WEST PALM BEACH — The coming cold front might be good news for residents looking for a taste of winter for the holidays, but the thunderstorms forecast to usher it in aren’t conducive to an outdoor concert. Palm Beach Opera’s annual outdoor waterfront concert, scheduled for Saturday at the Meyer Amphitheatre, is being canceled because of the weather, company officials said … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2017
Serkin brings old-school taste, distinction to Mozart, Bach
We are living through a period of remarkable pianism, with terrific young players popping up everywhere you look and making impressive strides in rethinking concerts and willing new repertoire into being. But there is also a good deal of hype to go along with that, amplified enormously by the power of social media. And so it is something of a respite to encounter an artist … [Read more...]
‘The Other Side of Hope’: It’s got refugees, and you can laugh to it
The Other Side of Hope is the name of writer-director Aki Kaurismäki’s new movie, but it’s also an apt descriptor of the mental and emotional headspace in which his characters have always dwelt. They seek normalcy, love, shelter, a car that doesn’t sputter out, a job that isn’t on the precipice of ending — desires that usually exist just out of reach, so they settle for a cold … [Read more...]
Revamped Bass part of Miami Art Week’s draws
By Sandra Schulman At this time in December, Miami becomes the world center of the contemporary art world, with Art Basel holding center court in the newly expanded Miami Beach Convention Center, while the Art Miami and Context Fairs move to an impressive new location on Biscayne Bay where The Miami Herald once stood. The new location is so fresh the concrete foundation … [Read more...]
Rocker Newsted channels power, energy onto canvas in Cultural Council show
By Sandra Schulman When I first see Jason Newsted, six-time Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and now artist with a powerful solo show at the Palm Beach Cultural Council, he is dropping little self-designed enamel pins that say “Rawk” into dozens of goody bags. “It’s what I do,” he says with a straight face. The last time I saw him was 21 years ago at … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ aims high, succeeds
As ballets go, The Nutcracker is something like a variety show at Alexander III’s House of Vaudeville: It has very little story but an endlessly diverting lineup of different kinds of dance, most notably in the second act. Which surely helps account for the ballet’s popularity in the United States, beginning in the World War II years, but then taking off after George … [Read more...]
Ehnes Quartet opens Chamber Music Society season in splendid style
By Dennis D. Rooney The Gold Room at the Breakers was the venue for the inaugural concert Tuesday of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Society’s fifth season. A replica of a space in Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia, the room’s ceiling, lavishly decorated in gold, is painted in a graphic diagonal pattern adorned with 260 hand-carved cherubs. Surrounding the ceiling are … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 1-3
Music: Any number of fine pianists visits South Florida each year during the season, and a series of lesser-known but still formidable players are on hand each winter to perform recitals at Lynn University in Boca Raton. But Saturday night, one of the best pianists of an older generation, Peter Serkin, will join that series in a recital at Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall. His … [Read more...]