation of William Golding's The
Spire by Roger Spottiswoode, in Salisbury; Chronicles of
Light in Winchester Cathedral; and Alan Bennett's new comedy
People at the National Theatre.
Films reviewed in our columns included Hadewijch;
The Iron Lady; Acts of Godfrey; The Devil
Inside; Corpo Celeste; The Monk; The
Gospel of Us; Joyful Noise; Even the Rain;
Faust; and Holy Motors. And on DVD: The
Borgias; Relics and Roses; Ordet (The Word);
Red State; The Vow; and Holy Flying
Circus.