Albums

NIFTY CHRISTIE MYSTERIES As clever as Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was in her now old-fashioned writing (no vulgar words or on-page violent deaths), contemporary film makers have a difficulty in making her plots relevant to our more brutal and vicious times So, in the French tradition of Maigret, six of Christie’s novels have been adapted to…

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS The opening track of Gabrielle Stravelli’s latest CD Pick up My Pieces — which covers Willie Nelson originals and songs he’s covered — is delicious and delightful. Front and center in the medley of “Lady Luck” and “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” is that voice! I’m a huge…

JUST WHEN YOU GO TO LEAVE, THEY KEEP PULLING YOU BACK IN Dang! but this show has legs. Set in a gorgeous seaside town in Sicily, this quality cop-show, featuring the ever-young Detective Salvo Montalbano (now in his 50s) who fights murder in his section of the country with an individualistic crack team. These two…

CITTí€ BY THE BAY Set in the hilly part of the bayside city of Naples, Italy, Pizzofalcone was once a flourishing center of power and money, but is now a rundown, dangerous sector of the third largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. So, when police detective Inspector Giuseppe Lojacono (an arresting [!] Allesandro…

UNTETHERED AND TETHERED AT THE SAME TIME Beautiful, fascinating and moving, yet strangely and sometimes gratingly one-note, Valerie Saalbach’s three wholly modern song cycles get a bravura treatment from American soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek on True Capture Records, a new label. The trio of poets Saalbach used as her lyricists are Emily Dickenson, Elizabeth Barrett…

C’EST MAGNIFIQUE Boy-o-Boy!!! When Art is flung in your face, you best wear it rather than wash it off for, if nothing else, your long-range emotional sake. This latest iteration of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel about the struggles of the1830s archconservative French government’s effect on the disenfranchised sections of the country, especially concerning the life…

DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT Here comes the Danish version of the newly named “Scandi Noir” or “Nordic Noir,” a genre of crime fiction set in the Scandinavia countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Greenland (although the last one is run by the Kingdom of Denmark); this genre would seem to reflect the nature…

IT’S CRIMINAL — IN FRENCH The American crime novelist, Mary Higgins Clark (b: 1927), has had extraordinary career-success with her series of crime books. And the French are especially pleased with her body of work, rewarding her with several major awards. The three French-language television films on this collection from MHz are professionally handled with…

SPRING TIDE FOR SWEDEN Now available on DVD, this sober-sided cop-show sparkles with invention about how patient detective grunt-work can pay off big time. Written by the famous Swedish husband/wife team of Rolf and Cillia Börglind (Beck, Arne Dahl, Wallender, among many other series), Spring Tide (Springfloden) taken from their novel, The Third Voice (Den…

YOU WON’T WANT ACQUITTED TO QUIT Norway’s Acquitted (Frikjent) Season One is now available on DVD and MHz with Season Two to follow. A strong contender for Best Teleplay Sounding Like a Soap Opera, it is — believe me — much, much better. Norwegian Aksel Borgen (Nicolai Cleve Broch) has returned home to his native…

DONNA BELLA Anna Shelest, a New Yorker born in the Ukraine, has not only won me over with her astoundingly dexterous and emotive pianism, but has truly proved herself a whiz at programming her albums. Even if her newest CD, Donna Voce, was not a collection of piano solos by female composers who deserve as…

YOU WON’T FORGET THIS All three seasons of this excellent British DVD/Blu-ray import, along the lines of the many Cold Case series, are first-rate and occasionally heart-stopping, here to be had and enjoyed on DVD. Starring the ubiquitous Nicola Walker (seen in her glory in MI5; Last Tango to Halifax; River) and veteran Sanjeev Bhaskar…

SCANDI-NOIR-VIA Based on the novels of Hí¥kan Nesser, this series concerns a retired northern European chief detective who opens up a used book shop for his leisure time; yet cops — whether friends from the force or not — keep coming in to test his skills on difficult cases. In Season One, now available on…

RUTH, THE TRUTH, AND A SLEUTH Actress Ruth Wilson is well known in her native UK, and is slowly gaining acclaim here in the U.S. (check out her work as the psychotic enemy of Idris Elba in the hard-hitting detective-drama, Luther). So when she approached BBC to produce a project close to her heart, they…

IF ANYONE CAN CAUSE A PUSSY RIOT… Welcome to the definition of “chanteuse.” The slinky, sexy, performance artist Meow Meow — whose new CD with Pink Martini’s leader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale is instantly classy, lovable, moving, funny, accessible, transportive, and timeless — gives what feels like your own private deliriously fun nightclub act. Hotel…

MINIATURIST BIG IN THRILLS & DETAIL It’s late 17th century just after the fourth Anglo-Dutch war, and since Britain and the Netherlands are no longer fighting at sea, an 18-year-old Englishwoman, Petronella “Nella” Oortman (Anya Taylor-Joy), is chosen to marry rich sugar-merchant, Johannes Brandt (Alex Hassell), and brought to his home. Also in the household…