The American pianist Simone Dinnerstein made her mark on the concert scene with her peerless readings of the music of J.S. Bach, and the Goldberg Variations in particular. But her career has also brought attention to the music of a living composer, Philip Lasser, a Juilliard professor whose Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach was featured on Dinnerstein’s recording of … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2015
The View From Home 73: Kieslowski, Lumet and Loach, with a Bujalski indie, a repressed maid, and a true-crime one-off
Blind Chance: Completed in 1981, promptly censored by Polish authorities for its alleged political radicalism, and subsequently shelved for six years, Kryzystof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance (Criterion, $26.19 Blu-ray, $22.99 DVD) is an astonishing work whose moral and ethical ideas, juggled like so many magicians’ balls, anticipate his ambitious breakthrough, The Decalogue. … [Read more...]
Composer Runestad offers message of love in new work for Seraphic Fire
Rather than hire a babysitter when they had choir practice at night, the parents of Jake Runestad simply took their son along to rehearsals. “I would just run around in the choir room, and I think a lot of that music seeped into my brain,” says Runestad (pronounced RUN-uh-sted), speaking last week from his home in Minneapolis. “There was just a lot of music in my own … [Read more...]
Lynn Philharmonia reaches new level in opening concerts
Every season, South Florida gets visited by touring big-name orchestras from northern climes worldwide that for some reason find this part of the country particularly urgent to see in February. One of the benefits of our gentle weather is that we can see these major orchestras up close, but another less appreciated benefit for us local concertgoers is that these visits provide … [Read more...]
‘99 Homes’: The sharks of the downturn, grippingly rendered
Rick Carver is a perfect villain for the cutthroat housing market of 21st century. The antagonist of Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes is a vulture feasting on the carcass of the American Dream — and like his pinpoint-perfect surname suggests, he carves up the largest portions for himself. As played by Michael Shannon in a crude, rapacious 180 from his compassionate cop in the LGBT … [Read more...]
Film celebrates a philanthropist who changed black education
Julius Rosenwald. Do not feel bad if you cannot identify the name. Filmmaker Aviva Kempner, who focuses on the Chicago retail mogul and philanthropist who donated over $62 million to benefit African-Americans throughout the South, estimates that eight out of 10 people who see Rosenwald know little about the man who is its subject. “I think it’s the most inspiring story of … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in classical music
The classical music season for 2015-16 will be its usual overstuffed self, especially if you’re keen to travel outside Palm Beach County. Inside the county, things incline to the tried and true, but further south, they’re edgier. Nevertheless, it’s a rich and bountiful season, and the first three months of the new year will present concertgoers with a huge menu of possible … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in Miami-Dade art
By Michael Mills With more museums and galleries than the rest of South Florida combined, Miami-Dade County still hogs the region’s cultural conversation. And that’s not even counting the multilingual chatter Art Basel generates once a year. Museums splinter and evolve, galleries come and go, sometimes the talk turns contentious, as it should in a living and … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in Broward art
By Michael Mills For years Broward County was the Rodney Dangerfield of the South Florida art world — little to no respect, especially compared with the hoitier-toitier art scenes of Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. No more. Museums have been reinvigorated with new leadership, galleries have popped up in sometimes unlikely places, and art walks are thriving in a handful … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in opera
A searing contemporary opera about Auschwitz and the completion of an unprecedented 28-year effort to present all of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi are among the high points of the coming operatic season in southern Florida. While the Sarasota Opera’s end of its Verdi Cycle will draw international attention, operaphiles closer to home will be eager to see Palm Beach Opera’s … [Read more...]