It has been 300 years precisely since the day that Johann Sebastian Bach sat down at a table in the little German principality of Cöthen to compose a letter to a Berlin potentate to accompany a package containing what he called “six concertos with several instruments.” Those works, sent off to the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg in March of 1721, have become known … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in classical music
The classical season looks mostly normal this year, with COVID protocols in place and venues opening back up. There are a host of major artists and groups coming to the county this year, from established veterans to exciting new talents. Although some usual season players are missing as of this writing (the Flagler Museum has not yet said whether its chamber music series … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in opera
It may be that the biggest news of the American operatic world has been the drama over at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which has only just settled things with its crews after 18 months of COVID hiatus. But local opera companies have stayed in the game, too, perhaps none more so than Palm Beach Opera, which mounted an outdoor festival in February at the iThink Financial … [Read more...]
PB Chamber Music Festival returns scaled-down, but live, for 30th season
The 30th anniversary season concerts of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, which arrive this week, amount to a statement of survival. The series returns for one week and six concerts over three days from this Friday through Sunday, and will be presented, as always, in three different parts of the county. One of the venues will be wide open, the two others less so, with … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Classical shows shrink, but concerts still plentiful
South Florida’s classical music community is surely one of the nation’s most vibrant, with at least seven regularly appearing orchestras playing from Key West to Fort Pierce, two opera companies, three chamber music series, a nationally known concert choir, and a season that in the winter months sees many of the touring stars of the Northeast come down to shake off the … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Area’s opera companies move to outdoor festivals, concerts
New York’s Metropolitan Opera announced in September that it would be canceling all its shows for the 2020-21 season, but plans to reopen in September 2021 with American composer and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first opera by a Black composer the Met has presented in its 140-year history. The area’s opera companies face the same … [Read more...]
Video concerts keep faith alive for PB Chamber Music Festival
The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival is finishing up its 29th season tonight with the release of the third program in its series of short virtual concerts. Forced by the coronavirus pandemic to cancel its live shows, the festival has moved online for three abbreviated concerts filmed at Old School Square’s Crest Theatre, and made available for $10 apiece on Vimeo. The … [Read more...]
For 29th season, PBC Chamber Fest going virtual with 3 concerts
The classical music world has adapted rapidly and skillfully to the coronavirus pandemic when it comes to the presentation of concerts. Look no further than YouTube or the Facebook page of your favorite presenting institution and you’re likely to find streams of live music that in the absence of audiences at least are keeping the faith alive. And so it is that the Palm … [Read more...]
Music online: Pianist Vlaeva plays Mainly Mozart Festival
Recent musical summers have become richer hereabouts with the programming of the Mainly Mozart Festival, a long-running concert series in Coral Gables that got fresh, innovative energy under the leadership of pianist Marina Radiushina. Unwilling to let this summer go, Radiushina is presenting her series online as we all wrestle with the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning with … [Read more...]
Ying Quartet brings powerful Schubert to Flagler
The music of Franz Schubert is not an unknown quantity (except for the operas), but a good group of musicians can always bring something special to it that we might not have encountered before. Tuesday night at the Flagler Museum, the Ying Quartet, a veteran string foursome founded in Chicago more than 30 years ago, programmed two of Schubert’s late quartets on the first … [Read more...]