The Third Piano Concerto of Beethoven is an indelible masterpiece, but it’s not the first choice a pianist would make for bravura display. And yet the young South Korean pianist Yoonie Han, simply by turning up the heat here and there Sunday afternoon, gave the work a bit more of the fire it must have had when it was new. And that made the Boca Raton Symphonia concert for … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2013
Maltz celebrates 10 years, and builds for a bigger future
In the midst of a theater scene where several significant stage companies have gone out of business lately, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has been a remarkable success story — thriving critically, popularly and financially. And the rich keep getting richer. Saturday night, a gala celebrating the Maltz’s 10th anniversary raised $750,000 for the playhouse that has humble roots as … [Read more...]
Strong lead performances stand out in FGO’s ‘Flute’
Because of its high content of fantasy and madcappery, Die Zauberflöte has always offered its presenters an irresistible opportunity to take any number of theatrical risks, confident that Mozart can take it. He can, and while the just-closed Florida Grand Opera production of Mozart’s great 1791 singspiel played it relatively safe from that standpoint, it nevertheless … [Read more...]
Ratmansky’s ‘Dances’ a fiery addition to MCB rep
By Tara Mitton Catao For the third program of its current season, seen Saturday night at the Kravis Center, Miami City Ballet has chosen a program of steadfast George Balanchine works and a huge, energy-laden new ensemble creation of Alexei Ratmansky, a new master of the ballet vocabulary. Two large ensemble pieces sandwiched two traditional Balanchine duets. The first … [Read more...]
Sundays: No license, no art
By Myles Ludwig This year’s crop of Oscar contenders has stirred a media tantrum. The controversy appears to be about artistic license. The list is dominated by three films ― Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Argo ― based on, inspired by or, to use that TV trope, ripped (not torn or copied like a computer file) from the headlines. Another – Django Unchained – skirts the issue by … [Read more...]
Vienna Piano Trio polishes program to gold
The Vienna Piano Trio came to the Flagler Museum and with their excellence showed that European instrumentalists of this caliber play on a level a couple of notches higher than most. The refinement, the polish and the sensitivity (and showmanship) they brought to their concert of music by Haydn, Beethoven and Saint-Saens was like burnished gold. They have won prizes galore, … [Read more...]
Ballet Hispanico a knockout at Duncan
By Tara Mitton Catao Last night at the Duncan Theatre in Lake Worth, New York-based Ballet Hispanico continued its 43-year-old tradition of presenting dance that explores the diversity of Latino culture and presented a program of contemporary work that was impeccably performed and deeply artistic. Jardi Tancat, the opening work on the program, was the very first work of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 23-24
Film: A new film based on a magic realism-infused novel by Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, focuses on a small boy, Antonio (Luke Ganalon), who is introduced to the spirit world by his grandmother, Ultima (Miriam Colon), who is sort of a witch doctor, a conjurer of spells and an alternative healer. The compelling, if disorienting film is directed by Carl Franklin, probably best … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: It’ll be ‘Argo’ for Best Picture
Being snubbed for a Best Director Oscar nomination may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Ben Affleck. No, there are no write-in votes allowed for the Academy Awards, so Affleck will not get a statuette this Sunday night for helming the involving, suspenseful, occasionally accurate Argo. But ever since he was passed over for a nomination, there has been a … [Read more...]
PB Symphony beautifully evokes intimacy of Viennese chamber society
Monday night’s Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra program was a tribute to the chamber music concert series founded by Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna in 1919, in which the enfant terrible modernist of his day established a way to try out new music in private, and hear large orchestral works in chamber arrangements. Thus it was Monday night, as a small band of just 11 players played … [Read more...]